What it's like being a woman working in a men's prison. pt. 5

One thing my former boss did before he left was to put me in charge of crime bill classes. The 1994 Crime Bill was a massive law that changed how police and prisons work in the United States. While the law is famous for sending more people to prison for longer times, it also included money to help prisoners who struggled with drug addiction. Here is what the law did: • Created Treatment Programs: It gave state funding to start drug rehab programs inside prisons. These programs lasted 6 to 12 months. Inmates in the program lived in separate areas away from the rest of the prison to focus on getting clean. • Added Strict Drug Testing: It made drug testing mandatory for prisoners. If a person was let out of prison on parole, they had to stay drug-free and pass at least three drug tests. If they failed, they could be sent right back to prison. • Started Drug Courts: It gave money to build special "drug courts." These courts allowed some people with drug problems to go to rehab in their neighborhood instead of going to prison. Critics say it had a big flaw. Because the law also made prison sentences much longer for drug crimes, it locked up thousands of people who needed medical help for addiction rather than a prison cell. Not being a part of the bigger picture, my only focus was that the class times were longer and gave me a much better opportunity to get to the bottom of each individuals ability to progress. As for the inmates, it was a long drawn out process that they would have to endure if they were going to receive a certificate. So it literally forced participatory behavior. Whether it be real or not. Most inmates could fake it for three weeks or so but in my class that was as far as they would get. See I made it quite clear that I felt some-kind-of-way about signing that certificate. To me it was putting my name to a legal document that stated that, that individual had been indeed rehabilitated and I was vouching for that. I told them that out of duty to myself, my children, and my community that I would do everything in my power to instruct those in my classes to the best of my ability. That if I was to sign that certificate, it meant that not only had I done my very best, but so had the inmate. I told them that if they wanted that paper from me, they would have to earn it. I would give them choices every week. The door... or effort. In the beginning many chose the door. Sooner than later though inmates started choosing it. With me they found guidance, patience, and the freedom of expression. The very thing that had been lacking in most of their childhoods. They were allowed to choose what they believed to be true for themselves instead of being force fed the only way. By the time these men graduated they had really been through something that changed most of them. Not only had they stayed sober for 6 months but they had been through a radical lifestyle change that most of them prospered in. They would go on to take college classes and take on leadership roles in the program and some would graduate to be clerks. The success that was happening in crimebill made me take on even more. I began teaching two crimebill programs with 60+ inmates and one 8 week SAP class with about 20 inmates. My co-workers had 4 classes at best that they actually went to with 10 inmates each. They seemed to enjoy the down time that my compulsiveness gave them until the graduation numbers started coming out after about a year. The inmates knew that I was there for them so when things started getting ugly they were acutely aware of it and many defended the one asset they had. Nothing would prove that more than the day that God's wrath descended on the facility with the face of a F4 tornado. Stay tuned for pt 6, and as always thank you for reading