Welcome
Empowerment Approaches with Offenders:
Techniques that Heal
How does one work in the system without becoming the system? Two social workers who work at
York Correctional Institution, Connecticut’s only female prison, will discuss
empowerment theory and practice as it is applied to treatment of female offenders.
Techniques and programs that empower the incarcerated women, as
well as the social worker, in an effort to achieve social justice will be shared and discussed.
Elizabeth Allen, LCSW
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Elizabeth Allen has worked at York Correctional Institution for eighteen years
as a clinical social worker.
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Her innovative peer mentoring program employs the concept of “reciprocal
rehabilitation” and has been presented at NOFSW, NASW, and the National
Commission of Correctional Managed Health Care conferences. She has
additionally presented on topics of empowerment practice with female offenders
and peer mentoring programs as effective interventions for offenders.
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In addition to providing individual and group treatment to female offenders, she
works collaboratively with custody and multidisciplinary staff in order to provide
gender-responsive and trauma-informed services for female offenders during
their incarceration.
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Ms. Allen is presently working towards her Ph.D. in social work at UCONN. Her
dissertation topic will be female offenders, empowerment theory and successful
reintegration.
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She is currently an adjunct faculty at UCONN – School of Social Work and
teaching Research Methods to MSW students.
Jessie Loss, LCSW
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Jessie Loss, LCSW has been working with female offenders at York Correctional
Institution for 5 years providing inpatient and outpatient care for women with
intensive mental health needs.
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She currently works in the Safe Passage Day Treatment program with an
interdisciplinary team providing group and individual treatment.
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Jessie works in collaboration with custody staff in order to provide trauma and
gender-informed treatment to offenders during their incarceration.
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She is bilingual and provides culturally competent translation and supportive
therapy with Spanish speaking female offenders.
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She presented at NOFSW, 2011 in New Orleans on the topic of integrative day
treatment with offenders. She has also presented on empowerment practice
with female offenders at NASW conferences.
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Jessie recently opened a private practice providing collaborative community
treatment with area hospitals and providers.
Problem Statement:
Female Offenders
o The number of incarcerated women in prisons more than doubled
between 1990 and 1999, outpacing the rise in the number of
incarcerated men (Beck, 2000).
o Are members of several oppressed and disempowered groups
o Have high rates of substance abuse, trauma experiences, and lack of
educational and vocational services.
o Pathways to Crime – different from males
o Correctional environments are oppressive by nature and therefore
providing services that are empowering in nature, can be challenging.
Unintended Consequences of Mass
Incarceration
• Racial
• Poverty
• Education and Employment
• Children and Families
• Disadvantaged Communities
Racial
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Race and class divisions in the risks of imprisonment ~ 6 to 8 times
higher for young black men compared to young whites. For black men in
their mid-thirties at the end of the 1990s, prison records were nearly
twice as common as bachelor’s degrees (Pettit & Western, 2004).
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Black males have a 29% lifetime chance of serving at least a year in
prison (6X higher than for White males).
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Between the 1980s and 1990s ~ 400% increase in the chances that a
drug arrest would result in a prison sentence.
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The increase in the disproportionate rates of incarcerated blacks is
linked to key economical, political and cultural factors related to ghetto
poverty (Bobo & Thompson, 2008).
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Black men are being sentenced to prisons at a faster rate than they are
enrolling in college. In 2002, approximately 791,000 went to prison as
opposed to 603, 000 were in higher education.
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State spending on criminal justice increased 6X the rate of state
spending on higher education.
Poverty
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The United States has the highest poverty rate for female-headed
households and the largest gender gap related to poverty.
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In 2001, over one-half (52%) of the 32.9 million people (including
children) living in poverty were women.
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49% of families living below the poverty level were headed by single
women. Poor women without state assistance are 3.3 times more likely to
reoffend than recipients (Holtfreter, et al., 2004).
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Women with fewer educational achievements, lower self-efficacy, and
problems related to employment and financial assistance are significantly
more likely to be incarcerated (Salisbury & Van Voorhis, 2009).
Education and Employment
• Women’s poverty ~ attributed to limited educational & vocational
skills, drug/alcohol dependence, child care responsibilities, and
illegal opportunities offering more lucrative returns
• Only 40% of women in state prison report full-time employment
prior to their arrest, and 2/3 report their highest hourly wage to be
no higher than $6.50 (BJS, 1999).
• With every year of increase in education, the chance the women’s
earnings would be from illegal means decreased by 18%.
• School and employment significantly impact the likelihood of
rearrest.
– As education increased, recidivism rates decreased.
– Women working in a regular job are 83% less likely less likely to
be arrested than women who are unemployed.
– Women attending school are 90% less likely to be arrested than
women not in school (Uggen & Kruttschnitt, 1998).
Children & Family
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Generations are being lost to the prison system and as a result,
children, families and communities become more vulnerable,
defenseless, and impoverished.
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Broken mother-child bonds can potentially lead to female offenders
experiencing a life of meaningless misery and doom their children to
becoming victims of the criminal justice system as they repeat the
cycle of poverty, crime and drugs (Geiger & Fischer, 2003).
Disadvantaged communities
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The consequences of imprisonment on minority communities and our
democracy are profound.
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Concentrated poverty increases the likelihood of social isolation (from
mainstream institutions), joblessness, dropping out of school, lower
educational achievement, involvement in crime, unsuccessful behavioral
development family management
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Concentrated poverty adversely affects one’s chances in life beginning in
early childhood and adolescence.
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As individuals are recycled between prison and community –increases the
social disorganization of poor, disadvantaged communities and results in
higher crime rates in those communities
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Community collaboration and active engagement is the most effective
crime fighting tools & it is more difficult to turn to the communities and
ask for assistance in neighborhood-based approaches if we increase
alienation b/w community and justice agencies
Empowerment Theory & Practice
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Assumes that society consists of separate groups possessing
different levels of power and control over resources.
The goal is social justice
Social problems stem not from individual deficits, but from
the failure of the society to meet the needs of all its
members
In social work, it merged from efforts to develop more
effective and responsive services for women and people of
color
A process of increasing personal, interpersonal, or political
power so that individuals can take action to improve their life
situations
Integrates both individual change and social change and
believes that many of the negative symptoms that emerge in
powerless clients stem from their strategies to cope with a
hostile world.
Desistance Theory
• Recognizes the broader social contexts and conditions that are
required to support change.
• Impact of disadvantaged communities are not just going to
disappear because the offender wants to desist –both are
needed
• Pathway to desistance for females ~self-efficacy and
empowerment are key elements
Paradigms
• Deficit paradigm ~ individual focused, they need to
be fixed and are incapable of doing it by themselves
and therefore need to be “fixed” by eternal forces.
• Empowerment Paradigm ~ Combination of individual
change and structural support. Do not fix the
offender but provide infrastructure to promote
healthier communities to support the offenders.
Commonly cited values of Social Work
Profession
Elizabeth Allen, LCSW
“Sisters Standing Strong”
Offender Mentoring Program
York Correctional Institution
Niantic, Connecticut
Sisters Standing Strong Program Goals:
• To provide an opportunity for the female offenders to stand as role
models for others.
• To provide an opportunity for placement into a program that
promotes pride, growth and empowerment for the helpers.
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To aid in the adjustment of women who are newly admitted.
• To provide an outlet where the female offenders can receive peersupport and insight into common adjustment issues.
• To reduce the number of “crisis” calls and MH referrals for
adjustment issues.
Reflections on Peer Support
Sisters Standing
Strong
Video Clip
Success and Community Growth
Dear Liz, Mary, Jill and all my Sisters,
It’s been a little while since I last made contact. I wanted to write to tell all of
you that I have not forgotten about you. Indeed, you are in my heart and on my
mind every day. I used to say that once I was released and I got a car I would
drive down there and just sit across the street and remember. And so I did just
that this past weekend. For a small window of time the sun shined down on us
and under blue skies I walked around the ball field just outside that barbed wire
fence and I reconnected with each of you.
Everything has been going so incredibly great for me and that is when I need to
be reminded of all I have come through most. I used to be a self-sabotager. I
did not believe that I deserved to have a good and healthy life, and so when
things were going good in my life, I would do things to sabotage them. Well –not
today. I work real hard to have all that I have and I refuse to let anything or
anyone – including myself, destroy them or take them away from me. YOU – all
of you, taught me that.
I also learned how important it is to give back. Sister’s Standing Strong showed
me that there is so much more to be gained in giving, or rather sharing, with
others. You women have changed my life and I thank you for sharing your lives
with me.
There are some really great things happening out here that will positively impact
those of you in there. I know right now you are experiencing changes that are
probably making you crazy, but rest assured, they are temporary –all of that isand good things are brewing. We are in a great position politically for some
serious changes to happen, and time is not holding anyone back from making
those changes happen. HOPE, BELIEVE and so it shall be.
Keep your heads up, and lean on one another, even if you don’t or can’t see the
value in what you have today there- I promise you, you will see it when you leave.
Blessings to all,
Deborah R
Jessica Loss, LCSW
Intensive Day Treatment
in Prison
Empowerment based mental health
treatment programming
Jessica Loss, LCSW
Safe Passage Day Treatment Program
Interdisciplinary & Collaborative treatment
approach
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Ongoing monitoring, assessment, support, treatment,
collaboration with adjunct services, and discharge
planning.
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Began in 2008 with 16 participants, currently have 32
participants
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Individualized treatment plans & schedules- Track 1
and Track 2
Holistic Approach
• Individualized Intake process & Treatment plan- biopsycho-social, client based
• Staff ideology
• Interdisciplinary
• Weekly treatment team
• Collateral communication
• Strengths based, reality based
• Role of therapeutic alliance
Overcoming Barriers to Treatment
• Physical difficulties
• Pragmatic concerns
• Custody relationships
Testimonials
Quotes from the Safe Passage women
In Summary
• Traditional correctional programs ~ disregard the offenders’
ability to initiate positive change within themselves & assumes
they are incapable of “fixing” themselves and that they need to
be fixed by external agents (Herrschaft, et al, 2009).
• Strengths perspective in social work practice ~ attempts to
correct destructive emphasis on what is wrong, missing or
abnormal with the individual and shifts focus to seeing
individuals in the light of their hopes, possibilities and the belief
in their capacity for change (Saleebey, 1996).
• Empowerment theory ~ There exists in every person, potential
for positive change & the process of increasing personal and
interpersonal power, individuals are better able to take action in
order to improve their life situations (Gutierrez, 1990).
The process by which the client reconstructs
his experience is not one the worker
creates; he/she simply enters, and
leaves…..He/she is an incident in the life of
his/her client. Thus the worker should ask
herself: what kind of incident will I
represent….How do I enter the process, do
what I have to do, and then leave?
~ William Schwartz
Elizabeth Allen, LCSW
Jessica Loss, LCSW
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