Drug addiction keeps women's prison filled
Second of four parts
| • | Ice sent woman's life into free fall |
| • | Addict's family crumbled beneath ice's grip |
By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawai'i's jails and prisons are costly and crowded, and the ice epidemic is fueling pressure for change. TODAY Hawai'i women are being locked up at a rate that's outpacing men, and their charges stem mostly from drug problems. TOMORROW Hawai'i struggles to control a growing number of drug addicts on probation and parole while grappling with a flawed new law. WEDNESDAY Some inmates take a bridge to freedom while others stumble back to prison and Hawai'i searches for answers.
Only a few women were incarcerated in Hawai'i 30 years ago. Now there are roughly 600 in jail and prison, including more than 60 shipped to a private facility in Oklahoma, and their numbers have increased at a faster pace than male prisoners.
YESTERDAY
Most of the women are locked up on drug charges or for crimes stemming from substance abuse, and crystal methamphetamine is the top drug of choice, according to inmates, counselors and prison officials.
The state has created and expanded drug-abuse treatment programs for women to address the problem, but not enough to meet the demand.
"We didn't have a women's prison in the '70s. And now we not only have a women's prison, we have an overcrowded women's prison," said Meda Chesney-Lind, a University of Hawai'i criminologist and professor of women's studies.
"We don't have enough space for the women who are currently in prison, so they're doing time in expensive Mainland private prisons where they're separated from their families in tragic ways and can't communicate with their children and can't receive visitation," she said. "There's just heartbreaking stories around women's imprisonment."
Many incarcerated women are locked up for failing to comply with probation and parole requirements, rather than for committing new crimes.
"They're in on drug relapses, essentially," Chesney-Lind said. "The real issue here is we don't have adequate treatment programs now in the community to deal with people once we release them from prison for minor offenses."
One problem is that serious treatment is available mainly when it is required as a condition for release, some women say. That leaves out others who want or need help.
"There are situations where women are not mandated to get treatment, so their treatment needs go unaddressed," said Lorraine Robinson, director of a work furlough program for female inmates run by T.J. Mahoney and Associates. "The system is so overburdened with treatment needs, and not enough treatment slots."
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Few female inmates are incarcerated for violent crimes. Most are locked up for drug possession, shoplifting, check fraud, prostitution or other nonviolent offenses.
Bette Gerstacker, left, a substance-abuse counselor at the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua, and Milton Kotsubo, substance-abuse program manager for the Department of Public Safety, discuss how women face different challenges than men after they get out of prison and how stress can lead them back behind bars. Gerstacker says it can be overwhelming for women to take on the responsibility of work and family all at once without gradually easing back into it.
"For women, the pathway to crime is usually trauma, and then addiction to deal with the trauma as a way of self-medicating," Robinson said. "Then they get into criminal lifestyles to support their addictions."
Women often face very different challenges than men after they get out of prison, and the stress can lead them right back.
"If they get just a minimum-wage job and they have to take responsibility for their children, it's almost impossible to live in Hawai'i on a minimum-wage job even to support yourself, let alone a family," said Bette Gerstacker, a substance-abuse counselor at the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua. "So they're more apt to end up resorting back to drug use or prostitution or some illegal way of making money."
One way the state is trying to address such problems is through Project Bridge, a program for incarcerated women who have completed drug treatment and are nearing the end of their sentences.
The women are allowed to leave the prison during the day to work in jobs the program helps them find, but their movement and activities are closely monitored. They must save most of the money they earn, to provide a cushion for rent and other needs once they're released. They must also establish a support system of contacts to help them stay clean and sober.
"When someone just goes right out the gate, the recidivism is a lot higher than if they have these steps that help them gradually go back," Gerstacker said. "It's kind of overwhelming to take on all the responsibilities of work and family and everything all at one time, without working into it."
But while there are more than 300 inmates at the women's prison, there's only enough space in the Bridge program for 15 at a time, and there's no physical space to expand it. More than 30 qualified women are usually on a waiting list to get in, officials say.
Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
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