The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

“I’ve learned that you can have a relationship with God.”
The one-year motivational course is among a growing list of alternative and diversionary criminal justice programs designed to either direct offenders away from costly prison stays through specialized drug and mental health courts or change the behavior of inmates — changes that can lead to less misconduct in prison, fewer repeat offenders and lower prison costs.
“That’s what we’re all about — changing criminal thinking,” said Millicent Newton-Embry, warden at Mabel Bassett.
Since a robbery conviction four years ago, Mabel Bassett inmate Jimmie Jones said she has struggled to cope with her anger. “Personal issues that I didn’t want to accept,” said Jones, 34, of McAlester, who is enrolled in the faith-based program.
Jones said her anger used to boil over into fights with other inmates at the women’s prison. Participation in the prison’s faith program has helped her become calmer.
“Before this program I wanted to change but I had no direction,” Jones said. “I’ve learned that it’s all right to be angry. You’ve just got to control it. You’ve got to find a way to channel.
“You’ve got to want to change. It’s got to be in you to want to do better.”
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Their gray prison uniforms blend well with the heavy gray-painted metal doors that confine the women of Mabel Bassett in their cells.
But the rock star-like reception the women gave to one of their own who serenaded them with a booming falsetto voice seemed foreign to the prison environment and more like an American Idol competition.
“I just can’t give up now,” the inmate sang as dozens of others rose from their work tables and joined in.
“I’ve come too far from where I started from,” they sang. “Nobody told me that the road would be easy.”
The song culminated a session of the prison’s character-based program in which inmates learn to identify 49 traits of good character — traits like compassion, forgiveness, justice and self-control — and practice mastering them.
John Carruthers, a prison case manager who coordinates the program, said the prison has experienced a dramatic decrease in reports of misconduct among the program’s participants.
“It reinforces values and gives an individual a different understanding of morals, character traits,” Carruthers said. “Over here we’ve had a dramatic turnaround.”
Patricia Rucker, 37, of Muskogee, serving a life-with-parole sentence for murder, is one of about 100 women enrolled in the program.
“This character program has changed me,” Rucker said. “You’ve got to want to want it. I need change in my life.”
Dana Barker, 31, of McAlester, serving life without parole for first-degree murder, said the program had made a difference in how she responds to adversity behind bars.
“It makes a difference in how I look at myself,” Barker said.
The program, tailored for long-term inmates, helps change the culture of prison inmates by reducing violence and tension, especially in young inmates who have just been admitted to the prison system.
“Make it a better place,” Barker said. “In society those things wouldn’t be acceptable. Why should they be acceptable here?
“I think this program may help calm some of those younger people down.”
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The parallel programs were launched at Mabel Bassett on March 1. Similar programs for men are under way at the Oklahoma State Reformatory at Granite, a medium security prison, and are planned for the Dick Connor Correctional Center in Hominy.
Earlier this year, Gov. Brad Henry signed legislation that encourages faith-based and volunteer groups to take a stronger role in rehabilitating Oklahoma inmates. The proposal, a priority of Republican legislative leaders, was an extension of President Bush’s initiative for faith-based government services.
The current programs are planned and conducted by Department of Corrections staff workers and financed by DOC operating funds. But $100,000 in state funds will be appropriated to faith-based initiatives under this year’s legislation.
In addition, a policy council composed of lawmakers, prosecutors, crime victims and former inmates will review prison re-entry policies for inmates about to leave prison and suggest improvements.
Critics of the legislation have said it may violate the constitutional separation between church and state and give faith-based groups some of lawmakers’ oversight authority over the state Department of Corrections.
Last year, a federal judge ruled that a Bible-based prison program at a prison in Iowa violated the First Amendment’s freedom of religion clause by using state funds to promote Christianity to inmates. Oklahoma’s faith-based program is based on a variety of religious teachings but does not focus on a specific religion, officials said.
The new programs were inspired by similar faith- and character-building programs in other states that have reduced recidivism and helped control inmate populations. Inmates in Florida who participate in religious services are 28 percent less likely to re-offend, said the Rev. Leo Brown Jr., chaplain and volunteer coordinator for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
Currently, more than 3,000 volunteers, many of them from churches and other faith-based groups, provide as many as 100 religious services and faith-based programs to inmates each month, Brown said. Volunteers also offer substance abuse, marriage and family skills programs that have had an impact on prisoner conduct.
“Their behavior is changing. Their attitudes are changing,” Brown said.
Similar results have been experienced in surrounding states. Nine faith-based programs are operated in six states — including Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas — by Prison Fellowship Ministries. The organization was founded in 1976 by Charles W. Colson, former special counsel to President Richard Nixon who served seven months in a federal prison after pleading guilty to a Watergate-related charge.
“We have found it to be very effective,” said Mark Earley, former attorney general of Virginia and president of PFM. The group’s prison programs, called InnerChange Freedom Initiative, are based on Christian principles and privately funded, Earley said. Inmates participate in the program for up to 24 months prior to release and up to 12 months after they leave prison.release.
Inmate participants who graduated from the program had a 17 percent recidivism rate for arrests and 8 percent for re-incarceration after two years, Earley said.
“There’s a growing awareness for the need of these across the country,” he said.
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Over the past decade, Oklahoma has become a national leader in its support of specialized courts that offer alternatives to incarceration, according to judicial and substance abuse officials.
Drug courts offer therapeutic alternatives to incarceration for drug and alcohol offenders and judicial sanctions if treatment requirements are not met. They have operated in Oklahoma for more than a decade.
Since state funding for drug courts was substantially expanded in 2005, the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment estimates that drug courts have slowed the expansion of Oklahoma’s prison population by over 2,300 inmates — the number of additional admissions had drug court participants gone to prison.
However, the state’s inmate population has continued to rise.
Last month, there were 25,160 state inmates in public and private prisons — an increase of more than 1,000 inmates from the previous year, the Department of Corrections said. Criminal justice officials have warned that an additional 900 inmates are expected to enter the state’s penal system in 2008.
Currently, 37 drug courts serve 51 Oklahoma counties. The Legislature has appropriated $19.5 million for operational costs and the courts can accommodate up to 4,000 drug and alcohol offenders.
Diverting the offenders from prison saves money, said Terri White, commission of the state agency. It costs the state $5,000 a year to treat an offender in drug court but $16,000 a year to incarcerate an offender in a state prisons
“It’s much more effective than incarceration, that’s what the data shows,” White said. After four years, 54.3 percent of offenders released from prison and 38 percent of offenders who successfully completed a standard probation program were re-arrested. But only 23.5 percent of drug court graduates were re-arrested over the same time period.
The state also operates 14 mental health courts, which bring the judicial and mental health treatment communities together to care for offenders with mental health issues. Similar to drug courts, the specialized courts are designed to help people get mental health treatment, manage their lives and stay out of jail.
Mentally ill inmates are one of the fastest growing inmate populations in state prisons, according to prison Director Justin Jones.
“We’re seeing the exact same results as drug court,” White said. “When they finally receive the help they need, the success rate is as good or better than treatment of any other disease.
“The effectiveness of those choices have made a huge difference.”

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