Female offenders get some help , but NOT from DCYF

Female offenders get some help
Specialist to assist released prisoners

By ANNMARIE TIMMINS Monitor staff

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December 01, 2009 - 6:56 am

Female inmates are about to get a little more attention as they leave prison and begin a new life on parole.

The state Department of Corrections has hired a new administrator for female offenders and has just received a generous federal grant to assess the services now available to female offenders and beef up those that are working.

The goal is to reduce recidivism by 50 percent in five years. The money will be used to create a pilot project in Merrimack County.

Niki Miller, who has worked for corrections since August 2008 but has a long history working with female inmates, was named the new administrator last week. The job was created by the state Legislature in 2006 after a study showed services for female prisoners were lagging behind those provided to male inmates.

Miller is the third person to hold the position, but she has an advantage her predecessors did not: About a month ago, the state learned it had won a $400,000 federal grant for prisoner re-entry programs.

Miller said the federal money will be matched by charitable donations and in-kind services. And if corrections uses the money successfully, Miller said, the grant could be extended to three years.

"There is no one at the Department of Corrections who wouldn't like to roll out a whole range of services for female offenders and re-entry programs," Miller said. "But there isn't any money to do so a lot of the time."

Miller said she's lucky to have the work and research of her two predecessors to build upon.

In the past three years, corrections has used the administrator position to formalize its substance abuse treatment in the women's prison in Goffstown, so it's consistent and documented to gauge the effectiveness, said William McGonagle, assistant commissioner of corrections.

Similarly, the women's prison has improved its intake process for new inmates so corrections staff have a better sense of what individual inmates have been through and what services they'll most need.

The previous administrator, Annette Escalante, began exploring ways to find mentors outside the prison for the female inmates, McGonagle said. And she built up the prison's contacts with providers in the community who can help female parolees adjust to life on the outside and the challenges they face, including child care issues, substance abuse and past traumas.

Miller's first priority, she said, will be to take stock of all those programs and assess which of those is working or needs replacing or improving.

"We have an opportunity to really craft women's re-entry services," Miller said. "The grant will be used to put resources to those (programs) that work."

One program Miller believes is working well is corrections' partnership with the state Division of Children, Youth and Families. Before a female offender is paroled, she is connected with DCYF staff to help the offender reunite with her family and get help for substance use or past abuse.

Miller said the connection is critical because many female offenders won't seek out those services on their own because for them, DCYF has been an agency to hide from. They may have had children taken away by the state or fear that happening after they are released, Miller said.

The state needed an area to start this pilot project and chose Merrimack County. Miller's job now is to touch base with those groups and agencies that play a role in a female offender's return to society. She'll ask them what they think is working and what isn't.

Staff will put the same question to female offenders, Miller said. That is critical, she said. Who knows better what's working and what isn't?

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091201/NEWS01/912010312

DCYF steals these womens children while they're incarcerated. They are not returned when the mother gets out of jail. Their rights are terminated because they could NOT follow the case plan while in jail, only given twelve month's to make things right. Twelve months is not enough time for a woman, especially recovering addicts. Most of the other states given parents eighteen months to correct the conditions which threw them into the corrupt DCYF system. Most women will NOT recover after being pushed over the edge by DCYF and the courts, after losing their children. Most will be right back in jail, feeling like they no longer have anything to live for.Yes, DCYF is such a BIG help! Not!