Women on Probation and Parole: A Feminist Critique of Community Programs and Services

7: Keeping Women off Drugs

7 Keeping Women off Drugs Drugs have a power over me when I use them. Drugs is all I ever did, but now I am clean. jen, Gender Responsive County As Jen recognizes, a new life depends on stopping drug use. Despite obstacles , some women driven by personal motivations maintain drug-free lifestyles throughout the year of supervision. Gender-responsive supervision tactics help prevent relapse by promoting positive changes that reduce the pressure on women to use drugs. Nearly half of substance-centered women who started the year abstinent in Traditional County received the most minimal level of monitoring and supervision. Drug tests were scheduled less than monthly, or not at all. Women often did not report in person or even by mail. The only program they attended provided hiv/aids education. Even for drug-abstinent women, Gender Responsive County supervising officers made numerous home visits and referrals, and pushed other programs to deliver needed services. After a period of high contact, officers reduced supervision levels over the course of the year, but not as quickly or as much as Traditional County officers. In Gender Responsive County, only Barb experienced limited and narrow supervision. Atypically, her supervising officer changed three times. The final officer, who retired, encouraged Barb to attend the self-esteem group, a source of ongoing support. Because of this group, Barb received more correctional programming than most Traditional County women. In the previous chapter, I questioned whether even intense and broad supervision suffices to promote abstinence and keep women crime free. Do the effective gender-responsive tactics discovered thus far maintain abstinence for extended periods? Does something other than Traditional County supervision explain the apparent success of those women who ab- Keeping Women Off Drugs [ 121 ] stained all year? I wanted to know whether supervision strategies that promoted women’s abstinence could effectively prevent relapse for a full year. A finding of continued effectiveness would strengthen my belief in the utility of Gender Responsive County’s supervision practices. I also wanted to understand how some Traditional County women managed to finish the year successfully, despite limited supervision. In total, fifty-one substance-centered women who began supervision were already abstinent from drugs. Twenty-two were in Gender Responsive County, and twenty-nine in Traditional County. In both counties, this group makes up 20 percent of the substance-centered women. traditional county’s limited attention to women’s needs At first, Victoria’s Traditional County supervising officer addressed the same range of needs and encouraged the same immersion in services that characterizes Gender Responsive County. At the beginning of supervision, case notes document that Victoria had just left an inpatient substance abuse treatment center and was living in transitional housing. She wanted to regain custody of two children in foster care. Her husband had sole custody of their third child. The supervising officer provided help and referrals in a range of areas: health care, hiv/aids education, job skills, child custody, housing, life skills, and parenting. However, several new problems arose during the year. The transitional housing program evicted Victoria for nonpayment of back rent. In addition, Victoria quit her job, she said, because too many employees used drugs. Her six-year-old also began acting out sexually, due to prior sexual abuse. After foster parents indicated they could not handle him, the Child and Family Services Agency moved up the schedule for Victoria’s children to return to her custory. Victoria missed the deadline for reapplying for state medical insurance, so she lost the means to pay for substance abuse aftercare. At this point, the supervising officer reduced supervision to a low level. Shortly after Victoria completed aftercare treatment, the officer ended contact by moving her to limited supervision. This pattern stands in sharp contrast to that of Gender Responsive County, where escalating problems are typically met with escalating supervision. In Traditional County, if women meet court-ordered requirements, supervision decreases regardless of whether the women’s [ 122 ] outcomes in the two counties needs are proliferating. Yet Victoria ended the year without using drugs, with a new job and custody of her children, and participating in Alcoholics Anonymous. Success does not always require intense supervision throughout the year. There is evidence, though, that the Traditional County approach leaves women with unmet needs that may lead to renewed drug use or other criminal behavior. Consistent with...