By Jaime Shimkus

"What can we do to help you?”

It’s a good bet that many inmates in the Indiana Women’s Prison had heard that question seldom, if ever, before being admitted there. Yet it’s a primary concern of service providers at the maximum security facility, where, along with the inherent security mandate, the mission statement explicitly “encourages rehabilitation through quality programming.”

Medical and mental health treatment are fundamental to this rehabilitation, but, given the needs of the diverse population it serves, the programming is defined broadly, aiming to improve “health” in areas such as parenting, self-esteem and coping with past abuse.

“Until recently the prison functioned with the ‘one size fits all’ philosophy,” explains assistant superintendent James Hendrix, MA, a trained psychologist whose duties include oversight of health services. “In the last few years, the complexion of the incoming population has changed, resulting in a facility mission change.”

As the reception and diagnostic facility for all women entering the state’s Department of Corrections, IWP expects to process some 1,800 inmates this year, more than twice as many as in 1997. Most will be transferred to other facilities, but the assessment process will identify those to remain at IWP, which houses not only new intakes but also all special populations. These populations reside in six separate “zones”:
• Intake unit
• Special needs units for mentally ill and developmentally challenged inmates
• Youthful offender unit
• Medical management unit
• Maximum security complex that houses the general population
• Disciplinary/administrative zone, which includes segregation and death row
In addition, the “progressive” unit has 20 beds for special needs inmates in transition to general housing.

This structure enables the staff, led by a zone supervisor, to specialize operations and services for each group. “Consequently,” Hendrix says, “each population can successfully adjust to incarceration. This makes the environment healthier and safer for staff and offenders.”

Award-winning Program
In a prison rich with programming, the centerpiece, serving 80% of the population, is the Family Preservation Program, which earned NCCHC’s 2003 Program of the Year Award.

From visionary idea to volcanic eruption: That’s how family services director Janet Schadee, RN, MHA, describes the program’s evolution over eight years from a child visitation center to a vast network of multidisciplinary services, both in the prison and outside, geared toward fostering healthy families.

The program was conceived by facility superintendent Dana Blank— who saw that “children are victims of their mothers’ incarceration,” as Schadee notes—and was implemented with the assistance of the social services director and a longtime volunteer at the prison. The first step in developing what has grown into a comprehensive program of wraparound services was establishment of the visiting room within the prison confines. Described by Hendrix as “a first of its kind,” the center offers a warm, inviting environment where mother and child can bond.

From there, the prison contacted agencies that assist families in the community and explained that these incarcerated mothers, who usually do not lose their rights to their children, are in dire need of services such as counseling in family planning, prenatal care and parenting skills. From there the program grew into its current form with five major components:

1. Therapeutic education and support groups address parenting skills for mothers and grandmothers.

2. Responsible Mother, Healthy Baby provides case management and more for the prison system’s pregnant inmates, all of whom live at IWP. Supervised by an RN designated as the prenatal care coordinator, the program includes the following:
• Comprehensive intake assessment to identify the needs of mothers, caregivers and children
• A family care plan for each pregnant inmate, with goals based on issues identified in the assessment, including placement of the child
• Prenatal and parenting education
• Newborn care classes
• Support groups held weekly
• A birthing coach
• An outreach program that connects caregivers with community agencies and resources and follows the child’s progress at home

3. Parental bonding provides ways for inmates and their children to develop and maintain bonds during the mother’s incarceration. These settings and events also enable children to spend time with others who have similar family circumstances.
• The children’s visitation center operates year-round, providing a less-restrictive, child-friendly setting with books, toys and activities to foster interaction and nurturing.
• A summer day camp held at the prison for five days each July provides ample time for relationship-building activities in a stimulating environment with music, crafts and petting zoo animals.
• Parent-teen day, held twice a year, invites youth aged 13 to 17 to spend the day with their mothers or grandmothers and engage in problem-solving activities that require teamwork.

4. Outreach initiatives link mothers with home, children and caregivers via an outreach family care coordinator, who not only works with community agencies to obtain needed resources, including transportation for visits, but also meets with the children and their caretakers at their homes to ensure that the environment is healthy and safe.

5. Family planning offers education and free birth control to women who are soon to be released from the facility. The program is staffed with a full-time registered nurse who has both academic and practical experience in public health.

Beyond the Family Preservation Program, formal education is available to all inmates, some of whom earn degrees from a state university.

It’s not all a one-way street, though. “Giving back” programs develop inmates’ sense of pride and responsibility by enabling them to help those less fortunate. For instance, they make clothing for poor children and sleeping bags for homeless shelters. Students in the building trades have made items such as bookcases and rocking horses. “I’m very proud of the work that so many of these ladies do,” says Hendrix. “For many, it serves as a means of restoring themselves to the fabric of mankind.”

Creative Funding
As intricate as the programming itself are the myriad relationships that Schadee builds between correctional and community service agencies and funders. This is essential because the programs are not DOC budget items but rather are funded almost exlusively by grants or by the service agencies themselves.

While state support helped launch the Family Preservation Program, the vagaries of governmental budgets led Schadee to look elsewhere for funding. Thinking creatively, she has secured numerous foundation and other grants for which IWP would not qualify on its own, but that instead support the not-for-profit agencies that provide the services.

It’s a nonstop juggling act, but two years ago major help arrived in the form of another grant, $300,000 from the Health Resources and Services Administration. With this money Schadee is working to “institutionalize” the infrastructure that underlies the programming. Key to this is development of an electronic case management and tracking system, which not only facilitates linking inmates with services but also enables the program to track outcomes: in effect, to prove its worth.

One indicator, for example, is the recidivism rate at IWP: about 8% after three years, compared to 39% of women who returned to prison in 1994, according to a 2002 Bureau of Justice Statistics report.

“It makes sense,” says Schadee. “Women do better upon return to the community if we address their family’s and children’s needs.” Just as important, Hendrix adds, it helps to end the cycle of incarceration within families.

— About the author: Jaime Shimkus is NCCHC’s publications editor. To contact her, e-mail jaimeshimkus@ncchc.org.