The grant also allows staff to track and help these women for two years post-release though support groups, parenting classes, and an emergency fund to help with bills.Īlso thanks to McKune, the women’s institution is getting a treatment unit devoted to helping women with both substance abuse and mental health problems. “We know from the literature that 90 percent of women in prison have had some sort of a trauma exposure in their past” that might hinder their post-prison adjustment, says McKune. The grant also funds a treatment group that addresses trauma. The program walks them through finding housing and employment, provides them with toiletries and other supplies, and helps them set up checkups with physicians and get mental health treatment. With a grant from the Greater Cincinnati Health Foundation, she developed a program that prepares inmates at the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women for post-prison life six months before their release.
McKune is also focusing on the special needs of women inmates. “Parole and probation officers are becoming less punitive and more about, ‘How can I help this person?’”
“We are already starting to have an impact,” says McKune. Many inmates are then targeted for participation in the newly implemented National Institute of Justice-designed curriculum called Thinking for a Change. The training, led by McKune, helps identify individuals at risk of recidivism. This year, 845 parole, probation and classification and treatment officers in the state completed training on the online risk-assessment tool, which is used to gather and track whether these inmates have a source of income, housing, health benefits for themselves and dependents, and if they have lingering mental health or substance abuse problems that local community health agencies could help with. Department of Justice and Kentucky’s Department of Corrections (DOC) to fund a re-entry branch for DOC that identifies offenders who are at greatest risk for returning to prison and offering them cognitive behavioral therapy and role-playing tailored to their needs. To that end, she helped secure a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Research also shows that offenders fare best on the outside when they run through some of the sticky situations they’ll encounter ahead of time - such as talking about their prison time with a potential employer - and learn some problem-solving and social skills to help them navigate their new lives, says McKune. Studies show that many offenders tend to end up back in prison when they can’t find employment or if they have strained family and marital relations. “But we are slowly seeing a change, and you can see a difference in the inmates.” No going back
“Her mission is to prepare these men and women to go back out in the community and she always has that in mind,” says Larry Chandler, former warden of the Kentucky State Reformatory and a member of the state’s parole board.” Thanks to McKune, he says, “we know we have to walk out the door a step or two with them.”Īccording to the most recent data, the state has already had a 5 percent drop in recidivism, from 35 percent returning to prison within two years of release in 2006 to 29.5 percent in 2008.įocusing on transition and prevention “is a cultural change for Kentucky in the way we do case management,” says Chandler. She is also implementing statewide training for probation and parole officers and classification and treatment officers in the facilities to identify offenders at risk for repeat crimes and help them get treatment ahead of time that can help them ease into their new life.Īnd perhaps most important, McKune is helping inmates maintain their sense of community while behind bars by creating opportunities for carefully screened and trained inmates to build confidence and help fellow inmates through work in hospice care and assisting with suicide watches. Among her biggest changes: adding programs that help inmates find housing, health services and employment and re-establish positive relationships with family and friends after their release from prison. As assistant director of the Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse for Kentucky’s Department of Corrections, McKune has refocused mental health services to concentrate on helping offenders prepare for life after prison. McKune, EdD, has her way, once inmates are released they won’t be coming back. The number of men and women behind bars in Kentucky is growing at one of the fastest rates in the country, but if Elizabeth W.
0 kommentar(er)
