deb
02-06-2005, 09:17 PM
APP.COM - FREE TO SUCCEED
www.app.com
Free to Succeed
Making it on the outside after incarceration can be a real test without a
job, a car or a place to stay. Women 4 Women, launched by inmates of the
Edna Mahan prison in Clinton, helps female convicts in practical ways before
and after they are released.
Published in the Asbury Park Press 02/6/05
By KAREN SUDOL
STAFF WRITER
Three days after Christmas, Stacey Kindt stood outside an
alternative-to-incarceration facility in Newark, waiting in the 19-degree
cold.
Her minivan's interior, she explained, offered no clear view of a back door
of Delaney Hall, a center that offers educational and drug-treatment
programs for county and state prisoners. It was where she was waiting to
pick up Cathy O'Malley.
Minutes later, O'Malley, the first woman Kindt planned to help in adjusting
to life after prison, exited through the door. O'Malley, 42, struggled to
balance a bulging plastic bag while navigating the turnstile separating an
arching fence from an outside parking area. When she made it through, she
pumped her arms high in the air.
"Freedom!" she exclaimed as she hugged Kindt.
Free, but what next?
When she first learned of her release date months earlier, O'Malley pored
over her options. The Peekskill, N.Y., resident, who was sentenced to four
years behind bars after admitting she helped plan a 2002 armed robbery in
Carteret, had spent 15 months in county jail, another six in the Edna Mahan
Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, and an additional six months at
Delaney Hall. A drug addiction at the time had prompted her and a man she
was with to commit the robbery, she said.
O'Malley's family lives in upstate New York, and while supportive, told her
she needed to succeed on her own when released. Her sister would continue to
care for her 10-year-old daughter while she got back on her feet, O'Malley
said.
She had only the clothes on her back, her plastic bag of personal items and
clothes and a $10 money order (which she couldn't cash because she had no
identification).
She had no place to stay, no car and no job, even though she has some
computer training. And she knew she had to report immediately to Middlesex
County parole authorities.
She turned to the services of a new program called Women 4 Women. The
program was started at the Mahan prison by a handful of women, including
Kindt and 56-year-old Midge DeLuca of Trenton, while they were incarcerated.
O'Malley and Kindt, 30, met in prison.
The program's goal is to prepare incarcerated women for release into the
community. DeLuca and Kindt, upon their own releases, expanded it to helping
women with practical needs and providing support outside of prison.
Many stops to make
Kindt and O'Malley's first stop was a New Jersey Turnpike rest stop for a
cup of coffee, a Burger King breakfast sandwich and a discussion about the
day's events. Then they planned to drive to the parole office in New
Brunswick.
"The first thing on my mind is to get a job," said O'Malley, who wore a
sweat shirt, jeans and a cross around her neck, with her hair tied back in a
ponytail. O'Malley said she was anxious about explaining her situation and
finding an employer willing to give an ex-offender a chance.
Kindt's greater concern was where O'Malley would sleep that night. She
wondered whether her parole officer would allow O'Malley to live with a
North Plainfield woman currently on probation. If not, O'Malley said she had
resigned herself to staying at a shelter. But she later received approval to
stay at the woman's home.
Kindt drove her to the apartment, where O'Malley had dinner with her new
roommate.
The two also visited an ex-offender resource center operated by the New
Jersey Association on Correction in New Brunswick to secure a temporary
photo ID for O'Malley. Another stop was at the county social services
office.
Through Women 4 Women donations, Kindt supplied O'Malley with cosmetics and
five outfits as well as a cellular telephone to make job calls. She also
gave O'Malley $50 donated by the organization.
Had the program not existed, O'Malley said she'd be in a position like that
of another woman who also had been released from Delaney Hall that day and
only had plans to visit a Jersey City parole office. Kindt gave the woman a
ride to a nearby train station and $50 donated by Women 4 Women.
O'Malley said she would have been at the mercy of her parole officer to help
her.
One woman at a time
Women 4 Women was created in March by a group that included Kindt, who was
serving a seven-year kidnapping sentence at the women's prison for helping
her husband, John E. Kindt Jr., take his two children from a previous
marriage in 2000. The Kindts were living in Brick at the time. Her husband's
case is still pending.
DeLuca, also a founding member, was serving seven years for a 1999 vehicular
homicide.
Kindt and DeLuca, who were schoolteachers, and other inmates realized that
prisoners needed to advocate for each other and prepare for release.
Through a collaborative effort, a resource center was established in the
prison's library with information on health, homeless shelters and
restoration of a driver's license, Kindt said. The group also created a
tutoring program for illiterate inmates and coordinated recreational
activities with women in the mental health unit, she said.
"WFW is a group of women who have felt hopeless, and maybe some days still
do, but have learned that life can change even from within prison for the
better," the organization's brochure reads.
When Kindt was released in September after serving 21 months behind bars,
she said she wasn't prepared for how difficult her adjustment would be. A
prison ministry friend offered her temporary shelter at her house because
Kindt had not yet received permission to reside with her husband and two
children. She has since gotten the approval, and they are living in
Lakewood. She also has found a job.
"I didn't really understand how badly it was needed or just how broad the
issues were until I began the re-entry process myself," Kindt said. "I saw
how critical it was that the need was not being met by any organization or
program."
She began working with DeLuca, who had been released in July, helping other
women readjust. As they started, however, DeLuca had to return to prison in
November after the state Supreme Court ruled she had to serve at least 85
percent of her sentence.
Kindt has since registered the organization as a nonprofit with the state
and is applying for federal status. The program is searching for office
space and is seeking grant money to fund it. A periodic newsletter also has
been initiated. Meanwhile, Kindt said DeLuca works on the program at Edna
Mahan.
The outside component of the program builds trust by assisting women with
practical needs such as clothing or cosmetics. Kindt said she receives
stacks of letters from women residing at halfway houses and in treatment
programs and meets about 60 percent of the requests. She keeps the donated
items in the basement of her house, she said.
Kindt also is assisting women in finding housing, employment and counseling.
The goal is to lower the recidivism rate one woman at a time, she said.
A 2003 round-table report, "Coming Home for Good: Meeting the Challenge of
Prisoner Re-entry in New Jersey," found that between 95 percent and 97
percent of those incarcerated in the state will return home. An estimated
70,000 will be released from state prison over the next five years. The
report was co-sponsored by the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and
the New Jersey Public Policy Research Institute.
"At present, most receive little or no preparation for the transition to
community living and little to no support or assistance after they've been
released," the report noted.
It also found that many fail once they've been released, said Nancy Fishman,
senior law and policy analyst for the New Jersey Institute for Social
Justice.
Nationally, about two-thirds of those released are re-arrested within three
years, she said. New Jersey's statistics are on par with national numbers,
she said.
"People face enormous barriers when they come out," in the areas of
acquiring stable housing, jobs, health care and maintaining health, she
said.
"It's somewhat remarkable that people do succeed," she said.
A promising outlook
O'Malley, who remains on parole until January 2006, believes she'll succeed
outside of prison - mostly because of her support network.
"It makes it a lot easier to know that I'm not alone and that there are
other women who have been through what I've been through and are willing to
reach out and help. Hopefully I'll be in a position to do what Stacey's
doing some day," she said, referring to her desire to help other women.
A few weeks after her release, O'Malley had found a church and a group of
women who drive her to required Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. She had
updated her resume and applied for several jobs within walking distance of
her apartment and is working part time for a cleaning business.
She also planned to return to Delaney Hall to speak to residents there about
her life outside of prison. It was the first time she wouldn't be on the
listening end of the alumni gathering.
"That'll be a milestone for me," she said days before the event, adding that
she will take things one day at a time.
"I don't want to come back here," she said, referring to prison. "I have to
do everything I can to not come back."
Copyright © 1997-2005 IN Jersey.
Deb
www.app.com
Free to Succeed
Making it on the outside after incarceration can be a real test without a
job, a car or a place to stay. Women 4 Women, launched by inmates of the
Edna Mahan prison in Clinton, helps female convicts in practical ways before
and after they are released.
Published in the Asbury Park Press 02/6/05
By KAREN SUDOL
STAFF WRITER
Three days after Christmas, Stacey Kindt stood outside an
alternative-to-incarceration facility in Newark, waiting in the 19-degree
cold.
Her minivan's interior, she explained, offered no clear view of a back door
of Delaney Hall, a center that offers educational and drug-treatment
programs for county and state prisoners. It was where she was waiting to
pick up Cathy O'Malley.
Minutes later, O'Malley, the first woman Kindt planned to help in adjusting
to life after prison, exited through the door. O'Malley, 42, struggled to
balance a bulging plastic bag while navigating the turnstile separating an
arching fence from an outside parking area. When she made it through, she
pumped her arms high in the air.
"Freedom!" she exclaimed as she hugged Kindt.
Free, but what next?
When she first learned of her release date months earlier, O'Malley pored
over her options. The Peekskill, N.Y., resident, who was sentenced to four
years behind bars after admitting she helped plan a 2002 armed robbery in
Carteret, had spent 15 months in county jail, another six in the Edna Mahan
Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, and an additional six months at
Delaney Hall. A drug addiction at the time had prompted her and a man she
was with to commit the robbery, she said.
O'Malley's family lives in upstate New York, and while supportive, told her
she needed to succeed on her own when released. Her sister would continue to
care for her 10-year-old daughter while she got back on her feet, O'Malley
said.
She had only the clothes on her back, her plastic bag of personal items and
clothes and a $10 money order (which she couldn't cash because she had no
identification).
She had no place to stay, no car and no job, even though she has some
computer training. And she knew she had to report immediately to Middlesex
County parole authorities.
She turned to the services of a new program called Women 4 Women. The
program was started at the Mahan prison by a handful of women, including
Kindt and 56-year-old Midge DeLuca of Trenton, while they were incarcerated.
O'Malley and Kindt, 30, met in prison.
The program's goal is to prepare incarcerated women for release into the
community. DeLuca and Kindt, upon their own releases, expanded it to helping
women with practical needs and providing support outside of prison.
Many stops to make
Kindt and O'Malley's first stop was a New Jersey Turnpike rest stop for a
cup of coffee, a Burger King breakfast sandwich and a discussion about the
day's events. Then they planned to drive to the parole office in New
Brunswick.
"The first thing on my mind is to get a job," said O'Malley, who wore a
sweat shirt, jeans and a cross around her neck, with her hair tied back in a
ponytail. O'Malley said she was anxious about explaining her situation and
finding an employer willing to give an ex-offender a chance.
Kindt's greater concern was where O'Malley would sleep that night. She
wondered whether her parole officer would allow O'Malley to live with a
North Plainfield woman currently on probation. If not, O'Malley said she had
resigned herself to staying at a shelter. But she later received approval to
stay at the woman's home.
Kindt drove her to the apartment, where O'Malley had dinner with her new
roommate.
The two also visited an ex-offender resource center operated by the New
Jersey Association on Correction in New Brunswick to secure a temporary
photo ID for O'Malley. Another stop was at the county social services
office.
Through Women 4 Women donations, Kindt supplied O'Malley with cosmetics and
five outfits as well as a cellular telephone to make job calls. She also
gave O'Malley $50 donated by the organization.
Had the program not existed, O'Malley said she'd be in a position like that
of another woman who also had been released from Delaney Hall that day and
only had plans to visit a Jersey City parole office. Kindt gave the woman a
ride to a nearby train station and $50 donated by Women 4 Women.
O'Malley said she would have been at the mercy of her parole officer to help
her.
One woman at a time
Women 4 Women was created in March by a group that included Kindt, who was
serving a seven-year kidnapping sentence at the women's prison for helping
her husband, John E. Kindt Jr., take his two children from a previous
marriage in 2000. The Kindts were living in Brick at the time. Her husband's
case is still pending.
DeLuca, also a founding member, was serving seven years for a 1999 vehicular
homicide.
Kindt and DeLuca, who were schoolteachers, and other inmates realized that
prisoners needed to advocate for each other and prepare for release.
Through a collaborative effort, a resource center was established in the
prison's library with information on health, homeless shelters and
restoration of a driver's license, Kindt said. The group also created a
tutoring program for illiterate inmates and coordinated recreational
activities with women in the mental health unit, she said.
"WFW is a group of women who have felt hopeless, and maybe some days still
do, but have learned that life can change even from within prison for the
better," the organization's brochure reads.
When Kindt was released in September after serving 21 months behind bars,
she said she wasn't prepared for how difficult her adjustment would be. A
prison ministry friend offered her temporary shelter at her house because
Kindt had not yet received permission to reside with her husband and two
children. She has since gotten the approval, and they are living in
Lakewood. She also has found a job.
"I didn't really understand how badly it was needed or just how broad the
issues were until I began the re-entry process myself," Kindt said. "I saw
how critical it was that the need was not being met by any organization or
program."
She began working with DeLuca, who had been released in July, helping other
women readjust. As they started, however, DeLuca had to return to prison in
November after the state Supreme Court ruled she had to serve at least 85
percent of her sentence.
Kindt has since registered the organization as a nonprofit with the state
and is applying for federal status. The program is searching for office
space and is seeking grant money to fund it. A periodic newsletter also has
been initiated. Meanwhile, Kindt said DeLuca works on the program at Edna
Mahan.
The outside component of the program builds trust by assisting women with
practical needs such as clothing or cosmetics. Kindt said she receives
stacks of letters from women residing at halfway houses and in treatment
programs and meets about 60 percent of the requests. She keeps the donated
items in the basement of her house, she said.
Kindt also is assisting women in finding housing, employment and counseling.
The goal is to lower the recidivism rate one woman at a time, she said.
A 2003 round-table report, "Coming Home for Good: Meeting the Challenge of
Prisoner Re-entry in New Jersey," found that between 95 percent and 97
percent of those incarcerated in the state will return home. An estimated
70,000 will be released from state prison over the next five years. The
report was co-sponsored by the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and
the New Jersey Public Policy Research Institute.
"At present, most receive little or no preparation for the transition to
community living and little to no support or assistance after they've been
released," the report noted.
It also found that many fail once they've been released, said Nancy Fishman,
senior law and policy analyst for the New Jersey Institute for Social
Justice.
Nationally, about two-thirds of those released are re-arrested within three
years, she said. New Jersey's statistics are on par with national numbers,
she said.
"People face enormous barriers when they come out," in the areas of
acquiring stable housing, jobs, health care and maintaining health, she
said.
"It's somewhat remarkable that people do succeed," she said.
A promising outlook
O'Malley, who remains on parole until January 2006, believes she'll succeed
outside of prison - mostly because of her support network.
"It makes it a lot easier to know that I'm not alone and that there are
other women who have been through what I've been through and are willing to
reach out and help. Hopefully I'll be in a position to do what Stacey's
doing some day," she said, referring to her desire to help other women.
A few weeks after her release, O'Malley had found a church and a group of
women who drive her to required Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. She had
updated her resume and applied for several jobs within walking distance of
her apartment and is working part time for a cleaning business.
She also planned to return to Delaney Hall to speak to residents there about
her life outside of prison. It was the first time she wouldn't be on the
listening end of the alumni gathering.
"That'll be a milestone for me," she said days before the event, adding that
she will take things one day at a time.
"I don't want to come back here," she said, referring to prison. "I have to
do everything I can to not come back."
Copyright © 1997-2005 IN Jersey.
Deb