Presented by Avraham Hoffmann at the Monash University Conference: What works with women offenders , Prato, Italy, June 2005

Let me start by telling you a few words about the Israeli Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority, of which I was the Director General for over 19 years, until I retired in 2002.

Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority[1]

The Israeli Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority is a state entity. It was founded in 1984[1], to deal with all inmates: men and women, Jewish and Arab, single and married, as well as with their families. It is mandated to deal with prisoners’ rehabilitation 4 to 6 month preceding their release and in the community during the year following their release from prison. During the pre-release period an individual rehabilitation program is set with each inmate. Participation is voluntary.

Short Description Of The Program:

The program I will present today is designed to rehabilitate female prisoners with their children. The program was developed by the Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority (PRA) in cooperation with the Ashalim (JDC) and the Prison Services (regarding the part in Prison). This program starts in prison, where a therapeutic program treats the inmates parenting problems.

Today I will focus on the rehabilitation after the release from prison and the way it treats all aspects of the mother and child’s life and needs.

Let me start with the first step:

After the release from prison the woman spends 3 months in the Residential Hostel for Released Female Inmates. After which the mother’s readiness to care for her children is assessed. If the evaluation is positive, she moves to the Residential Hostel for Released Female Inmates: Mothers with their Children, where her children join her. This Hostel is especially designed to fulfil the needs of both the children and mothers.

The hostel is small, housing up to 5 women and 7 children at a time: {Slide 3}

1. The Hostel is intended to be a home, not just a roof over her head, not another institution. This is crucial, for both the women and their children.
2. It is run on the basis of a family – with residents participating in household duties and chores.
3. While the mothers work[2] or attend vocational training, the children, depending on their age, are placed in day-care, or attend school.
4. In the evenings, in addition to participating in household chores, and spending time in productive interaction with the children, there are individual and group therapies[3].
5. Enrichment activities – outings, field trips, cultural events, etc. – are educational and a crucial aspect of the therapy[4].

After staying in the Hostel for a period of up to 2 years, the mother and child move to private apartments situated close to the Hostel[5], for a period of 5 years. They share with the Hostel’s residents the participation at support groups (2 hours) and an individual therapy (one hour) every week; as well as leisure time enrichment activities[6] and Employment assistance and support.

Why Do These Women Need Special Care?

Although they are only 2% of the prisons’ population, the female inmates are an extremely difficult population to work with:

1. Most have histories of severe sexual and/or physical abuse from early childhood.
2. Their psychological profiles often include various emotional disturbances, low self-image and low self-esteem, suicide attempts and other self-destructive behaviours.
3. Moreover, they have difficulties in establishing ties with caregivers and therapist.

Because of these problems, for many years, female inmates were considered hopeless cases in terms of treatment and rehabilitation.

Most of the female inmates in Israel (approximately 70%) are mothers. Most are single parents. Motherhood, in many different ways, complicates their situation, and decreases their chance to be successfully rehabilitated. Most (approximately 80%) have drug abuse problems, and are in dire need of a closed, structured and supervised framework which protects them, and creates a bridge to community.

Why Rehabilitate These Women With Children? and Why Should Children Join Their Mothers’ Rehabilitation?

A. The Importance For The Mothers

While there are those who question the benefit to the women of having their children with them during the rehabilitation period, it is clear to those who work in this field that this is perhaps the most beneficial aspect of a rehabilitation process.

WHY?    Because it offers them:

1. The chance to give and receive love.
2. To have something to look forward to.
3. To be responsible for someone else.

 These are the essential aspects of rebuilding self-esteem, and learning to conduct healthy relationships.

Knowing these women background it is not surprising they have no parenting skills. They experienced no normal mother-child relation with their mothers, hence:

1. They have no knowledge of childcare.
2. They don’t know how to play with their children
3. They are afraid of intimate moments with their own children.
4. They don’t know how to enjoy their leisure time.

Until recently people used to refer to parenting competence as static. The Hostel has proved that parenting is a learnt function and a dynamic one. Through the dyadic therapy these women learn to:

1. Relate to their children and love them.
2. Take care of children – knowing children’s needs.
3. Deal with children’s behaviour – anger, disobedience, etc.  

The children continue to receive therapy from the social welfare authorities, with the Hostel’s guidance. Mother-child relations continue to be treated in therapy in a gradually decreasing intensity.

Still, why children should be involved in their mother’s therapy?

B. The Importance For The Children

The social workers face an inherent contradiction, when they try to treat and support children in institutions separated from their mothers. The mother and child grow apart as a result of the separation caused by the incarceration:

1. This program enables the mother and child to develop together.
2. This is the opportunity to save both the mother and her children.
3. The child can only benefit from being reunited with his mother in a supervised, therapeutic setting.

Why Satellite Apartments?

The Satellite Apartment is the necessary additional step toward the independent life in the community, because it eases the passage from the protected life in the Hostel, to the independent life she has never been used to. {Slide 9}

These women do not perceive their family as a supportive factor because of the past history. They have almost no family support; therefore one must create such a place for them. Hence, the therapy location must offer: {Slide 10}

1. A homey feeling.
2. A place where they can feel secure.
3. A place where they can express their feelings while the staff listens with acceptance.
4. This is the place from which they can draw the strength they need to deal with reintegrating into society.
5. An intensive significant support.
6. A lighthouse that illuminates darkness.
7. Being aware they have an address to turn to, in the advent of crisis, allow these women to fulfill what they had learnt.

Hence a backup, continued therapy and supervision are crucial. A special combination of support and simultaneous supervision is offered by a successfully rehabilitated female inmate. She visits the satellite apartments:

1. Having the same background, she presents a source of support and role model.
2. She reports to the Hostel’s personnel of the progress, or problems and difficulties the women have.
3. Former inmates are afraid of turning to the authorities and often are unaware of existing services. Hence her central role is to bridge between these women and the different authorities and social services.

Released Female Inmates  – Why Can’t They Succeed Without Continued Support?

{Slide 12} These women are perceived by professionals as a chronic population. Their rehabilitation is a long process that has to overcome many years of neglect. Their problem is more critical than that of men[7] and requires a comprehensive treatment[8].

An objective of total rehabilitation can be approached, but it is hard to achieve fully. One may advance progressively. Assuming that a total rehabilitation can be achieved within 1 to 2 years in the Hostel is mistaken:

1. Rehabilitation is not a condition achieved after completing a process, but the start of a struggle, with no end and no limits.
2. Rehabilitation is a perpetual struggle in which man stands alone in a struggle with himself until the breaking of the day (the dawn)[9]. And this dawn can be distant, depending from which point in time the struggle began.
3. There is no person who cannot be rehabilitated. And there are only few persons who cannot be rehabilitated.
4. Nevertheless, not everyone has the power and the ability to achieve the same heights, and that the jumping-off point of each person differs from that of his neighbour.

However, a female inmate, like a one-legged that learns to walk with crutches, will remain handicapped for the rest of her life; although the support will gradually decrease.

The hostel prepares the women to reintegrate the community. However, for many years they will still be in need of social “crutches”. Outside the Hostel they must take responsibility for themselves and their children after years of irresponsibility.

Why Do We Need Satellite Apartments After The State Has Invested So Much? 

Securing The Financial Investment:

If one believes that a short term work is needed here, one shouldn’t start at all. With no continued support all the investment is for nothing. Rehabilitation is a never ending process.

The economic investment in rehabilitating female inmates with their children is very expensive. Hence, without preserving the rehabilitation for at least 5 additional years following the release from the Hostel – the initial investment is doubtful. However, this program represents in the short and long run a less expensive alternative to that of children in institutions, and mothers in prison.

Why do these women need employment rehabilitation?

We have found out that these women need an employment rehabilitation, to ensure their long term rehabilitation. Without financial resources, these women cannot provide for themselves and their children. On the other hand, they don’t have necessary skills: most of these women have never worked in a steady work position; and they lack any vocational training. For this reason we opened the “Released Female Prisoners’ Employment Centre”, near the Hostel. The centre serves released female inmates, including mothers.

This centre was established to form a model for preparing the released female prisoners toward employment, while dealing with 3 issues:

1. Training for working life and working habits.
2. Educational enrichment – including completing schooling.
3. Work placement that includes backing up during the initial period to prevent lack of self confidence.

The centre is run by women and for women only. We had found out in the past that women failed to succeed in men’s centres.

These women learn, English, math and computer literacy. The centre concentrates on intensive treatment – individual and group.

After a 3 month day preparation in the centre the women are placed in a work position. While working they attend therapy and group meeting in the centre’s evening activities. Together they deal with difficulties they encounter at work. In later stages, the centre’s staff evaluates if a certain woman can attend a vocational training for a vocation that will enable her to earn a higher salary, they refer her to such a vocational training and continue to back her up.

This project was monitored by a research in 2002, during which 27 women participated, with between 7 to 14 participants at any given month. Findings showed that about 50% of these women completed the program. These women reported a very high level of satisfaction with the program, a significant gain in knowledge and skills as well as improvement in personal and vocational functioning. Employers also reported high level of satisfaction with the work performance of the women who had been placed with them.

What Will Happen After 5 Years?

The chances of success after 6 to 7 years of treatment in this program have increased a great deal.

Both the professional team and the former inmates are afraid of the departure from the Hostel. The satellite apartments offer these women a way to overcome their fears and the team is given the possibility to continue to support them.

The pilot program included 15 women and their children that graduated from the Hostel. The usual 75% rate of recidivism and return to prison of the Hostel’s graduates[10] dropped to 19%. The women from the satellite apartments continue to come to the Hostel every week for 3 therapy hours– while the children have enrichment activities. The women also participate at the Hostel’s enrichment activities and this way they get strong and help others get strong.

And Finally Why Invest So Much In Female Inmates?

Although many professionals thought female offenders were helpless. An important reason for giving priority to rehabilitate female inmates in Israel can be found in the Jewish tradition (Halacha – religious laws). According to the tradition if a father does not have enough money to help all his children, the alimony must be given to the daughters, and the sons must go and seek money by themselves. Hence, we had multiplied the budget for the small population of the female offenders.

In Judaism there is no stigma. Every person has the right to a new beginning. The descendants of Rehab the prostitute (רחב – book of Joshua) were prophets. The mother’s vocation was in no way an obstruction to their spiritual mission. Hulda the woman prophet was a descendant of Rehab’s family.

This pilot program proves that the right action can make a dramatic change in the women lives. The crisis, caused by the incarceration, is used as a lever to a turning point in their lives. By effective therapeutic intervention with the mother, her children and family, this crisis becomes a new positive start toward rehabilitation.

---

[1] The PRA offers every released inmates an equal chance to a successful rehabilitation, by developing programs to fulfil the special needs of the different populations. Participation is voluntary.

We believe rehabilitation is the start of a perpetual struggle, with no end or limits, in which a man stands alone in a struggle with him. The Authority’s philosophy is that there is no person who cannot be rehabilitated, and that everyone has a right to a new beginning. However, it should be recognised that not everyone has the power and ability to achieve the same heights, and that the jumping-off point differs from person to person. Hence, measuring rehabilitation from a solely statistical standpoint implies reducing the value of a human being to an insignificant number. In spite of this conception, and maybe by virtue of this belief, 81% of the inmates that joint the PRA‘s programs are successfully rehabilitated – they do not use drugs or commit crimes – as opposed to 30% among those that did not participate in rehabilitation programs.

[2]  The women must find jobs, with the help and guidance of the PRA Women’s Employment Co-ordinator. The PRA operates a special day centre to deal with these women’s particular difficulties in the employment field. The centre offers vocational training, assistance in finding work, and in persevering at it – A combination of social therapy and preparation for employment.

[3] The therapy methods:

Reaching-out – Understanding these women feel ambivalent and, incapable of solving the dilemma between life and death, and choosing to integrate into the society that has abused them, we must try to help them by sharing with them the choice to rehabilitate. By using the reaching-out technique we are able to reduce their alienation feelings and develop their togetherness experience.

Self-esteem: The therapy helps to promote their self-esteem, together with the widening of their education. We choose the best available vocational training institutions, to enable them to obtain professional certificates in valuable fields that are also needed in the employment market. These women lack professional certificate required for employment and they feel they have not accomplished anything significant in their lives. This kind of vocational training will strengthen their self-esteem.

[4]  They improve self-esteem, allow the women to interact with each other and their children, as well as the staff, in a relaxed setting, and teach proper, productive use of leisure time. Moreover most of these women have no contacts apart from their contacts with the delinquent society. Most of them have left the normative society when they were teenagers. Hence, they did not develop social skills; therefore, in parallel to the therapy, they must learn a social language that will enable them to handle different kinds of relationships, intimate and trivial. They will be able to handle an everyday conversation at work. The learning is done by carrying on such conversation, by widening their horizons, their general knowledge – theoretical and practical.

[5]  The satellite apartments and the Hostel have been situated in a residential neighbourhood, non-criminogenic; to give these released inmates the best chances to a successful rehabilitation.

[6]  Apart from enrichment, these activities offer Pleasure: Research has shown that these women have very few, if any, positive memories. As a part of the therapy, the women together with their therapists take part in pleasant activities, to balance their negative experiences and to enable them to experience positive feelings. These activities include going out to the movie theatre, restaurants and excursions, watching movies.

[7] A distinct and particular rehabilitation for women, – separating their rehabilitation process from that of men’s. A place where they can express their particular problems – the trauma they have experienced, such as incest, rape, prostitution, and violence. The rehabilitation of men and women together maintains the female delinquents’ perception of their traditional role. It prevents treatment and change, since the male delinquents continue to perceive them as an exploitation and abuse object.

[8]  These women have multiple problems in many fields: housing, debts, children arrangements, employment, etc. They feel alienated and don’t apply for help at the different agencies. Therefore, the assistance offered in the different fields must be placed under one roof. It is important to give therapy in one place in which confidence can be developed, to enable us to generate their motivation to reintegrate.

[9]  It says in Genesis (32:24): “And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” This is the most wonderful description of the rehabilitation process!

[10]  As opposed to 90% of return to prison among those who haven’t gone through any rehabilitation program.