Homeless Female Offenders Returning to the Community: Improving Hopeful Futures

摘要 在过去十年中，被监禁的女性人数增加了两倍，使女性成为增长最快的群体。 在美国的罪犯。与被监禁的男性相比，女性罪犯的被监禁率更高。 因毒品罪被判刑;此外，他们往往是注射毒品使用者，有注射毒品使用者的性伴侣， 常常被迫从事性交易以求生存多达50%的女性犯罪者报告身体和/或性行为 虐待;此外，创伤性虐待，慢性情绪困扰，以及因成为重罪犯而产生的内在耻辱感， 吸毒者对妇女的自尊心产生了深刻的影响，导致绝望和抑郁的感觉， 延迟恢复和重返社会，增加危险行为和健康问题。毫不奇怪，那些 被监禁的妇女患精神疾病的可能性几乎是非犯罪妇女的两倍;此外， 44%的人在一年内因持有受管制物质而再次犯罪。特别是无家可归的妇女， 假释犯和缓刑犯都报告说，他们在成功重返社会方面面临持续挑战。这些包括 住房不稳定、生活无组织、失业以及获得保健和社会服务的机会有限。虽然洛杉矶 安吉利斯县缓刑部在其加州蓝图中为成功的项目提供了指导 《女性罪犯总体计划》，提出了增强权能、积极应对和工作技能的战略， 以及提供同侪指导的方法尚未得到执行或评价。 在R34的第一阶段，我们的加州大学洛杉矶、旧金山弗朗西斯科和欧文分校的研究人员 计划利用我们成功的社区参与方法，完善对性别问题有敏感认识的犯罪需求， 在社区的帮助下，实施了一项重点干预方案-女性前罪犯监护方案（FEM-CARE）。 咨询委员会，由HFO和戒毒工作人员组成;最后确定将由重点小组验证的战略 与HFO的会议。在第2阶段，我们将随机抽取130名HFO，参与两种住院药物治疗之一 评估FEM-CARE或健康促进控制计划对减少毒品和 酗酒和累犯这项研究是基于我们团队的历史，促进理论为基础的，文化- 敏感的护士主导的干预措施，丰富了刑事司法理论的观点，并已导致 无家可归者中吸毒和酗酒的人数大幅减少，其中许多人有吸毒和酗酒的历史。 监禁。我们最近成功地让男性假释犯参与护士支持的同伴指导，我们的团队 我们在加强减少弱势妇女耻辱感方面的专业知识，我们的刑事司法专家已告知这一点。 study.最后，最近对HFO的形成性研究揭示了对同伴榜样的渴望，以支持和提高 了解和获得医疗保健，促进积极应对，稳定的住房和工作技能，并减少耻辱 和抑郁情绪;所有这些因素都可能导致旨在防止吸毒和酗酒的新项目， 减少累犯。这一基础和强大的社区支持，导致了我们的设计建议 干预方案。

ABSTRACT In the last decade, the numbers of incarcerated females has tripled, making women the most rapidly growing group of offenders in the United States. When compared to incarcerated males, female offenders have a higher rate of being sentenced for drug crimes; moreover, they are often injection drug users (IDUs), have sexual partners who are IDUs, and are often forced into the sex trade for survival. As many as 50% of female offenders report physical and/or sexual abuse; further, traumatic abuse, chronic emotional distress, and internalized stigma resulting from being a felon and a drug-user, have a profound effect on the women's self-esteem, leading to feelings of hopelessness and depression, delayed recovery and reintegration, increased risky behaviors, and health concerns. Not surprisingly, women who have been incarcerated are nearly twice as likely to experience mental illness compared with non-offending women; further, 44% recidivate within a year due to possession of a controlled substance. In particular, among homeless female offenders (HFOs), both parolees and probationers report ongoing challenges for successful re-entry. These include unstable housing, disorganized lives, unemployment, and limited access to health and social services. While the Los Angeles County Department of Probation has provided guidance for successful programs in its California Blueprint Master Plan for Female Offenders, the suggested strategies of enhancing empowerment, positive coping, and job skills, and providing peer-mentored approaches have not yet been implemented or evaluated. In Phase I of this R34, our team of University of California Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Irvine researchers plan to utilize our successful community participatory approaches to refine a gender-sensitive criminogenic needs - focused intervention program, Female Ex-Offender Mentoring in Care (FEM-CARE), with the help of a community advisory board, composed of HFOs and addiction staff; and finalize strategies which will be validated by focus group sessions with HFOs. In Phase 2, we will randomize 130 HFOs participating in one of two residential drug treatment programs to assess the impact of the FEM-CARE or a Health Promotion control program on reduction of drug and alcohol use and recidivism. This study is based upon our team's history of promoting theoretically-based, culturally- sensitive nurse-led interventions that are enriched with criminal justice theoretical perspectives, and have resulted in significant reductions in drug and alcohol use among homeless persons, many of whom have had a history of incarceration. Our most recent successes in engaging male parolees in nurse-supported peer mentorship, our team's expertise in enhancing stigma reduction among vulnerable women, and our criminal justice experts have informed this study. Finally, recent formative research with HFOs has revealed a desire for peer role models to support and enhance knowledge of and access to healthcare, promote positive coping, stable housing, and job skills, and to reduce stigma and depressed mood; all of these factors can result in novel programs designed to prevent drug and alcohol use and reduce recidivism. This foundation and strong community support garnered has led to the design of our proposed intervention program.