CASE STUDIES Convicted and jailed for drug possession, Bliek, 20, is on probation. Her felony drug conviction will keep her from social aid such as food stamps, limit her employment options and bar her from certain housing programs.
"I have no idea what I'm going to do," she said. "I'm not ready to be out on my own."
Her situation is common for those leaving the corrections system, more so in South Dakota than most states, according to a recent study. While conditions of parole often require employment and housing, laws and regulations create barriers to achieving that goal. Women, particularly mothers, might be hardest hit in South Dakota.Programs such as food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families are denied to people with a drug felony in South Dakota. Local rules also limit options for people leaving prison.But there often are legitimate reasons at the root of the problem.For example, Crime-Free Housing in Sioux Falls, which many credit for keeping neighborhoods safe, excludes people who have had a drug conviction in the past five years, said Sioux Falls Police Officer Jim Larson, who oversees the program.The program is meant to reduce crime and eliminate problem tenants, not punish offenders, Larson said."Nobody is saying that if you have a drug conviction that you're a bad person," he said. "What we're saying, and the managers are saying is, 'Show us some good history. Show us that you've been rehabilitated.' "
A study by the national Legal Action Center examined every state's ability to help inmates re-enter society. It found that South Dakota was among the nine states with the most "roadblocks" for inmates re-entering daily life. Most of the 38 barriers in South Dakota were in the categories of employment, public assistance and public housing.Many officials who work with offenders say women, especially mothers, face a difficult journey toward re-entering society."Our system seems to be more geared for men, when you think about it," said Steve Fodness, director of residential services at the Arch Halfway House in Sioux Falls. "We encourage (men) to get a job, get independent, and get a place to live. For women that doesn't seem to work as well."
South Dakota incarcerates 89 women per 100,000, the 10th- highest rate in the country, according to the Women's Prison Association, so the state has its share of women dealing with these issues.Mothers with records often considered unfit
The problems can be complicated by mental illness - which women offenders tend to have at a higher rate than men - and a strong social stigma about women with criminal records, Fodness said.That stigma makes it difficult for women to resume their role as a mother. It can brand them unfit for parenting forever, said Virgena Wieseler, division director for child protection with the state Department of Social Services."It's very difficult," she said. "Some of our staff has seen some of the women struggle because some people don't think they should have a second chance at parenting."Finding a job is one of the first hurdles a woman will face after leaving prison."They only have so much time to get a job or they're sent back, because they're in violation of their parole," said Julie Becker, director of St. Francis House in Sioux Falls. "There's so much pressure on them in such a short amount of time."Fodness said more jobs are available to men, and they often pay better. For example, women have trouble getting jobs that require hard labor, he said.With a criminal conviction, careers in fields such as day care or medicine are impossible to get, he said.Barred from certain jobs such as nursingBliek, once in school for nursing, now is barred from that field because of her conviction. She also is unable to receive federal student aid and many scholarships that could help pay for her return to college, she said."I'm trying to get into school again," Bliek said. "I started going to school for nursing and that got taken away from me. So my one passion in life was taken away."A methamphetamine addiction cost Tracy Kashmarek, 27, her job in 2003 and sent her to jail for a month."I was employed at a bank and was stealing money to support my habit," she said.Now sober, Kashmarek said it was difficult to find a job once released from jail. The job interviews she did get ended abruptly when her felony record came up, she said."The interview would go great, but after that it would go downhill," Kashmarek said.
Employers in South Dakota can ask about arrests that never led to convictions. And unlike some states, there is no opportunity for offenders to obtain certificates of rehabilitation in order to better their chances of being employed.
Housing restrictions impede return to society
Women with felony records, particularly drug convictions, find their housing options limited in Sioux Falls and throughout the state. Housing not only is a critical step in re-entry, but is a condition set by their probation or parole and a requirement to be met before social services will return children to their mothers.
"If they don't have a place to go to, then it's really hard for children to come home to them," Wieseler said.
The study found that public housing authorities can look at a criminal record and make individual decisions about an applicant's eligibility. They also may refuse to admit an applicant based on a criminal charge that never led to a conviction.
Federal law allows landlords in federally supported housing programs to impose stricter prohibitions against certain residents, said Vona Johnson, director of rental housing with the South Dakota Housing Development Authority.
"What you're gong to find is the owners can write their own written screening criteria to determine who they're going to allow to live in there," she said. "Each landlord can set their own rules. But the feds don't tell them how to write it."
Sioux Falls Crime-Free Housing went to a stricter standard for its participating properties including the prohibition against those with drug convictions in the past five years.
"That is a standard Sioux Falls decided to go to," said Larson, the Sioux Falls police officer. "It's not mandatory."
A number of properties in Sioux Falls apply an even stricter standard, Larson said.
"I know some managers that say if you have any felony, you're not welcome," he said.
The difficulty of re-entering society also manifests itself in the number of women who return to jail or prison
At the Arch, Fodness said more than 40 percent of women clients are incarcerated again, and that difficulties in finding housing and employment, and limited social services contribute to the most of that recidivism.
"I would say it's 70 percent of it at least," he said.
Department of Labor Career Center staff do go into the women's prison quarterly and present a job-search assistance class. Job-seeking strategies are taught, such as how to make a resumé and cover letter and how to use the self-service job search system. Many of the women, however, say they need more help.
At the Arch, women talk of how months of job hunts, lack of counseling and other assistance can set women up for failure, said Bobbi Jo Zens, 35, who has been at the Arch for six months.
"I think that's why women relapse here and go back to prison," she said. "You get beaten down a lot."
Zens has had success; she recently got a job at a restaurant.
'They come out with no identification'
In South Dakota, women leaving prison need better access to psychiatric care, treatment options and better education about how to successfully enter society, Fodness said.
Offenders also need help to get proper identification, Becker said.
"They come out with no identification. They come out with their DOC card, and that's it," she said. "They can't get a job with their DOC card. What they need to do is to help these offenders get their ID and social security card before they take one step off those prison grounds."
Michigan has implemented a program in both of its women's prisons to address some of these issues, and that effort has become a model for other states, said Florida Andrews, director of the Michigan Council on Crime & Delinquency.
The same Legal Action Center study ranked Michigan as one of the best states for helping offenders transition from incarceration back into society.
Employers in Michigan cannot ask about arrests that never led to convictions, and occupational-licensing authorities may consider only certain criminal records. The state also has opted out of the federal ban on food stamps and public assistance, which keeps those options open to offenders. Michigan also is more lenient in its public housing application process when considering criminal records.
Andrews' efforts focus on the transition from incarceration to daily life by addressing women's educational, vocational and parenting skills.
"I decided we weren't paying much attention to women while they were incarcerated," Andrews said.
She has 85 women in the program, which requires the mothers to get their GED and allows them to maintain their parenting roles by helping with their children's school work, attend parenting classes and having monitored visits with their children while incarcerated.
"I'm watching the visits; their interaction with their children, and then we discuss what happened with the visit," Andrews said.
The program also has collected a listing of homes and services that accept referrals for female inmates, she said.
There is no such centralized effort in South Dakota, Fodness said.
That worries Alicia Meng, 32, who has been out of prison for less that four weeks. She is uncertain of what awaits her.
She was released with only a few dollars and her prison outfit, and stays at the Arch, she said.
There has been no time to search for a job or a place to stay, and she is unsure of where to look for the help to get herself established and see her son again.
"I'm just trying to save up money and get out of here," Meng said. "I need to get my life straight before I can get my boy back."
