A Second Chance for Women Facing Prison

REUTERS SLIDESHOW

Victoria Rios, 49, stood up in front of the crowd gathered in the court’s public gallery for her graduation.

She listened as Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Tynan, 76, began her story.

She had started drinking and smoking when she was eight-years-old. She began taking heroin when she was eleven. She was abused, and went through many abusive relationships. “Prisons become my permanent friend,” she said.

A woman sits handcuffed after arriving at the Los Angeles County Women’s jail in Lynwood, California April 26, 2013. The Second Chance Women’s Re-entry Court is one of the first in the U.S. to focus on women, and offers a cost-saving alternative to prison for women who plead guilty to non-violent crimes and volunteer for treatment. Of the 297 women who have been through the court since 2007, 100 have graduated, and only 35 have been returned to state prison. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 
Victoria Rios, 49, cries as she speaks at her graduation, as Judge Michael Tynan, 73, looks on, at the Second Chance Women’s Re-entry Court in Los Angeles, April 19, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

“If it wasn’t for this program, I don’t know where I’d be. In prison for life or dead,” she said as tears rolled down her face.Judge Tynan walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug.

“I could have retired 11 or 12 years ago, but I keep coming back because of people like her,” he said.

Victoria Rios, 49, (R) hugs Judge Michael Tynan, 73, after her graduation at the Second Chance Women’s Re-entry Court in Los Angeles, April 19, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

Tynan has been running the Second Chance Women’s Re-entry Court program since 2007, with Public Defender Nancy Chand, who represents most of the women.

Victoria Rios, 49, (R) hugs Prototypes residential treatment Program Director April Wilson, at the Second Chance Women’s Re-entry Court in Los Angeles, April 19, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

As California struggles with its crowded prison population, the court has pioneered an approach that aims to treat the underlying causes of many women’s crimes – drug addiction, sexual and physical abuse, and mental illness — most commonly post traumatic stress disorder.

A woman makes a sandwich in a cell at the Los Angeles County Women’s jail in Lynwood, California April 26, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

Around 66% of California prisoners have serious substance abuse problems, but only 2% participate in treatment in prison.

Vanessa Moreno, 24, holds her two-month-old baby Makayla after making an appearance at the Women’s Re-entry Court in Los Angeles, April 19, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

California’s 33 adult prisons were designed to hold about 80,000 inmates and now have about 141,000. The U.S. has more than 2 million people in state and local prisons. It has long had the highest incarceration rate in the world. Women are the fastest growing and least violent prison population.

The Second Chance Women’s Re-entry Court program offers women who are facing prison a chance to enter treatment in return for pleading guilty to non-violent crimes.

Judge Michael Tynan, 73, addresses a defendant at the Second Chance Women’s Re-entry Court in Los Angeles, April 19, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

The women stay at Prototypes residential facility for at least six months of treatment, and then come back for at least a year of outpatient therapy. They keep returning to court to give Judge Tynan updates on their progress.

Barbara Dunlap, 61, who is an outpatient at Prototypes residential treatment program, sits in her home in Pomona, California, March 26, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

With his brusque humor, he chides them when they slip up, threatens them with jail, and orders them to write 1,000-word essays to think about their actions.

Georgina Warren, 48, (R) who lived on the streets for 25 years and is a graduate of the Second Chance Women’s Re-entry Court program, hugs Shannel Camel, 49, outside her home in Pomona, California, March 26, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

“You’ve got to examine your life in front of other women,” he tells one woman. “It’s hard. No more running away. Don’t feel sorry for yourself. What is it that Nike says? ‘Just Do It!’”

Tammy Fah, 48, (L) sits with her son Matthew Stenger, 13, as she waits to graduate at the Second Chance Women’s Re-entry Court in Los Angeles, April 19, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

Women fidget nervously in the back of the court, applying lipstick, cradling infants, eating snacks.

For the ones who are sticking to their treatment programs, Tynan is the rare judge to offer courtroom hugs.

Judge Michael Tynan, 73, (L) hugs Viviana Martinez, 40, after hearing her progress report at the Second Chance Women’s Re-entry Court in Los Angeles, March 15, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

“He’s a different kind of judge,” says Vanessa Moreno, 24, who spent 10 1/2 years addicted to alcohol, marijuana and methamphetamine. Moreno wrote a letter to Judge Tynan after finding herself pregnant in jail. She is now living at Prototypes and caring for her 2-month-old daughter Makayla.

Vanessa Moreno, 24, changes the diapers of her two-month-old baby Makayla at Prototypes residential treatment program in Pomona, California, March 26, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

“He acts out of care and concern, rather than just trying to convict us and throw us away,” says Moreno.

Vanessa Moreno, 24, holds her two-month-old baby Makayla at Prototypes residential treatment program in Pomona, California, March 26, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

“He’s like a dad some of us never had,” adds Michaella Rines, 29.

Shonta Montgomery, 28, waits to see her son Levell Jones, 7, whom she has not seen in 17 months, at California Institute for Women state prison in Chino, California May 5, 2012. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

Of the 297 women who have been through the court since 2007, 100 have graduated and only 35 have been returned to state prison.

Tammy Fah, 48, (L) hugs Kathy Jamieson, 43, as they sit with Fah’s son Matthew Stenger, 13, at Prototypes residential treatment program in Pomona, California, March 26, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

The program costs around $18,000 a woman per year, compared to the $52,000 the state would be spending on keeping them in prison according to Public Defender Nancy Chand.

Barbara Dunlap, 61, talks to other residents at Prototypes residential treatment program in Pomona, California, March 26, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

“Drug courts work,” says Judge Tynan. “Judicially supervised treatment works, probably better than anything else we know of. But the funding of them is woefully short of where it ought to be.”

“If these programs could get more money, in the long run we could save the county and the state a lot of money, and salvage lives, and that’s the most important thing,” he says.

Emotions run high on graduation day, when the women come to tell their stories before the court, after successfully completing the program.

Hada Smith, 59, (L) cries as Judge Michael Tynan, 73, speaks at her graduation at the Second Chance Women’s Re-entry Court in Los Angeles, April 19, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

Judge Tynan put his arm on the shoulder of Hada Smith, 59, as she struggled to speak through her tears.

“I was arrested 92 times,” she said. “I was addicted to heroin for 42 years. I thought I was going to die a heroin addict.” She described being reunited with her family and grandchildren.

“It is so possible for all of us to have this new life,” she said, “and it is the bomb!”

Barbara Dunlap, 61, (R) hugs Shannel Camel, 49, at Prototypes residential treatment program in Pomona, California, March 26, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

Judge Tynan wrapped up his graduation homily with some advice: “Be kinder than necessary. Everyone else is fighting some kind of battle.”

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