by Bill Bishop of The Register-Guard Staff
As it turns out, female convicts couldn’t get enough of “Project Enough is Enough!” — the name they gave to a collaboration among local nonprofit agencies to build a fast track to help them get back on track
The yearlong pilot project simultaneously provided housing, drug treatment and domestic violence and trauma counseling to address issues identified in a 2002 survey of local offenders as the key reasons many women commit crimes
Organizers estimated the effort would draw 110 female parolees and probationers in the first year, but it drew 466 in the first six months
“Once word got out, they showed up big time. It was all word-of-mouth,” said Jean Daugherty, director of women’s services for Sponsors Inc., a Eugene nonprofit that provides housing and other support to recently released inmates
Daugherty and Mark Eddy, a research scientist at Oregon Social Learning Center, will review Project Enough is Enough! at a meeting of the Lane County Domestic Violence Council on Wednesday.
Daugherty and Eddy did the 2002 survey of female prison inmates that showed, among other things, that 85 percent were domestic violence victims, more than half committed crimes to please an abuser, and almost one-third did crimes under threat by a partner
Most had experienced severe trauma and addiction, creating a cycle of abuse and incarceration
With the survey results, and a grant from the Byrne Foundation, local agencies sought a way to break the cycle.
Sponsors provided housing. Womenspace provided emergency housing. Willamette Family Treatment Services provided out-patient substance abuse treatment. Looking Glass Youth & Family Services provided therapists for group and individual counseling. Oregon Social Learning Center gathered data to evaluate the outcome.
Individually, the nonprofits had expertise in their specific area of service but limited understanding of other agencies’ programs and how they relate to the lives of women on parole and probation
Working together, the agencies began to discover and overcome barriers to a more coordinated approach, said Cheryl O’Neill, executive director of Womenspace
“Dealing with just one (issue) at a time works great for us as a system. It doesn’t work for those in the system,” O’Neill said. “We were able to help them meet the demands of the criminal justice system while meeting the real needs of the women
“That team approach addressed all those needs at once. We were all surprised. They were really desperate for this. They named the project.”
A survey of project participants showed the women made significant positive changes in their lives, O’Neill said.
More were living in safer relationships. Their overall substance abuse decreased. They reported being less depressed and suffering less abuse
Statistics on domestic violence, mental health, anti-social behavior and substance abuse among participants suggest that the project was working. However the analysis was not scientific because there was no control group and no long-term follow-up with participants, Eddy noted in a report on the project
“If you provide an effective intervention for them, these are women who show up and they work hard,” O’Neill said. “They are women willing to make a change in their life. It feels like this could make a big difference.”
The project raised local awareness about women offenders and how the social service system can better respond to them, Daugherty said. Organizers hope that will generate more grant funding to continue and to improve on the pilot effort
“I think we didn’t do it long enough to say this is the way. There needs to be more research,” Daugherty said. “Nobody has done this in the nation, that I’ve been able to see.”
Reprinted with permission. Copyright 2008, The Register Guard