Story and photos by Jan Anderson, editor
“It’s not only changed me, my behaviors, it’s changed my life,” said Christine Sutherland, an inmate at the Elkhorn Treatment Center in Boulder.
Nearly a year after it opened its doors, the treatment facility for convicted female methamphetamine offenders has made a difference in a lot of lives, say the women locked up there.
“I learned a lot. This facility is really worth it,” said Dawn Cousins of Sheridan, Wyoming.
It also represents a change in the way Montana treats its criminals, says Governor Brian Schweitzer.
“You are pioneers,” the governor told the women on a visit to the facility March 5. “I have taken a great deal of risk with you.”
That risk was a major change in the way Montana deals with offenders.
Back in 2003 and 2004, Montana had the sixth highest growth rate in the number of people incarcerated. According to the U. S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, from 2001 to 2004, the average annual growth in Montana’s prison population was 5.5 percent, nearly three times the national average during that period.
Even though 93 percent of offenders had a substance abuse or chemical dependency problem, the prisons were not treating them, said the governor. The more than 40 percent of offenders with mental illness were not being treated for that either, he said.
When Schweitzer took office, he signaled his desire for a change, said Mike Ferriter, Department of Corrections Director.
“It was clear that he wanted a corrections system...different than how we did business in the past,” said Ferriter.
There are still Montanans who would like to see the state government “lay more bricks, buy more barbed wire and put more people in prison,” the governor told his audience of ETC inmates.
“I don’t think they understand meth,” he added.
“If we just build more brick and put up more barbed wire, we will have more people in prison, more failed families and it’ll cost more,” said Schweitzer.
Instead, the state has added 172 new beds in prerelease centers, added 20 probation and parole officers, expanded its DUI treatment program, opened a 155-bed Passages facility in Billings and constructed two new methamphetamine treatment centers while reducing its prison population.
In 2006, 3572 Montanans were behind bars. At the beginning of 2008 that number had gone down to 3431. A study released in February by The Pew Charitable Trusts showed Montana leading all 50 states in reducing prison populations. Nationally, the number of incarcerated citizens grew by 1.6 percent in 2007, while Montana’s inmate population dropped 3.9 percent.
The goal, said Ferriter, is to imprison the state’s most hardened and dangerous 20 percent of offenders while placing the other 80 percent in programs that address the personal factors at the root of their criminal behavior.
Schweitzer asked the 40 inmates in Boulder to raise their hands if they had ever been in prison, were released, and then returned to prison. Roughly two-thirds raised their hands. He then asked how many had ended up in the county lockup or emergency room because of their meth addictions and approximately half indicated they had.
Multiply that by all the offenders over time, “and that’s the costs I have to look at as governor,” he said.
“You know, I look around the room and I don’t know which of you will fail, but some will,” said Schweitzer.
But for all the failures, there will be successes, too, he said.
According to ETC staff, roughly 75 percent of the women who have spent time in the center are mothers. “Every time I see a mother with a child that is successful, I will know this can work,” said Schweitzer.
He urged those who graduate from the ETC program and go on to lead productive lives to tell their stories.
“Be a success,” he said. “Be the one that has your children on your lap again.”
‘Slap on the hand’ was not going to be enough, says woman about to graduate from program in Boulder
by Jan Anderson
“A slap on the hand wasn’t going to do it for me,” said Dawn Cousins, explaining why she asked to come to the Elkhorn Treatment Center.
The Sheridan, Wyoming mother locked up in the Boulder correctional facility for female methamphetamine offenders proudly explained that she was “the 28th in, and I’m going to be the 21st out.”
Scheduled to graduate from the ETC the day after the governor’s March 5 visit, Cousins was ready to head to Billings March 10 for six months in prerelease.
“I learned a lot,” she said of her time in Boulder. “This facility is really worth it.”
She arrived after a traffic accident while on meth landed her in prison, leaving her children behind. While at the facility, she was forced to dig deep, to face some of the secrets of her life that she had never addressed, she said. She also received computer training and job skill guidance, as do all of the ETC inmates.
“They’ve taught us so many new computer skills that are marketable,” said Kristine Anderson, the other woman scheduled to graduate with Cousins. Money management, job application skills, and resume writing are also taught, she said.
Inmates also go through counseling where they take inventory of their lives, something Anderson described as tough.
Saying she would not have a chance of succeeding without the treatment she has received at the ETC, inmate Christine Anderson said, “It’s not only changed me, my behaviors, it’s changed my life.”
Dorothy Gorder said the classes she has taken at the facility have helped her self esteem. Before, she would never have thought of applying for work that required office skills, she said. “Now I feel very confident about getting a business job,” she said.
Anderson said she already had a job lined up for her six months in prerelease, “only because I went through this nine month program and they believe in this.”
Although there were some concerns by Boulder area residents about potential escapes from the treatment center, Anderson and others said there are few reasons for any of them to want to escape. The ETC is the best thing that could happen to them at this point in their lives, they said.
In addition, the security system, ELMO, keeps close track of them at all times, Anderson said. Waving her security braceleted wrist, she joked, “We call it ‘track me Elmo.”
The 30 or so employees who fill the 25 full time equivalent positions are dedicated to making a positive difference for the inmates, said Cousins.
“The staff is great. They’re really loving...They make you feel like they care.”
Mike Ruppert, CEO of the ETC parent company, Boyd Andrew Community Services, said the staff works to teach the inmates about making good choices during their time in Boulder and after. “When you leave here, hopefully you will make the right choice,” he told the inmates during last week’s visit by the governor.
“On the tour, we heard it many, many times, the governor and I, that we’ve made a change in your lives, and that certainly is music to my ears,” said Department of Corrections Director Mike Ferriter.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Copyright The Boulder Monitor, 2008. All rights reserved.
