SpongeBob SquarePants cut-outs aren't the typical décor for a correctional facility, but in the Women and Children's unit on the Spectrum campus in Westborough, Massachusetts, cartoon characters and cribs are the norm. There, 15 female offenders live with their young children learning how to become better parents, building family bonds and preparing to take on the responsibilities of living in the free world.

The housing unit recently hosted a SpongeBob birthday party for one of its younger residents who just turned two years old.  The toddler ives there with his incarcerated mother while she prepares for her re-entry into the community.

"[The program] allows [the offenders] to adjust to the real world where they will be going out into the community and being part of society," said Beverly Parham, Manager of the Women and Children's Program.

The program, which began in 1989, is run by Spectrum Health Systems, Inc., a Mass.-based non-profit specializing in the prevention and treatment of substance abuse and mental health issues.  It admits offenders from one of two Massachusetts Department of Correction facilities, MCI Framingham or South Middlesex Correctional Center, as well as some county facilities.  In addition, the program accepts women on probation or parole.

In order to qualify for the Women and Children's program, the offenders must be pregnant, postpartum or have children under the age of 10.  They must also have a history of substance abuse and be within 18 months of parole eligibility or their earliest release date, said Kelly Ryan, Superintendent of South Middlesex Correctional Center, a minimum security, pre-release facility for female offenders. 

The offenders must be approved for the program by both the Mass. DOC and Spectrum.  Once they are accepted into the Women and Children's program, they are transferred to the Spectrum campus in Westborough, where several offender treatment programs are run.  The women live separately in dormitory-style housing.

According to Parham, there are five bedrooms in the unit and three women share each one.  The rooms, she said, are big enough for the mothers and their children.  The program, however, requires that the children be no older than 24 months to live there.

If the women have older children, too, Parham said, they can come for overnight visits every other weekend, depending on space.

Preparing for Parenthood in the Community

The program is considered to be a "modified therapeutic community," according to Michael Stuart, Spectrum Campus Administrator. 

"It's a treatment model that has been proven [to be] effective in working with [people with] substance abuse [problems]," Stuart said.

The program is a structured one, with the women waking up at the same time each day, attending various psycho-educational groups and doing chores around the unit.  Although there is staff to supervise them, the offenders are basically responsible for managing and maintaining the unit themselves, Stuart said.

"It really teaches responsibility [and] how to be accountable," said Stuart, noting that a goal of the program is to send these women back into the community as responsible citizens and parents.

The offenders attend parenting, nurturing and attachment and bonding groups and receive education about the medical aspects of pregnancy and pre and postpartum issues.  But, one of the most important pieces of the program, Parham said, is peer support.

"They get support from each other and that is part of their training is learning how to ask for help [from each other]," said Parham.

The women also attend substance abuse treatment groups.  But, a lot of case management work is done one-on-one with the offenders, too, to help them meet with their individual needs and prepare for their transition into the community.

Setting Up for Stability

"The groups give them some foundation and then [they] really spend a lot of time individually [with] case managers," said Stuart.

The case managers are primarily concerned with helping the women obtain employment and find suitable housing for their families when they are released, Stuart said. 

"We want them to find an apartment in an area that is safe." he said.

During the last phase of their incarceration, typically four to six months prior to their release, the women are permitted to work outside of the facility, so, when they re-enter society, they already have a steady job.

Obtaining that employment can be a challenge, though.

"One of the challenges is they all come from prison," Stuart said.  "There are only certain places that will hire women with some of these records that they have," he said.  "We really have to do a lot of advocacy for them."

Luckily, Parham added, Spectrum has built strong relationships with some area retail and grocery stores so they are able to connect the women with jobs prior to their release or soon after. 

For women who have previously had a difficult time keeping a job or sustaining themselves in the community, Parham believes that having their children there, living with them, can be a strong motivation for the offenders in the program to try hard to turn their lives around.

"It gives them that motivation to make that change in their lives to become productive [citizens] and [to] not allow history to repeat itself," Parham said.

Another Chance

For many of these women, Ryan added, it's the first time that they have had an opportunity like this - to care for their children while they are substance-free.

"One of the things that we always notice with the women is this is the first opportunity they have to parent their kids sober," Ryan said.  "This is the first time they are dealing with their kids clean.  For the most part, they don't know how to [do this].  This gives them an opportunity to learn how to be parents, because, ultimately, they are going to get out and they are going to have custody of them."

Helping these women to become better parents, Ryan added, may mean that their children won't end up repeating the cycle and ending up incarcerated.

"That is a positive thing," she said.

And not having to incarcerate the female offenders who are in the program at a higher security facility is also a good thing, Ryan said.  In fact, when Spectrum builds its new facility in coming months, the program's capacity will double, expanding the program's reach even more, she said.

"From a DOC perspective, we very much look forward to the increase in bed capacity, [which will] allow more of our women to work their way down through the program, starting the reunification process and working on all of their re-entry issues," Ryan said.
"It's much less expensive to incarcerate men or women in a lower security facility," said Ryan.  "This is really a win-win situation for everyone involved - for the women, their children and for the Department of Correction."

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For more information, contact the Mass. DOC (508) 422-3317