(BOP) - Being sentenced to prison is overwhelming for most individuals, but especially for women. For example, women are more likely to be primary caregivers for children, experience economic hardship, employment instability, and have fewer vocational skills as compared with men. Women are also more likely than men to have a history of trauma and abuse. Many adults in Bureau of Prisons (Bureau) custody acquire valuable skills through programs like Federal Prison Industries, vocational training opportunities, apprenticeships, certification training and/or other First Step Act Evidence-Based Recidivism Reduction (EBRR) Programs and Productive Activities (PA).
Last fall, Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Greenville and FCI Pekin, along with the United States Probation Office, Eastern District of Missouri, collaborated to provide 14 females in federal custody the ability to participate in a community job fair in St. Louis, Missouri. Recognizing the unique needs and challenges faced by the female population, the community job fair was an opportunity for the participants to highlight the training and skills they acquired in prison and to potentially obtain post-incarceration employment.
One such program the incarcerated women spoke about is the Bureau's Residential Drug Abuse Treatment Program - more commonly known as RDAP. As the Bureau's most intensive treatment program, RDAP successfully uses Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in a modified therapeutic community model. The individuals in custody live in a unit separate from general prison population and experience living in a pro-social community while participating in half-day programming and half-day work, school, or vocational activities. RDAP is typically nine months in duration.
While at the community job fair, the women discussed the skills they learned in RDAP to help them cope with past trauma and change the destructive behavior and thinking it caused. They describe the renewed confidence and ability to manage their emotions as "life-changing." In fact, research findings have demonstrated that RDAP participants are significantly less likely to recidivate and less likely to relapse to drug use than non-participants. Studies also suggest that RDAP makes a significant difference in their lives following the release from custody and return to the community.
A four-part video series titled, "First Step Act: Pathway to Success," specifically timed to be released during Women's History Month, features the journeys of these 14 women from "What Now?" as they found themselves behind bars to "What's Next?" as they prepared to return to the community as better citizens and neighbors. Each Monday in March, a video in recognition of the countless women who have fought tirelessly for equal opportunity in our Nation and the Bureau's own efforts to increase opportunities for formerly incarcerated women, will be released.
The second video in the series, "RDAP Deemed 'Life-changing' by Women in Federal Prison," is now available.