Women’s Empowerment Center

Project Description

The Women’s Empowerment Center’s (WEC) core mission is to address the needs of women housed in the jail facility and successfully prepare them for transition out of the criminal justice system through connection to services during and after incarceration. The WEC provides women in custody with intensive, individualized case management and productively engages them in a robust series of programming opportunities and wraparound services designed to meet their unique needs. ACCESS Harris provides early intervention intensive programming and case management for the women in the facility and works in partnership with the HCSO staff to ensure the successful execution of re-entry support and services. The supportive services offered by HCSO and ACCESS Harris aim to provide a holistic approach to coordinated care to meet the needs of the women. This solution allows members of coordinated care teams to deploy an interdisciplinary response to bring together different safety-net service departments and provide a complete picture of a participant’s health, track service provision and progress towards goals, and coordinate discharge and aftercare planning when individuals return to their communities. The WEC represents a shift away from a detention-focused corrections model and towards a more rehabilitative, gender-responsive, and trauma- informed approach that reduces harm, improves stability, and lowers recidivism.

PRIMARY PARTNERSHIPS

TARGET IMPACT

The services and programming at the Women’s Empowerment Center aim to:

  • Reintegrate women into society by addressing their rehabilitation and reentry needs
  • Create a holistic care environment with supportive, wrap-around reentry and social services
  • Shift from a detention-centric approach to one that emphasizes positive outcomes and reentry

 

USE OF EVIDENCE & PROGRAM EVALUATIONS

Research shows that incarceration has been proven to exacerbate health conditions and complicate health and justice outcomes for both reentering people and the communities to which they return. Research has also found that access to, and utilization of, community and social services during reentry can reduce recidivism. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns reduced the availability and accessibility of needed services, leaving individuals to manage their needs without adequate support. Without these essentials, recidivism is an unfortunately likely outcome. This creates challenges related to public health, housing, education, and employment for reentering people, families, and communities hit hard by mass incarceration. Reentry reforms benefit not only justice-involved people but also the communities that they return to following incarceration. When formerly incarcerated people have access to social support programs, such as food assistance and health care, recidivism rates fall, keeping people out of prison and their communities safer.

PHOTOS