[ Golden Gater Online - December 4, 1997 ]
Amy Hulsen
Staff writer
Kathy J. has 20 days left on her 60-day sentence for not reporting to her probation officer. The 34-year-old mother of two estimates that she has spent about four years of her life behind bars in various jails in the Bay Area for minor drug infractions and prostitution. She said all her arrests are due to her addiction to crack.
Her current stay at San Francisco's County Jail No. 8 is a little different. She is not in a cell or behind bars. She lives in a "pod," a large open room with bunks surrounding a central glass enclosed guard room. She takes part in daily acupuncture treatments, goes to GED and literature classes and attends counseling. This innovative new program, SISTERS, Sisters In Sober Treatment Empowered in Recovery, is designed to get women off drugs, into housing and jobs and renew their self-esteem.
SISTERS is one of several unique approaches to rehabilitation in the San Francisco county jail system that have begun to emerge under Sheriff Mike Hennessey's tenure. The SISTERS program is in partnership with Walden House, a substance abuse treatment program.
The walls of the SISTERS office, located on the first floor of county jail No. 8, are covered with Polaroids of inmates who have completed the program and are in recovery. Kathy is in her second attempt to stay sober.
"I'm what you call a retread because I still have problems," said Kathy. "I was clean for almost a year. I'm always doing something wrong, like when I picked up the pipe."
Kathy got into trouble again when her fiancee started contacting her at Walden House where she was living after her release. She was working as an accountant at Goodwill and was beginning to save some money. She left the center to meet him. He took her engagement ring, sold it and began the viscous cycle of drug addiction which led to her most recent arrest.
Kathy belongs to the 75 percent of women with children who enter the correction system. Because of her incarcerations, she has never cared for her babies who live with her parents.
Even though the hollow sounds of banging cell doors and jangling keys are not part of this floor, the women are constantly monitored by the video cameras and watchful armed guards. Kathy and her pod mates get up every day at 4:30 a.m. Breakfast is at 5 a.m., and they begin their day of acupuncture, which decreases drug cravings, personal counseling and classes. Sometimes Kathy says she would rather be in lockdown on the seventh floor where the women live in cells.
"Up there you have bars, but they let you out half the time. This is like a school. They force you to take classes and stuff. Sometimes I feel like I'm going off the hook (crazy)," Kathy said.
When she is released this time, she hopes to return to Walden House, but has yet to be approved. Kathy said her mother will not allow her to return to her house this time.
"I'm very scared. It's all on me now," she said.
[ Golden Gater - December 4, 1997 ]