Pubdate: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 1999 San Jose Mercury News Contact: 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190 Fax: (408) 271-3792 Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Author: Michell Guido, Mercury News Staff Writter PROGRAM OFFERS WOMEN ALTERNATIVE TO JAIL TIME When Bambi Gibney was arrested for possession of methamphetamine in 1998, she was given a choice: spend a year in San Mateo County Jail or volunteer to participate in the Alternatives Program. For her, the choice was simple. But not just because she wanted to stay out of jail -- because she wanted to change her life. The Alternatives Program is a 14-month intensive life-skills plan offered to women in lieu of jail time. Gibney had been a functioning drug addict for more than half of her 39 years, and she looked at the program as an opportunity to work through her addiction. ``I'm kind of grateful I got caught because I think I would have been doing drugs indefinitely,'' Gibney said. ``If I had gone to jail, I would have done my time and gotten out -- and time would have stood still for me. I'd leave jail with the same problems I had when I went in.'' Instead, Gibney struggles every day to make a better life for herself through the program, which immerses the women in life-skills courses, teaches them how to identify abusive relationships and use higher reasoning skills when making choices. It even provides them with acupuncture treatments for their addictions. The program is administered by the county's probation department and it's costly: The county spends about $400,000 a year to maintain it and the probation department is in the process of preparing a cost analysis report for the board of supervisors in the hopes that it will continue to fund Alternatives in the 2000-2001 fiscal year. ``Unfortunately, monies dictate what will happen to the program,'' said Fred Wegner, director of adult services for the San Mateo County Probation Department. ``Everyone recognizes the value of the program in terms of the people that graduate. The question is, do you focus on the small group even though it's more expensive? We don't know.'' In its four-plus years of operation, the program -- for which the women must volunteer -- has never been filled to its capacity of 14 women. The numbers generally run between eight and 12. Some think that's because it's more difficult than jail time. Women in the program must arrive at the Redwood City center by 8 a.m. five days a week. The rules are strict and the consequences swift: Even a minor blunder -- like arriving late or not going straight home -- can set them back weeks. For a minimum of the first three months in Alternatives, the women - -- most of whom have been convicted of drug felonies -- remain on house arrest: they wear electronic monitors on their ankles and must go only to the program and home. Few of the women complete the program in 14 months; the average stay for successful completion is several months longer. And about half of those who enter the program eventually drop out. When that happens, they are forced to serve their original jail time -- without credit for the time they've spent in the program. The program is important, said director Cleo Smith, a supervising probation officer, because the women learn to change old habits and in the process become more productive citizens and better mothers. ``It is a difficult program to get through,'' Smith said. ``This program could act as a model, not only for women, but for anyone who wants to learn how to face life with the tools to be successful.'' Smith said that of the roughly 50 percent who make it through the program, the recidivism rate is extremely low. More than 93 percent of those who have successfully completed the program since 1995 have not committed new offenses. But the absence of new arrests is not the only way success is measured in the program. Support network The women, who spend more than six hours a day together, become a strong support network for each other. In group counseling and job-skills classes, they compliment each other and are quick to notice progress. One recent morning, during a relationships and self-esteem class, one of the women in the group, Ana Mila of San Mateo, was given kudos from her peers for the progress she has made in the last several months in dealing with stresses at home. Mila, 32, is not a drug addict. Her addiction was gambling. She was arrested for fraud after trying to pass a bad check and she, too, said the program was the best thing that's ever happened to her and her family. ``I went to jail for one day and I never wanted to go back,'' Mila said. ``In jail, you learn nothing. I am doing this for myself and for my kids. I want to be there for my kids. This has been the right choice for me.'' Mila credits the program with teaching her how to communicate with her six children and her husband, and how to handle stress without falling back on her addiction to bingo. ``I consider my drug of choice to be bingo,'' she said. ``And I'm learning that what the drug addicts were doing -- neglecting their families -- I was doing the same thing.'' The program is open to high-risk, high-needs misdemeanor and felony women offenders who are convicted by the San Mateo County courts. In addition to the house arrest, the women face two to five years of supervised probation and if they fail the program in any way, they can be sent to jail immediately to serve their original sentence. The conditions of the program are that each participant must have a non-violent history, be willing to make a minimum 14-month commitment, have a stable residence and an operating telephone. Preference is given to women with children. The main treatment components of the program include cognitive skills training, drug and alcohol treatment, self-esteem, parenting skills, literacy and job search skills. The communication and job skills portion helps the women develop job training and job interview skills and teaches them to write a resume, make a budget and balance a checkbook. The concept originated at the University of Victoria in Canada by researchers working with prison inmates through an educational system. They discovered a 60 percent decrease in the recidivism rate for those who participated in the cognitive-skills treatment. Proof is in the people Proof that the program works in San Mateo County is found in its participants. ``I've realized that I'm not just trying to get probation off my back, and I'm not trying to do this for anyone else,'' said Gibney. ``Now, I'm really trying to do this for me. I want a normal life so badly. My parents, they have a 40-year-old daughter that has always acted like a 16-year-old. I'd like to make them proud.'' - --- MAP posted-by: Greg