Blog 4: Staying With Children, and Out of Prison

Times are changing as there is now an alternative for convicted women who have children to live in Drew Houses instead of going to prison. Instead of women going to prison and having their children sent to live in foster homes, the Drew House enables the women to live with their children whilst they complete the program for their charges to be dropped. The program is designed for women who have been, “charged with felonies, some battling substance abuse and some who are victims of domestic violence, can live with their school-aged children”. To complete the program, women must oblige to the house rules including: paying for rent, doing chores, keeping curfew, and make frequent visits to treatment monitors. If the women are able to execute the task successfully, then the charges against them are dropped. This program is ultimately better for the women because living in the house costs $34,000 annually, oppose to spending $129,000 for their child being in foster care. Not only does the home provide better finances for the women, Ms. Castro, a women living in a Drew House says, “it taught me responsibility, how to pay my rent, and it gave me structure”. Not only is it helping out the women, but Mary W. Byrne, an author of an independent study of Drew houses stated, “It's not the perfect answer, but it's an excellent alternative, on that has no shown any adverse effect on public safety.” These houses are creating new opportunities for women, and could be the start of helping reduce the number of poverty among single mothers.

These Drew Houses could have a global effect on the feminization of poverty. These houses provide the opportunity for women with felonies to have an alternative place to live with their children, which also gives theses women a higher chance of being able support their child. These women with dependent children are not just being abandoned with having to find means of support. The Drew House helps these women to learn how to have some financial security and become mentally stability for when they are released from the program. This program is not only helpful for mothers, but it also benefits the children. If the single mother were to be sent to prison, then the children would be forced to move into foster home. By allowing the children to stay with their mothers, it not only is less economically stressful for the mothers, but the mothers are able to stay with their children making sure that they find stability which might not happen if the children are in foster care. These houses are only in the U.S, but I believe they could be revolutionary on changing the statistics on the feminization of poverty.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/nyregion/for-mothers-facing-prison-drew-house-in-brooklyn-offers-alternative.html?scp=3&sq=women&st=cse