Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said that her office would allocate over $4.7 million in American Rescue Plan funds to bring supportive programming to incarcerated women being held in the county’s Women’s Center Jail. The jail opened this February to hold minimum- and medium-security women who, otherwise, would be in the jail. The women are being held for crimes such as vandalism, trespassing, disorderly conduct, drug possession, non-aggravated theft, failure to appear in court, etc.
Approved by Commissioners Court last week, the funding aims to provide mental health support, trauma counseling, education and vocational training, substance abuse support, and other services.
“This initiative will help incarcerated women, re-enter society successfully that will reduce recidivism, reduce crime, and cut the cycle of incarceration. It will not only help the women, but it will help the entire community because of course, all of those social family ties that women have,” Hidalgo said. “Data backs up these initiatives. A wide body of evidence shows that trauma-informed mental health services, which is what we’re going to be providing there has also been shown to lower the risk of reoffending.”
The money will support mental health services, trauma counseling, vocational and educational training, and substance abuse counseling, among other services. The money for these expanded programs will draw upon American Rescue Plan Act resources distributed to Harris County by the federal federal government.
“Of the $4.7 million, the majority of the funding is going is going to go to program staff, to grants for providers in the services, program evaluation we wanna make sure that this works in case we have the opportunity to continue or expand upon this one’s the American rescue plan funding,” Hidalgo said. “If we really want to reduce recidivism, we have to tackle programs that rehabilitate instead of only punishing. And these are the kinds of programs that do that.”
Women in U.S. jails:
- 86% experienced sexual violence
- 77% experienced partner violence
- 60% experienced caregiver violence
