Answer

1. • Women’s Post Prison Challenges

     An estimated over 2 million women and girls are released from prisons and jails annually. In most cases, the moment of release, is eagerly awaited by the convict but the excitement dies down once the reality of reentry into the society – and the implications of the same – hits them. More often than not, this is an exceptionally hard moment in the ex-convict’s life. The situation is much harder if the woman was a mother and now has to reunite with the child, find housing, employment and be able to satisfy the conditions of their supervising power. This paper seeks to highlight the challenges that women face in their attempts at reentry into society after serving a sentence.

                 A study done on 476 women returning home from New York City jails shows that they mostly have low employment rates and the re-arrest rates among them is incredibly high (Jesse 2005). A majority of them showed a significant drop in the rate of drug and alcohol abuse. The decline was also seen with the illegal activity score, which means the rehabilitation was successful. However, public policies have made the transition of ex-convicts much harder in sectors like housing, healthcare and employment. For mothers, this is all overshadowed by their maternal concerns.

                 With both genders, being an ex-convict causes an uncomfortable type of stigma which also leads to a negative self-image. Some of the convicts were also infected with STDs while still in prison which basically adds to their challenges obtaining adequate medication (Peter 2010). Several of these women had to seek targeted interventions which include effective drug treatment, public awareness campaigns which are crucial in the improvement of their self-esteem. Several other strategies have been placed in order to smoothen the reentry into society after serving time. Former President Obama had a program which aimed at reducing drug use and its consequences. The program calls for supporting the ex-convict’s reentry into the society by assisting in job placements and drug-free hosing with other supporting services.

                 In conclusion, the society basically needs to change its opinion and view of ex-convicts for they paid for whatever mistake they made and are now coming back to society for a second chance and are already facing a hard time without the stigma against them. More programs should be placed to help their reentry not to be as hard and provide the ex-convicts with a safe space where they can talk about the problems they face in their reentry and decide how to come about that among themselves with other parties which are facing a similar predicament.