Patricia O'Brien

“Just Like Baking a Cake”: Women Describe the Necessary Ingredients for Successful Reentry After Incarceration

Eighteen female ex-prison inmates describe the strengths they used to manage their reentry after release from prison. As a group, the women stressed that a mix of personal resiliency, interpersonal capacities, and social resources facilitated their successful transition. On the basis of study findings, the author suggests practice and policy changes to assist women in the transition from institution to community.

Effects of Coordinated Services for Drug-Abusing Women Who Are Victims of Intimate Partner Violence

This article summarizes outcomes from a demonstration project on collaboration between substance abuse and domestic violence agencies. Researchers recruited women seeking services for substance abuse or intimate partner violence at 1 of 6 participating agencies. Admitted women were both victims of domestic violence and abusing alcohol or drugs. Following an initial screening, participants were interviewed at program entry (n = 255) and again 4 to 6 months later (n = 128, 50%). Key outcomes were the number of days substances were used in the past 30 days, womens perceptions of harm from battering, and domestic violence self-efficacy. Results suggest participants used substances less frequently and experienced themselves as more efficacious following services, but they were also more fearful of the consequences of domestic violence. Repeated-measures MANOVA found that substance abuse days and domestic violence self-efficacy significantly contributed to the multivariate function. Implications for services for women with co-occurring substance abuse and domestic violence victimization are discussed.

Challenges for Formerly Incarcerated Women: A Holistic Approach to Assessment

This article describes the development of a practice model for assessing formerly incarcerated women in a “one-stop,” holistic approach. The gender-specific theoretical framework that enables the women to prioritize steps of reentry is discussed in light of the survival, relational, educational, vocational, treatment, health and mental health needs of recently released women.

Gender and Intimate Partner Violence: Evaluating the Evidence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a complex social problem that social workers must be trained to address, using the best available evidence. In this article we review divergent theories, research findings, and methods that underpin debates about the role of gender in IPV perpetration and victimization. We examine the literature that contextualizes IPV and identifies different types of IPV and recommend training social workers to use differential assessment tools for IPV. We conclude that gender does matter in IPV and that social work students can critically evaluate the gender debates in selecting evidence for safe and effective practice.

Maximizing Success for Drug-Affected Women After Release from Prison

Abstract This paper describes the characteristics related to womens drug-use, criminal offending and incarceration and examines the policy and community contexts that shape their reentry after release from prison or jail. A qualitative study of formerly detained or incarcerated drug-affected women describes identified needs for services and employment as well as the challenges related to a disempowering environment.

Negotiating the Waves: Challenges of Conducting In-Prison and Follow-Up Research with Women

This article discusses the challenges, benefits, and lessons learned in the trenches of constructing a collaborative study with women who are in and transitioning out of prison. It describes five areas for negotiating different cultures in the research enterprise: the funding sponsor, the correctional institution and its multiple facilities, the university and its procedures for protecting human participants, the inmates/participants, and the communities to which the inmates return. Building trust and relationships across these multiple cultures is necessary to implement studies that can provide a foundation for developing restorative policies and practices.

Claiming Our Soul

Abstract This article describes an “empowerment” group that was managed by mostly African-American women inmates at a prison facility in conjunction with a non-inmate “outside” sponsor and the ways in which the women used the group to address issues of loss of identity and role, grief, cultural and community isolation, spirituality, and recovery from addiction. Implications for social work practice are discussed.

From Surviving to Thriving: The Complex Experience of Living in Public Housing:

Interviews with 12 African American women who were long-term residents of a public housing complex and were engaged in tenant management activities found that obstacles in the complex reinforced their resilience and that their roles as mothers and their adherence to spiritual beliefs gave their lives meaning. Although tenant manage ment has not yet brought about collective empowerment, it has pro vided a foundation for personal development. The implications of these findings for social work practice and policy are discussed.

The Effects of Violence Acuity and Door to Service

Despite recent gains in understanding the links between intimate partner violence and substance abuse by women, the service issues related to these cooccurring problems are relatively unexplored. This study addresses 3 practice-related questions critical to the provision of services in coordinated or integrated substance abuse and intimate partner violence programs: (a) Are different “doors” to service associated with different outcomes? (b) Does the level of substance use prior to the onset of services predict changes in self-efficacy or vulnerability to battering? and (c) How does proximity of violence impact program outcomes? We followed 128 women for 6 months after admission to a state-funded demonstration project on cooccurring substance abuse and intimate partner violence on outcomes of self-efficacy, fear of violence, and substance use. The relationship between outcomes and door to service, substance use, and acuity of violence were examined using contingency analysis, analysis of covariance, and logistic regression. We discuss the findings and applications of the research to practice.

Book Review: Golden, R. (2005). War on the Family: Mothers in Prison and the Families They Leave Behind. New York: Routledge, 216 pp.,

violence that is normalized against these victimized women and their families. The chapter that stood out the most for me is ‘‘Women Speak Out About Violence and Fear: Surveys and Workshops.’’ Learning how women themselves internalize the violence that occurs in their backyards was eye opening. Through the use of surveys and workshops, Staudt shows that these women experience a vision of ni una mas (not one more), thus framing the social movement and legal changes that have evolved, although not resolved, the violence. Overall, the tone of the book is hopeful. Although changes in the political and legal systems of Mexico have been more symbolic than tangible, awareness continues to grow. Although Staudt’s analysis is extraordinary, it left me, the reader, with questions about how the disconnectedness between politics and people can be strengthened. However, Staudt identifies solid recommendations for reforms that will support cross-border relationships within these systems.