“This program is designed to provide wrap-around services for women in the community so they have a better chance of succeeding.”
By Anne Jungen
La Crosse Tribune
LA CROSSE, Wis. -- The La Crosse Community Foundation announced Tuesday the distribution of a $50,000 grant to establish a group home for female offenders under a new community-based criminal justice program.
The aim of the initiative is to work with female offenders to reduce the recidivism rate and overall jail population, and put women inmates, their children and families on the right track, said La Crosse County Board Supervisor Tara Johnson.
“This program is designed to provide wrap-around services for women in the community so they have a better chance of succeeding,” said Justice Sanctions Coordinator Jane Klekamp.
Through the program, female offenders will receive an array of services to address their needs, including job search help, parenting support and life-skills coaching. It also will help them find employment and remain substance-free.
And now as part of the program, the county will be able to buy or lease a house that will provide the female offenders a safe, supportive home -- similar to a group home -- with the grant from the La Crosse Community Foundation, Johnson said.
The house will have room for about 10 women, whose length of stay will depend on their sentence, Klekamp said. County Administrator Steve O’Malley said the house is expected to be bought or leased this year.
The women’s correctional program was approved by the La Crosse County Board in December 2007 and is the first of its kind in the state. The program’s development followed a recommendation from The Carey Group. It will start in the next couple of weeks. Justice Sanctions is working with various local agencies to provide the program.
Roger LeGrand, foundation board chairman and former La Crosse County circuit judge, said many female offenders appeared in his courtroom.
“It very often hurt to put them in this particular jail for a period of time ... knowing that shortly thereafter they would be back in the community, but nothing was really done to address the myriad needs of these women offenders,” LeGrand said.
The overall program, O’Malley said, will save taxpayer dollars “and continue to put La Crosse County at the forefront of the re-invention of criminal justice, holding us to a higher standard, expecting to help people change their behavior and not come back into our criminal justice system and become better, productive members of our community.”
Anne Jungen can be reached at (608) 791-8224 or ajungen@lacrossetribune.com
Copyright 2008 La Crosse Tribune