$4.7M plan supports Harris County women in jail

By ReShonda Tate

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said that her ofce 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. Te jail opened in February of this year to hold minimum and medium security women who otherwise would be in the jail. Te women are being held for things like vandalism, trespassing, disorderly conduct, drug possession, non-aggravated thef, 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.

“Tis initiative will help incarcerated women, re-enter society successfully. Tat 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 reofending.”

Te money will support mental health services, trauma counseling, vocational and educational training, and substance abuse counseling, among other services. Te money for these expanded programs will draw upon American Rescue Plan Act resources distributed to Harris County by the federal government.

“Of the $4.7 million, the majority of the funding is going to go to program staf, to grants for providers in the service and program evaluation. We want to make sure that this works in case we have the opportunity to continue or expand upon the American Rescue Plan funding,” Hidalgo said. “If we really want to reduce recidivism, we have to tackle programs that rehabilitate instead of only punish. And these are the kinds of programs that do that.”

86% EXPERIENCED SEXUAL VIOLENCE

BY THE NUMBERS WOMEN IN U.S. JAILS

77% EXPERIENCED PARTNER VIOLENCE

60% EXPERIENCED CAREGIVER VIOLENCE