WOMEN HELPING WOMEN.
“IT’S NOT ALL RAINBOWS & SUNSHINE”: A Q&A WITH RACHEL DELCOUR
Rachel Delcour is the criminal justice director for women justice programs at Family & Children’s Services in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she has worked for fifteen years. She has a pivotal role with the Women in Recovery program, where she leads a small staff that is heavily involved with the District Court in Tulsa and courts in seven neighboring counties: Creek, Okmulgee, Osage, Pawnee, Rogers, Wagoner and Washington.
With a background in clinical psychology, Delcour was in graduate school when she began working as an intern for chief program officer Mimi Tarrasch, exploring evidence-based practices that could be part of the new program that was slated to start in 2009. In the years since then, she has seen those practices put into action.
Beyond her day-to-day work with the courts, she is intent on communicating what she has learned through Women in Recovery to legislators, judges, lawyers and other communities. “I’ve been so happy to be part of this and to see it grow. It’s not perfect. There are still things that we’re always changing,” she says. “I think that what’s made us successful is we’re willing to evaluate ourselves and when changes are needed, we make them so that we can do better.”
B&G: How has your court role evolved over the years.
Delcour: I started doing admission screening in the jail and that grew into court advocacy – not just doing assessments, but also attending court with the women I assessed and building partnerships within the criminal justice system. Now, I handle everything court-related, including advocacy, court report writing and attending court. I’m the point person for the judges, the attorneys, the probation officers – anyone court related. Each judge has a staff and they each have a different district attorney assigned to their cases and a different set of public defenders.
When I get a referral from a judge, I work with the whole team to make this happen.
B&G: Can you give a picture of a day in your life?
Delcour: Every day is different. My team and I identify women in Tulsa County Jail or our contiguous county jails who might be appropriate for Women in Recovery. We often get referrals from judges, from defense attorneys and sometimes even prosecutors.
Our focus is on women who would otherwise be going to prison if Women in Recovery wasn’t an option. They’ve pled guilty and are in jail awaiting sentencing. I conduct a risk and needs assessment and talk with them about Women in Recovery and the range of services that are provided.
B&G: What reactions do you get when you approach a woman in jail who is faced with a significant prison term? Does everyone jump at this chance?
Delcour. Not everyone. This is a commitment – it’s not rainbows and sunshine and I make clear that it’s hard work. Treatment is hard and changing your life is hard.
I try to be really clear on the front end about what Women in Recovery is going to be like. I review the rules and the supervision that they’re going to have and the drug testing. I review every phase of the program. I want every woman to be informed so that if and when they are admitted, there are not going to be surprises. They know what they’ve signed up for.
You can’t come here and say ‘I really don’t like it. I don’t want to do this anymore.’ If you’re accepted, you’re ordered to be here by a judge.
B&G: If this doesn’t work out, then what happens?
Delcour: They would go back before the judge and be sentenced. But they’ve already pled guilty, and they can’t get that plea back.
B&G: Has your role gotten easier as Women in Recovery has built up a reputation and record of success?
Delcour: Yes, it’s gotten much easier. In the beginning there wasn’t the track record, so it felt like the judges were picky about who they would approve or not approve. We had to fight pretty hard to get them to take a chance on someone.
Over time, the courts have figured out that it works and that means we can advocate for cases that never would have gotten approved in the beginning. Having greater clarity and understanding around trauma, addiction and mental health needs is critical, and the courts understanding of the programs focus on scope of services, structure, safety and accountability.
Sometimes, we’ll have a woman who was accepted into the program and didn’t make it and now they’re back in jail. I’ll come back and say, “Treatment doesn’t always work the first time. Isn’t that also true of everything in life?” How many times have we gone on a diet or tried to quit smoking. Why would addiction be any different? Why shouldn’t this woman get a second chance?
B&G: Once a woman enters Women in Recovery, what kind of relationship continues with the court?
Delcour: Our clients return to court for monthly reviews with their district judge. They do this the entire time they are in the program.
We write a report on every woman, every month summarizing her progress in five core areas: treatment, education and employment, parenting, recovery support, and case management. It also includes a summary of their drug testing from that month as well as any program violations and recommendations and program or personal accomplishments.
The judges stay very involved with their participants in the program. By the end of the program, they know about their jobs, the names of their kids and their school status, their own educational goals and overall well-being. They want to know how the women are doing and they want to support their efforts.
B&G: Beyond the monthly visits, what kind of ongoing contact do you have with the criminal justice system?
Delcour: I’m triaging and solving the problems that come up. When you have more than 100 clients, challenges arise. There’s often other court involvements based on the lives they’ve been living. They have fines. They’ve lost their driver’s license. My team does a lot of cleaning up collateral damage within the justice system to give each woman the best chance when they leave here to have a clean slate.
B&G: When a woman has gone through Women in Recovery and successfully graduated, what happens to the criminal charge against her?
Delcour: That varies based on the charges, their criminal history and potential sentencing range. When they enter Women in Recovery, sentencing is left open and delayed. After graduation, if the judge is still going to sentence them to something, I ask that the sentence be deferred. In that case, they may be told to come back to court in a year and if they haven’t gotten into any trouble, the case will be dismissed and expunged. It’s not a conviction and won’t stay on their record.
That’s what I would like. Less desirable is a suspended sentence, which stays on your record, posing challenges for obtaining future education, employment, and housing.
B&G: What lessons have you learned from your experience with Women in Recovery? What advice would you give to places that are inspired to start a similar program?
Delcour: We’ve presented at national conferences, most recently at the Association for Justice Involved Females, one of the few national organizations that has a female-centric approach. We often hear reasons from other jurisdictions about why they can’t do a program like Women in Recovery. This usually centers around funding challenges.
But my take is that you probably can do this. You can pull together organizations that have different expertise that can all contribute to a program that provides the essential elements that are critical for successful outcomes.
We’re strongly rooted in a strong behavioral health organization, Family and Children’s Services, which provides us with a strong infrastructure. Every community has organizations to partner with and you can bring in law enforcement or probation and parole if or when needed. There are ways you can pull in the components of what we do, and make it happen in your community. weaving in state and federal funding, grants and private donations. With the right partnerships, communities can create programs with the critical elements needed for successful outcomes.
B&G: Are there ways that you see Women in Recovery helping to change attitudes or its success having an impact on legislation or other decision-making in Tulsa, the other counties, or the State of Oklahoma?
Delcour: Absolutely. We invite legislators and key stakeholders to see firsthand how lives can be changed. Understanding the stories of addiction, arrest and family separation is crucial. Our data demonstrates reduced incarceration rates since the program started, which is critical for lawmakers to see. The program also can easily demonstrate that there is a more effective strategy than long-term incarceration. We can bring that conversation to the people who have the power to make changes – attorneys, judges and legislators.
I love the work. There are hard days, but I’m a cup-half-full kind of person. And so, I can feed off the things that go well and I don’t let the hard days get me down. There are many women who want to change the course of their lives but need the services and support to help them reach that goal, and it all starts with advocacy and admissions.
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