top of page

WOMEN HELPING WOMEN.

“TRANSFORMATION IS POSSIBLE”: A Q&A WITH MIMI TARRASCH

Dedicated to State and Local Government, State and Local Government Management, State and Local Management, State and Local Performance Audit, State and Local Government Human Resources, State and Local Government Performance Measurement, State and Local Performance Management, State and Local Government Performance, State and Local Government Budgeting, State and Local Government Data, Governor Executive Orders, State Medicaid Management, State Local Policy Implementation, City Government Management, County Government Management, State Equity and DEI Policy and Management, City Equity and DEI Policy and Management, City Government Performance, State and Local Data Governance, State Local Government Generative AI Policy and Management

Mimi Tarrasch spent many years deeply involved in early child development issues at Family & Children’s Services in Tulsa, Oklahoma, before she was tapped by the George Kaiser Family Foundation to help reduce the high level of female incarceration in Tulsa, Oklahoma.


For the last fifteen years, she has served as chief program officer for Women in Recovery as well as Women Justice Programs at the Tulsa nonprofit, which serves about 73,000 individuals in Tulsa County.


B&G: How did your shift from work in early childhood to female incarceration happen?


Tarrasch: I had been working with the George Kaiser Family Foundation on our community’s early childhood efforts and they asked me if I wanted to help address the high rate of female incarceration. Who doesn’t want a challenge when faced with that opportunity.


The foundation was very supportive and understood that incarceration doesn’t just affect the incarcerated person, but certainly the children are highly affected as well. As a family and children’s organization, we were a natural fit for us to wrap our arms around this.


B&G: How did your education in this new area of work get started?


Tarrasch: I took a year to really study the research that had been done by academicians who had really done stellar work, understanding the needs of women in the criminal legal system. I really tried to understand the pathways that bring women into the criminal legal system, and it often starts with family dysfunction.


B&G: Were there principles that you were especially committed to when Women in Recovery started in 2009?


Tarrasch: We developed this program to be very comprehensive and to be trauma-informed and gender responsive. Our program is very intensive and lasts about 18 months in length, with women in the program getting about 500 hours of individual and group therapy that is all evidence-based.


We operate with a lens of a female who has experienced trauma in her life, and we have to address the trauma because if you don’t, it’s very hard to recover. We believe that the brain can change with the right interventions. It’s part of our secret sauce to address untreated mental illness and addiction and the significant traumas that they have had in their lives. 


B&G: What other elements stood out to you when you began looking at the experience of women who face prison sentences?


Tarrasch: When you look at the female population, there are high counts of physical and sexual abuse and neglect that often go untreated. And what doesn’t happen to men is that they get pregnant, and this may happen to women often in the height of addiction. They drop out of school and then it is very hard to attain a really high level of self-sufficient employment.


B&G: Can you talk a little more about how your work with “Women In Recovery” ties in with your expertise in early childhood development?


Tarrasch: We are a dual generational program. The majority of women in prison – 80% of them – have children. They’ve been separated from their children and their children have also experienced their own trauma. They’ve been separated from their mom and their mom was struggling with addiction. The majority of mothers want to reunify with their children and be the parent that they always wanted to be.


B&G: When you started “Women In Recovery” did most of the women come from poor families?


Tarrasch: The majority came from families of poverty, but we’ve had teachers and social workers and accountants and CPAs. Addiction is not particular about the socio-economic scale. And at the point where there’s criminal legal involvement, everybody is in poverty. They have lost everything. By that time, they’ve struggled in their addiction and untreated mental illness for a very long time. They’ve lost houses. They’ve lost their cars. They’ve lost their children. And then we deal with high levels of domestic violence and cycles of domestic violence.


B&G: What makes you different from other diversion programs?


Tarrasch: We’re looking for women who don’t meet the criteria of any other program. Before we take anybody, we make sure that based on the woman’s history and charges she is not eligible for anything else. When you get to us, it’s either “Women In Recovery” or prison.


In addition, many diversion programs are over when the services end. We know that addiction is a lifetime disease, and we are a safety net for women who have been through the program or have been terminated from the program. So, we’ve created a membership for life. Anybody can come back for anything. Maybe they are struggling. Maybe they had a relapse or need to move into different housing. Maybe they need a mentor or just want to come for lunch. We don’t really care. It’s kept our recidivism very low.


B&G: Can you describe your relationship with the courts?


Tarrasch: We do a tremendous amount of court advocacy and work closely with public defender’s offices, private attorneys and with our supervising entity – our judiciary. We are just very collaborative in our approach.


B&G: When you started “Women in Recovery” what was the biggest challenge?


Tarrasch: Developing trust and understanding from our criminal justice partners. You have to develop those relationships, and I think you have to be really transparent. I think we’ve been successful in that, so that there’s real clarity with all of our partners about the work that we do. We have a very safe, structured environment with a high level of accountability.


B&G: Is there anything else you’d like to add?


Tarrasch: Our message is that transformation is possible. And I really believe strongly that the work we do is by far better than long-term incarceration.


#WomenInRecovery #TulsaCounty #FamilyAndChildren’sServices #WomenInGovernment #WomenInLocalGovernment #WomenHelpingWomen #StateandLocalHumanServices #StateandLocalCriminalJustice #PrisonDiversionForWomen #CountyPublicAdministration #NonProfitGovernmentCollaboration #GeorgeKaiserFamilyFoundation #CourtAdvocacy #EarlyChildhood #DrugAddictionAndPrisonDiversion #CriminalJusticeDiversionProgram  

WHW ARCHIVES

WOMEN HELPING WOMEN ARCHIVE.
 

bottom of page