PROGRAM OFFERS WOMEN ALTERNATIVE TO JAIL TIME

When Bambi Gibney was arrested for possession of methamphetamine in
1998, she was given a choice: spend a year in San Mateo County Jail or
volunteer to participate in the Alternatives Program.

For her, the choice was simple. But not just because she wanted to
stay out of jail -- because she wanted to change her life.

The Alternatives Program is a 14-month intensive life-skills plan
offered to women in lieu of jail time. Gibney had been a functioning
drug addict for more than half of her 39 years, and she looked at the
program as an opportunity to work through her addiction.

``I'm kind of grateful I got caught because I think I would have been
doing drugs indefinitely,'' Gibney said. ``If I had gone to jail, I
would have done my time and gotten out -- and time would have stood
still for me. I'd leave jail with the same problems I had when I went
in.''

Instead, Gibney struggles every day to make a better life for herself
through the program, which immerses the women in life-skills courses,
teaches them how to identify abusive relationships and use higher
reasoning skills when making choices. It even provides them with
acupuncture treatments for their addictions.

The program is administered by the county's probation department and
it's costly: The county spends about $400,000 a year to maintain it
and the probation department is in the process of preparing a cost
analysis report for the board of supervisors in the hopes that it will
continue to fund Alternatives in the 2000-2001 fiscal year.

``Unfortunately, monies dictate what will happen to the program,''
said Fred Wegner, director of adult services for the San Mateo
County Probation Department. ``Everyone recognizes the value of the
program in terms of the people that graduate. The question is, do you
focus on the small group even though it's more expensive? We don't
know.''

In its four-plus years of operation, the program -- for which the
women must volunteer -- has never been filled to its capacity of 14
women. The numbers generally run between eight and 12. Some think
that's because it's more difficult than jail time. Women in the
program must arrive at the Redwood City center by 8 a.m. five days a
week. The rules are strict and the consequences swift: Even a minor
blunder -- like arriving late or not going straight home -- can set
them back weeks.

For a minimum of the first three months in Alternatives, the women
- -- most of whom have been convicted of drug felonies -- remain on
house arrest: they wear electronic monitors on their ankles and must
go only to the program and home.

Few of the women complete the program in 14 months; the average stay
for successful completion is several months longer. And about half of
those who enter the program eventually drop out. When that happens,
they are forced to serve their original jail time -- without credit
for the time they've spent in the program.

The program is important, said director Cleo Smith, a supervising
probation officer, because the women learn to change old habits and in
the process become more productive citizens and better mothers.

``It is a difficult program to get through,'' Smith said. ``This
program could act as a model, not only for women, but for anyone who
wants to learn how to face life with the tools to be
successful.''

Smith said that of the roughly 50 percent who make it through the
program, the recidivism rate is extremely low. More than 93 percent of
those who have successfully completed the program since 1995 have not
committed new offenses.

But the absence of new arrests is not the only way success is measured
in the program.

Support network

The women, who spend more than six hours a day together, become a
strong support network for each other. In group counseling and
job-skills classes, they compliment each other and are quick to notice
progress.

One recent morning, during a relationships and self-esteem class, one
of the women in the group, Ana Mila of San Mateo, was given kudos from
her peers for the progress she has made in the last several months in
dealing with stresses at home.

Mila, 32, is not a drug addict. Her addiction was gambling. She was
arrested for fraud after trying to pass a bad check and she, too, said
the program was the best thing that's ever happened to her and her
family.

``I went to jail for one day and I never wanted to go back,'' Mila
said. ``In jail, you learn nothing. I am doing this for myself and for
my kids. I want to be there for my kids. This has been the right
choice for me.''

Mila credits the program with teaching her how to communicate with her
six children and her husband, and how to handle stress without falling
back on her addiction to bingo.

``I consider my drug of choice to be bingo,'' she said. ``And I'm
learning that what the drug addicts were doing -- neglecting their
families -- I was doing the same thing.''

The program is open to high-risk, high-needs misdemeanor and felony
women offenders who are convicted by the San Mateo County courts. In
addition to the house arrest, the women face two to five years of
supervised probation and if they fail the program in any way, they can
be sent to jail immediately to serve their original sentence.

The conditions of the program are that each participant must have a
non-violent history, be willing to make a minimum 14-month commitment,
have a stable residence and an operating telephone. Preference is
given to women with children.

The main treatment components of the program include cognitive skills
training, drug and alcohol treatment, self-esteem, parenting skills,
literacy and job search skills. The communication and job skills
portion helps the women develop job training and job interview skills
and teaches them to write a resume, make a budget and balance a checkbook.

The concept originated at the University of Victoria in Canada by
researchers working with prison inmates through an educational system.
They discovered a 60 percent decrease in the recidivism rate for those
who participated in the cognitive-skills treatment.

Proof is in the people

Proof that the program works in San Mateo County is found in its
participants.

``I've realized that I'm not just trying to get probation off my back,
and I'm not trying to do this for anyone else,'' said Gibney. ``Now,
I'm really trying to do this for me. I want a normal life so badly. My
parents, they have a 40-year-old daughter that has always acted like a
16-year-old. I'd like to make them proud.''