Making Choices
"I chose to take this program because I noticed for years that the women who complete this program don't come back to prison."
-- A Making Choices Graduate
The Making Choices program teaches decision-making and life-planning skills to women incarcerated at Denver Women’s Correctional Facility (DWCF). Sponsored and facilitated by the Center for Spirituality at Work, the program trains business and professional women volunteers to mentor incarcerated women through the eight-week course. Since 1999, Making Choices has brought together nearly 350 incarcerated women with volunteer mentors to assist them in acquiring and using these new skills as they prepare to bring their gifts and talents back to the community. Making Choices’ goal is to teach women to make better decisions and to stay out of prison once released, to ensure that their children don’t get caught in an intergenerational cycle of crime, and to change societal attitudes by helping people to understand how we all benefit when former offenders successfully return to the community.
Why MAKING CHOICES?
The ability to identify, assess, and decide from alternative choices is
a foundational skill, making it possible for women to take advantage
of educational, employment, housing and other opportunities to build
a new life for themselves and their children. Incarcerated women often
come from underprivileged, abusive, or drug-laden backgrounds where they
had little opportunity to learn how to make positive decisions. Instead
they tend to:
- React impulsively
- Flee difficult situations by using alcohol or other drugs
- “Float along,” letting others decide for them.
Women’s decisions are made within the context of significant relationships.
The mentor helps her partner relate the decision-making process to all
her daily decisions so that eventually it is internalized and becomes part
of her normal way of responding to difficult and challenging situations.
Through the mentoring relationship, both volunteers and their partners
at the prison mutually benefit, stereotypes are broken, and understanding
of the challenges incarcerated women face increases, which leads to a healthier,
safer, more caring society for all.
Did You Know?
In 1970 there were slightly more than 5,600 women in state and federal
prisons across the United States. By 1996 there were nearly 75,000—a
thirteen-fold increase. At current rates of increase, there will be more
women in America’s prisons in the year 2010 than there were inmates
of both genders in 1970. This reality has effects on the next generation.
Children of incarcerated women are 5-6 times more likely to become incarcerated
than other children who live in poverty but whose mothers were never incarcerated.
The recidivism rate for Making Choices graduates is 8%, versus 63% for those who do not participate in this program. With this track record of 92% success after graduation, Making Choices graduates are leading productive lives and reuniting with family and friends. Many give back to the community by speaking for the Center for Spirituality at Work’s Women’s Voices, which educates the community about the Making Choices program and about issues facing incarcerated women.
How Does MAKING CHOICES Work?
The 8-week structured course takes place at DWCF twice yearly, in March/April
(Spring Session) and September/October (Fall Session). The course includes:
- Weekly classes taught by trained volunteer teachers using a nationally-recognized
curriculum
- Weekly, one-on-one mentoring sessions with a trained volunteer mentor, where each incarcerated student practices applying the concepts learned in class to her own life’s situations
Making Choices offers each incarcerated student tools to:
- Identify and acknowledge her feelings
- Change her responses to different situations (learning to decide vs.
react)
- Get in touch with personal values and set goals accordingly
- Examine her self-image and recognize herself as a woman of worth and
value
- Gain more control over her life in both immediate and long-term situations
How Do Volunteers Fit In? 
Women wishing to become mentors receive training from both the Center for
Spirituality at Work (CFSAW) and the Colorado Department of Corrections
(CDOC). CFSAW conducts retreat training weekends for new volunteers twice
yearly, in February and August. New volunteers also attend an 8-hour
CDOC Basic Volunteer Training, and a 2-hour site-specific training at
DWCF. Application deadlines for new mentor training are in early May
(for fall session) and early November (for spring session).
Once trained, the volunteer mentor meets with her incarcerated partner
one hour per week throughout the eight-week course and attends the graduation
ceremony, where she awards a certificate or diploma to her graduating partner.
Ongoing individual supervision and a mid-session group supervision meeting
provide support for mentors. Volunteers commit to two eight-week sessions
as a mentor, which may be in one calendar year or spread over two years.
Click
Here to download
Making Choices Application Packet
(This files requires the free Adobe Reader)
For additional information,
or to have an Application Packet
sent to you via US mail, please contact:
Making Choices Coordinator
Phone: 303-383-1610
E-Mail
