NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA \u2014\u00a0Each year, nearly 54,000 women in the U.S. state of Louisiana are released from prison, according to Operation Restoration, a New Orleans-based nonprofit organization with a mission to support women and girls impacted by incarceration as they attempt to restore their lives. For many women, restoring their lives proves too difficult. Some 30% return to jail within five years. \u201cThe number of barriers a woman faces when she is released from incarceration is unfathomable,\u201d Syrita Steib, Operation Restoration\u2019s founder and president told VOA. \u201cThere are food and housing issues, of course, but that\u2019s just the tip of the iceberg.\u201d \u201cYou are on parole, but you have to pay the state money for that supervision,\u201d Steib continued. \u201cWhere do you get the money for that at first, though? If you\u2019ve been in prison for years or decades, you don\u2019t have the network connections or technology literacy most people lean on to find a job.” As Shenica Jackson, 43, readied for her release last year after more than 13 years in prison, she shared many of these concerns. Jackson was one of two individuals arrested in 2011 when an ongoing feud turned violent. \u201cI was full of regret, of course,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cRegret that I took someone\u2019s life, regret that I was leaving my daughter without a mother to take care of her, and regret that I had robbed myself of my future.\u201d \u201cWhen you\u2019re incarcerated at 30 years old, you don\u2019t imagine you\u2019re going to have lots of opportunities after that,\u201d she added. \u201cI thought my life was over.\u201d That changed when she saw Operation Restoration was training women in prison to work as laboratory assistants. That program has licensed 67 formerly incarcerated women, including Jackson. \u201cIt gives me something to be proud of,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cIt feels good to try to improve yourself and learn something new.\u201d Finding second chances Operation Restoration has more than a dozen programs including providing housing, work training, education, food, clothing and legal advocacy. It is the kind of help that founder Steib needed when she was released from prison in 2009. Steib served nearly 10 years for her role in a burglary and arson at a car dealership when she was a teenager. When she was released, she felt overwhelmed and disoriented. \u201cThe world moves on without you,\u201d Steib said, \u201cand it happens at a rapid pace. When you get out of jail, there are barriers everywhere.\u201d Those barriers include housing and college applications, which often require applicants to declare whether they are felons. Steib\u2019s college application was rejected because she answered honestly about her conviction. When she pivoted to a job search, she was unaccustomed to email, did not know how to use social media and had trouble finding the right clothes for interviews. \u201cI went in when I was 19 and came out when I was 29,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what size I wore. But if I go to buy underwear, nobody knows I was in jail. Nobody knows my story. They just think I\u2019m a 30-year-old who doesn\u2019t know her bra size. And imagine how embarrassing that is. Eventually it\u2019s all too much, and you think, \u2018Maybe I\u2019ll just skip my job interview.\u2019\u201d Steib eventually was accepted and graduated from college but found that brought higher restitution payments to the state. \u201cThey said my ability to pay had changed because I had graduated college,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I hadn\u2019t even received a paycheck yet!\u201d Steib saw other women released from prison facing the same challenges with little support. \u201cI remember watching a presentation about the prison problem in Louisiana, and of the 50 slides, only one mentioned women,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was ridiculous. I decided I needed to do something.\u201d Adding programs One of the first problems Operation Restoration tackled was the one that complicated her going to college. In 2017, Operation Restoration helped write and advocate for the passage of Louisiana Act 276, known as \u201cBan the Box,\u201d which prohibits public colleges in the state from asking about criminal history in admissions decisions. Louisiana was the first state to pass that type of law, and seven states have since made similar changes. Steib and her team began a college-in-prison program offering for-credit Bachelor of Arts degrees inside the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in partnership with Tulane University. In 2024, 34 incarcerated women were enrolled. Comprehensive solution Operation Restoration last year placed nearly 200 families in safe and secure housing, donated clothing and hygiene products to more than 350 women and girls, and spent more than $111,000 on clients\u2019 childcare, transportation, food, and housing, according to the organization\u2019s 2024 Impact Report. Because 80% of incarcerated women in Louisiana are mothers, Operation Restoration has programs for their daughters, including tennis lessons, yoga and dance classes, and tutoring. There is a discussion group called \u201cGirl Talk,\u201d in which teenagers meet with a facilitator to learn about financial literacy, positive self-identity, drug awareness, reproductive health, and career and academic preparation. Sixteen-year-old Kace \u2014 Operation Restoration requested VOA not share her last name to protect her anonymity \u2014 struggled when a parent was incarcerated. Her grandmother suggested she enroll in Girl Talk, and Kace said it has changed her life. \u201cI learned that I was depressed, and I needed people to open up to,\u201d she said. \u201cI love our talks and getting to learn about other girls in the program who are also going through challenges like me.\u201d \u201cHaving a group like this has taught me that just because I\u2019m struggling and I think I\u2019m not enough,\u201d Kace added, \u201cI\u2019m enough in someone\u2019s eyes.\u201d Operation Restoration is sponsored by more than 40 local and national charities, including the United Way of Southeast Louisiana. Steib says federal government funding cuts could threaten the survival of some of its programs. That includes the programs for young girls in which Kace takes part, as well as Operation Restoration\u2019s Lab Assistant Program. While Steib remains hopeful these cuts won\u2019t target organizations like hers, she is pushing to raise money from other sources to ensure those programs remain supported, as well as to build a community center for her clients. \u201cI want women and girls impacted by incarceration to have a place in the community that feels like theirs,\u201d she said. \u201cThey should be able to come in for their lab assistant class and find childcare for their kids and pick up some clothing for an interview. That\u2019s what we currently need help with.\u201d Jackson says Operation Restoration changes women\u2019s lives. \u201cTo leave jail and know there is something for me out there, it\u2019s hard to explain how important that is.\u201d she said. \u201cI would have never guessed my life would be going like this. I can\u2019t believe I have choices again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA \u2014\u00a0Each year, nearly 54,000 women in the U.S. state of Louisiana are released from prison, according to Operation Restoration, a New Orleans-based nonprofit organization with a mission to support women and girls impacted by incarceration as they attempt to restore their lives. For many women, restoring their lives proves too difficult. Some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":495,"featured_media":29694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[141],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/495"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}