Senator Leftwich Calls Results of Study on Women Inmates and Children “Disturbing”

The second phase of a study of women inmates in Oklahoma has just been released by the Commission on Children and Youth. The study focused on women inmates with children.

Senator Debbe Leftwich was principal author of SJR 48, which called for the study. Leftwich said while not surprising, the findings were nothing short of “disturbing.”

“About 76% of the women surveyed said they’d been victims of childhood abuse as well as adult victims of abuse—physical and sexual. What Oklahomans need to know is that when those women were incarcerated, more than a third said their children were placed in the home of the same relative who had abused them to begin with,” Leftwich said. “These children have a high likelihood of following in their
mother’s footsteps in more ways than one unless we do something different.”

The study also showed that while approximately 76% of the women said they’d used drugs more than once a week prior to going to prison, one in three said they were not receiving substance abuse treatment while behind bars.

“We need to be smarter about how we approach this problem. Simply locking women up, not giving them treatment and sending the children to live with abusive relatives is not the answer. It simply perpetuates the problem and costs Oklahoma taxpayers millions and millions of dollars in the process.”

Senator Leftwich said she hoped the report would help raise public awareness and support for alternative programs like drug court, which have proven to be an effective and less expensive way to deal with drug offenders. She also pointed to the need for a closer look at where children of incarcerated mothers are being placed.

“Oklahoma has more women in prison per capita than any state in the nation. We also know that of the women surveyed, two-thirds have legal custody of their children and plan to reunite with them once released. It is imperative that we look at programs that can break these cycles of substance abuse, physical and sexual abuse and incarceration. If we continue with the status quo, we’re throwing away tax dollars and wasting lives,” Leftwich said.