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APRIL 15, 2022
Smoke Signals
Family Preservation Proje
PARENTING continued
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Bradshaw), it crushed her. It was
right before her birthday. She was a
teenager and just needed her mom.
My youngest was 5 and at school.
I can’t even begin to identify what
they went through. One minute I’m
there, the next I’m not.”
Compounding the situation was
Measure 57, which Oregon voters
approved in 2008. It increased
prison time for those convicted of
certain drug and property crimes.
Plummer says she sold drugs to
supplement income at a state job
because she wasn’t able to make
ends meet as a single mother. Des-
perate to escape a violent partner,
she turned to what she knew.
“A lot of times, women who are
in prison, it is due to circumstanc-
es which led them to the choices
that they made,” she says. “That is
what happened to me. After I split
up with my ex, I couldn’t afford to
take care of the kids, pay for rent
and groceries and make the car
payment. I worked and sold drugs,
but you can’t do that for long with-
out getting caught.”
Research from the Prison Policy
Initiative backs this up. In addition
to policy changes that increased the
arrest and incarceration of women,
the underlying cause of many sub-
stance use and resulting criminal
behaviors are desperation, it states,
and many would be better served
by community treatment programs
than prison time.
“Many women on the social and
economic margins of society strug-
gle to survive outside of legitimate
enterprises, which brings them
into contact with the criminal jus-
tice system. … The most common
pathways to crime are based on
survival (of abuse and poverty) and
substance abuse.”
Jail to prison
During her five months in jail,
Plummer spoke with her children
on the phone, but there were no
in-person visits with her youngest.
She says it was particularly
heartbreaking to try to explain
things to her 5-year-old, who didn’t
understand what had happened.
“Going five months without see-
ing Risa was really difficult,” she
says. “I knew I could handle it, but
she could not. It was gut-wrenching
knowing she was suffering. It took
so long because DHS kept trying to
find something more that was going
on because she wasn’t eating. I told
them, ‘She’s not eating because she
misses her mom. It will be better
for her if she sees me.’ It wasn’t
the ideal lifestyle we were living,
but she missed her mom and didn’t
know where I was.”
When Plummer arrived at Cof-
fee Creek Correctional Facility in
Wilsonville in 2009, her main goals
were to see her children and be
released as soon as possible. That’s
when she heard about the Family
Preservation Project.
The project was originally started
by the state Department of Correc-
Photos by Kamiah Koch
Grand Ronde Tribal member and Homeownership Coordinator Michele Plummer sits next to her daughter, Tribal member
and Rental Housing Coordinator Myranda Bradshaw, outside the Housing Department offices on Tuesday, March 29.
Plummer spent a year and half incarcerated at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility when Bradshaw was 14 years old.
tions in partnership with Portland
State University in an effort to help
lessen the effects of incarceration
on mothers and their children. It
became a program of the YWCA of
Greater Portland in 2015.
Plummer was accepted into the
program, which she calls a “game
changer.”
“If I hadn’t gotten into that pro-
gram, I don’t know if I would have
seen my children at all,” she says.
“Only seven moms at a time can
be in program. It’s intensive and
long lasting. You have to have five
years or less and be on the mini-
mum security side to be (eligible).
The moms who are already in the
program select you.”
Visits are provided in a separate
building on the prison campus with
a home-like atmosphere. Mothers
and their children interact by doing
crafts, sharing a meal, reading or
simply being together.
“They tried to provide the most
normal atmosphere that they
could,” Plummer recalls. “Kids need
to know that their mom is OK and
they know where she’s at and that
they get to come back.”
The program has proven highly
successful: Many participants have
earned college degrees, become
therapists, started businesses and
served as advocates for other wom-
en behind bars. According to Plum-
mer, not one mom who participated
when she did went back to prison
and she was released in 2011.
A recidivism rate of zero is not
the norm. According to the Crimi-
nal Justice Commission of Oregon,
the current recidivism rate for all
prisoners after three years is close
to 53 percent.
Despite the real-life data showing
Parenting
from
PRISON
the program’s effectiveness, it has
ended up on the chopping block
for state budget cuts a number of
times. It motivates the moms who
have been helped to travel to the
State Capitol in Salem and share
their stories.
“I have done plenty of speaking at
the State Capitol in favor of keeping
the program,” Plummer says. “When
you talk to legislators, you only
get 30 seconds to tell your story. I
will always go to advocate (for the
program), whatever topic or focus, I
will do it. People need to know and
understand what it is they’re trying
to do. … If you give people hope, they
are less likely to reoffend.”
Myranda’s perspective
Tribal member Myranda Brad-
shaw was at volleyball tryouts just
a few weeks into her freshman year
of high school when she received
the news that her mother was going
to jail.
Bradshaw grew up with her fa-
ther in Molalla, but maintained a
good relationship with her mother,
calling Plummer her “best friend.”
Her mother’s sudden incarcera-
tion lead to a challenging few years
until she was released in 2011.
“I never lived with her, but the
fact that if I needed her, I couldn’t
just call her. She missed birth-
days, graduation, Christmas and
Thanksgiving,” Bradshaw says.
“Everything I grew up having her
there for, one day she was just
gone. I think that was the hardest
part. She was still here, but not at
my disposal. If something exciting
happened I had to wait for a call
time or visitation.”
Bradshaw recalls jail visitations as
difficult with strict rules, glass par-
titions and spontaneous lockdowns.
Although these visitations helped
maintain the relationship with
her mother, they also began to
negatively affect her schooling. Vis-
itations were usually at the same
day and time, which meant she
repeatedly missed the same class.
Bradshaw says the situation
improved when her mother was
moved to prison and was able to
join the Family Preservation Proj-
ect, which held visitations on the
weekend.
“I was actually too old to be a
part of the (Family Preservation)
Project,” Bradshaw says, “They
made an exception for me because
it helped Risa go. She would rather
her sister go with her than have her
just walk alone into the prison.”
The sisters visited their mother
at every chance and Bradshaw says
the program offered some sense of
normalcy without rules restricting
their interactions. Bradshaw says