Women Offenders
Women’s Residential Community Center (WRCC). Since 1989, THE PROGRAM has operated the official Lehigh County work release facility for women, the Women’s Residential Community Center (WRCC). While national recidivism rates are as high as 67 percent, typically no more than 25 percent of the women served by the WRCC return to the facility within a 12-month period. In this community-based alternative to incarceration, women have the opportunity to secure employment or continue working while serving their sentences. They are taught to take responsibility for their actions and appropriate ways to cope to avoid re-incarceration. All of the women come to the facility by court order or by order of the Lehigh County Department of Corrections.
WRCC is located in Center City Allentown. While the original facility had a maximum capacity of 25 women, the present facility can serve up to 71 women. The average daily population ranges from 35 to 40 women; more than 200 women are served annually.
On October 25, 2011, in a cost-saving move, the County of Lehigh officially closed WRCC, transferring the women to its new corrections facility in Salisbury Township, site of the former Mens Community Corrections Center. The average daily population at this new 400 bed facility currently stands at approximately 220 men and women.
Day Reporting Program. The Day Reporting Program is an 18-week intermediate punishment program. About 50 women are ordered into the program each year. The program consists of a structured, 12-week classroom curriculum that includes job readiness, employment counseling, life skills, individual counseling, group therapy and case management services. Upon successful completion of the classroom curriculum, the women focus on finding and retaining a job prior to discharge from work release.
More than two-thirds of the participants successfully graduate each year. During the first three months after completion of the program, the period of highest risk for relapsing and re-offending, nearly 80 percent of the women continue to live as productive, law-abiding citizens in the Lehigh Valley. Women who succcessfully complete the program may return to THE PROGRAM for services, including individual and employment counseling, at no cost.
The women offenders are ordered to participate in the program because they are at exceptionally high risk of perpetuating cycles of abuse and criminality and have little means of achieving economic independence. The women are generally under-educated and do not possess a high school diploma or its equivalent. They are under-skilled and have little or no work experience. They are often single mothers, 30 to 35 years of age, with two or more minor children. Many come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, having lived all of their lives in poverty. They struggle with addiction to alcohol and other drugs and mental illness. They are victims of domestic abuse, often including physical and sexual abuse as a child.
Transitional Residence Program. The Transitional Residence Program provides housing to homeless women who are transitioning out of the criminal justice system or who are at risk of criminal behavior, and their children. Through a continuum of care, the women work toward becoming self-sufficient, productive citizens and responsible mothers. The transitional residence was founded in 1995 thanks to a major gift from First Presbyterian Church of Allentown.
Women accepted into the program must be referred by a social service agency and then submit a formal application. Applicants must demonstrate that they are working towards positive lifestyle changes and that they are able to support themselves and their children with the help of affordable housing and supportive services. Typically, none of the women who complete the program relapse or re-offend and about 75 percent retain their jobs or obtain better ones.