GENDER-RESPONSIVE AND TRAUMA-INFORMED WORK WITH INCARCERATED WOMEN: AN IACFP INTERVIEW WITH DR. STEPHANIE COVINGTON

GENDER-RESPONSIVE AND TRAUMA-INFORMED WORK WITH INCARCERATED WOMEN: AN IACFP INTERVIEW WITH DR. STEPHANIE COVINGTON
Richard Althouse, Ph.D.
Immediate Past President, IACFP

Those who work in the criminal justice and correctional agencies are aware that the number of incarcerated women has significantly increased over the past decade. Currently, women are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. incarcerated population, being incarcerated at nearly double the rate of men since l985. Unfortunately, as with males, rehabilitation and treatment programs have not kept pace with their incarceration rate, especially for women with histories of substance abuse and addiction, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and other trauma. Consequently, there has been a significant need for treatment programming for incarcerated women who have these challenges. Dr. Stephanie Covington has spent the past 25 years of her pioneering career formulating and providing programs to meet the treatment needs working with girls and women who are under the supervision of the criminal justice system.

Dr. Covington has focused much of her recent work on “gender-responsive and “trauma-informed” approaches to treatment. Currently Co-Director for the Center for Gender and Justice as well as the Institute for Relational Development, Dr. Covington has provided training, technical assistance and consulting services to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the National Institute of Corrections, the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, the Correctional Services of Canada, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, as well as many state and local jurisdictions and community-based programs. Among her many clients are found the Betty Ford Treatment Center, Pine Grove Women’s Center, and her co-authored three-year research project—“Gender-Responsive Strategies: Research, Practice, and Guiding Principles for Women Offenders”—received the University of Cincinnati Award for an outstanding contribution to the field of corrections in the U.S. and Canada.

More recently, Dr. Covington’s work has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Network’s “Breaking Down the Bars,” and in her work Helping Women Recover (Jossey-Bass, 2008), Dr. Covington addressed the special concerns and issues of substance-abusing women in correctional settings. Her other works include Beyond Trauma: A Healing Journey for Women, Women and Addiction: A Gender-Responsive Approach, A Woman’s Way through the Twelve Steps, and Leaving the Enchanted Forest: The Path from Relationship Addiction to Intimacy, among others.

I was delighted to have an opportunity to talk with Dr. Covington about her work, and wanted to share the highpoints of our conversation with IACFP members.

Although her offices are in LaJolla, California, she was in New York City at the time of our conversation.

PART I

IACFP: How did you get involved with working with women in prisons”

SC: It started at end of 80s…I was doing a woman’s conference in North Carolina, and incarcerated women were an invisible population for me. I met a warden there and realized that I had never thought about women in prison. I spoke with the warden who told me that six honorees were coming to hear my talk that evening in the community. That night, I was standing with the warden and the incarcerated women and I had one of those ‘life changing moments,’ asking myself “why are you in there and I’m out here?” My next thought was “privilege.” Because of this experience I began to speak with the warden on a monthly basis. The following year I arranged with the warden to live in the women’s prison for a few days, and it changed the course of my life. Since then, 80-90% of my time has been spent with girls and women in criminal justice settings.

IACFP : How would you say the correctional environment impacts on women with histories of trauma and abuse?

SC: The environment of most correctional settings has a negative impact on women and girls. They often come out of a correctional setting in worse shape than when they went in, they are often re-traumatized just by the environment: yelling, being called names (e.g., “come on you ‘ho’s,’ get moving.”) Consequently, women often dissociate…..there is a mind-body split.
Although Dr. Covington spent time in a minimum security facility, her two major observations were that women experienced a “loss of any respect, and inability to make any choice.” As she explained, “You’re told what to do and how to do it every hour of the day,” and basic human respectful interactions didn’t take place. She went on to say, “This at was very startling to me because it didn’t have to be that way. This is not an essential ingredient in a custodial setting. This should be a major concern for us all because ideally we would want people coming out of prison in better shape to live in our communities…not in worse shape.”

IACFP: In your experience, what are the biggest challenges to working in the criminal justice system?

SC: The biggest challenges are the attitude of the people who work there and the lack of informed training as to how you can work with people in a custodial setting. There is this whole demeanor and attitude…it’s not everyone, by any stretch of the imagination…but it’s the dominant theme.” There is also a “code of silence among correctional officers, so even if someone sees something they don’t agree with they will never report it.

This is not a therapeutic environment…that’s the bottom line. It’s not an environment of rehabilitation.

Check back tomorrow for Part II of V
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For members who would like to follow up on any of the points in our interview, feel free to go to Dr. Covington’s website for additional information. It is www.stephaniecovington.com. I urge members to visit both her website and learn more about trauma-informed services. For publication information regarding publications by Dr. Covington, members can also visit the Hazelden website at www.hazelden.org