Bonnie Kern:  

Hello to all of the people I never graduated with. I wish I could have been this honest with all of you when we were young: I received my undergraduate degree in sociology from Drake University on Mother's Day 2000 and my Master of Science in Education, Certified Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling degree from Drake University on May 16, 2009. Forty years almost to the day of being released from prison on May 22, 1969. I was the first woman allowed to participate in Iowa's work-release program in the 1960s, obtained my restoration of citizenship in 1974 and an executive pardon in 1982. With the declining economy, Iowa like other states has had to cut Department of Corrections budgets which resulted in a loss of 770 staff since this same time last year, as well as an across the board cut of ten percent. According to Lettie Prell, Director of Research, Iowa Department of Corrections, almost 60% of female clients had a mental health diagnosis with nearly 48% of Iowa female clients having a diagnosis of seriously mentally ill at the end of 2008. As of August 31, 2009, there were 194 female parolees in the Fifth Judicial District. Of the 108 women released from prison to the Des Moines area, 63 or 58.3% had a mental illness of some kind with 51 or 47.2% being seriously mentally ill; 4 or 3.7% had a developmental disability; 30 or 27.8% had a current substance use disorder diagnosis, but more than this would have a need for substance abuse treatment or aftercare in the community. Recidivism rate for women is 13.0% statewide, but the recidivism rate for women with chronic mental health issues is 29.9%. The above statistics do not completely address other physical, cognitive, learning, chemical dependency, social, family and internalized issues for these women. It is an emotional whiplash leaving prison where all decisions have been made and entering a culture where they are supposed to make immediate, appropriate choices. My advisor, mentor and friend, Dr. R. Dean Wright, Ellis and Nelle Levitt Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology professor at Drake University, told me many years ago that, with enough education, I was in the position to be a communication conduit between corrections and the prisoners. I do my best every day to achieve this goal. For instance, I posit that asking offenders what they believe they need to succeed on the outside and working with them to achieve that goal promotes their investment of time, effort and finances in the day-to-day process of integration rather than having them sabotage something else the 'system' is doing to them. A characteristic that may be misinterpreted by some counselors is the natural coping skill for an incarcerated person to cause themselves to be put into isolation to get away from the chaos of the general population and rest for a while. Some counselors attribute this behavior on the outside to mental health or chemical dependency issues, but I help clients find more appropriate alternatives. Although the Iowa Department of Corrections will define at-risk and hard to place prisoners using their own definitions which may include mental illness DSM-IV diagnosis, risk scores, Jesness classifications, lack of community support, etc., Assessing Disability Barriers will make sure the clients are job-seeking ready. Food, housing, transportation and child care are all very important, but if the client's disability symptoms negate positive job-seeking and job-retention, they will not be successful. Another issue that many counselors do not address is that it takes an average of one hundred dollars a month to diaper a child. Child care facilities do not accept fabric diapers. Most require ten disposable diapers per day. Laundromats do not allow fabric diapers to be washed. Many women must wait until their children are out of diapers to find and maintain employment. Assessing Disability Barriers will use part of the grant funding to distribute diaper vouchers to the clients until after they receive their first pay check. Rather than giving them a stipend check that could be spent for anything, ADB will set up a voucher account with a local retailer to provide the diapers. I evaluate the client's external and internalized barriers to a successful re-entry, help clients write their Plan to Achieve Self-Support; help clients reframe their world view to be consistent with the laws and rules of society, provide alternatives to immediate gratification thinking and behaviors; and provide referrals for their personal, disability (task modifications, assistive technologies and/or worksite accommodations; personal assistance; hardscape and environmental conditions), chemical dependency, financial, academic, employment, social, and family needs. Using my own experience from a holistic perspective, I identity many aspects that may be missed by other counselors, especially the internalized barriers caused by incarceration. This includes person-centered, social-cognitive-behavioral therapy with a focus on the interdependence of race, socioeconomic status, current political and social stance about offenders, the client's coping mechanisms, skills sets and interests; and how their conviction and disabilities may affect their employment opportunities. I published my autobiographical novel, Proclivity, in 2007 to help girls & women who were abused as children, especially by incest. Readers tell me that either they cannot put it down or they must lay it aside to grieve for me and them, but they always have tears in their eyes when they thank me for writing it because they were able to heal from things they never wanted to look at. I am now using my forty years experience in reentry to write The Steel Ceiling and give hope to those who identify with me. --- Association of Women Executives in Corrections, "Tribute to Laurel Rans". March 2009, Volume 2, Number 4, pp 1 & 3-6: The enclosed tribute to Laurel Rans from Bonnie Kern arrived via the network of women in corrections who meet at WWICJJ and AWEC where we continue to pass on "our stories" of meaning and success. Laurel Rans was a pioneer in corrections in a number of ways. Certainly she was vital to the success of NIC's leadership development program for women held at "The Castle". AWEC's scholarship honors Laurel and her legacy of providing opportunities for women to develop skills, competencies, and the confidence to lead productive lives and pursue successful careers. Laurel was a true leader in corrections, blazing a trail to make it easier for the next generation of women leaders to succeed. My name is Bonnie L. Kern. I am sixty three years old and completing my graduate rehabilitation counseling internship with the Iowa 5th Judicial District Department of Correctional Services. I grew up trying to keep me and my little sister away from my pedophile grandfather. I told my mother what he had been doing when I was nine so he wouldn't hurt my little sister. Her denial culminated in cycles of deafening silence that warned of impending physical, emotional and mental outrage toward me. She told me that she would kill me if I ever told anyone what was happening to me so I ran away a lot, drank as much beer as I could find, and prayed that she would die. Nine months and one day after my daughter was born, they were killed in a car accident on December 15, 1962. I wrote checks on my account after the money was gone and received a seven year sentence "at hard labor" on March 18, 1963. I was eighteen. In writing my novel, Proclivity, which shadows my life, I realized that Laurel Rans, warden of the Iowa Women's Reformatory in the late 1960s, was my second mentor. My first mentor was a "lifer" who taught me to do my own time, stay out of other people's business and not put my business on "the street". She showed me how to do the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and then she died. I did two years on a one year parole and realized that I was safer in prison. I wrote a check on my father's account, which revoked my parole and I was sent back to prison to complete my sentence. I refused paroles after that because I watched women leaving and coming back, including myself. Parole was, to me, like taking a little kid to the candy store and saying, "Isn't it pretty? But you can't have any!" The only kindness I had ever experienced from another person was when "tricks" were nice or the genuine compassion from the dead "lifer". To complete my parole I would have to stay away from everything that had helped when every cell in my body screamed for relief: beer, drugs & men. I couldn't do that. I don't remember the names of the first two wardens at Rockwell City. We called the first one "ol three hairs" and the man, who decided that I should be the first woman in Iowa to participate in the work release program, is a distant blip in my memory. I suppose because I didn't have that many encounters with them. By the time that Laurel Rans arrived as the warden, I was already riding to and from the business college in Fort Dodge during the week with a young woman from Rockwell City. I also was drinking my lunches at a local bar. While I was on work release that time, I went to Business College, worked as a hat check girl at a hotel during the holidays, and my father bought my convertible while I was working at the Carriage House in Fort Dodge. Prisoners didn't pay for their room and board, do community...Expand for more