Haskell Program Helps Female Offenders Cope, Avoid Jail

A new program is hoping to help women avoid prison time and get their lives on track, without spending taxpayer money. It's funded through private donations and a little creativity in downtown Haskell.

In downtown Haskell, a juke box is being unloaded for a new arcade. A pool table is going in alongside other games. A couple doors down, a thrift store has racks full of items for sale.

"When you can come in and buy a pair of jeans for two dollars, some of those jeans are some of those expensive ones with holes all in them, that cost somebody 100 bucks," said Program Director Henry Petree.

The store and arcade are part of a new plan to help women in trouble.

"This is us taking our shot, trying to help out our fellow human beings," said board member Mike David.

Sales at the arcade and store will help pay for a new, voluntary-faith based program in Haskell called Hope Village, which could help women avoid prison.

"Help them to become better mothers, help them to become better sisters and daughters," David said.

Over two years, women will get housing, counseling, educational opportunities and life skills training.

"Something as simple as balancing your checkbook. Most of these folks don't know," Petree said.

The goal is to help reduce prison overcrowding and the rate of repeat offenders.

"The recidivism rate in Oklahoma shows that 80 percent of the folks who get out of prison are going back within two and a half years," Petree said.

Hope Village will be open only to non violent/non sexual offenders. They can even work, supervised, at the thrift store or arcade.

Half their earnings cover program costs, the rest goes into a savings account they can have after completing the program.

"We can all complain about this problem, about the criminal element here, about the drugs, the alcohol, but if we're not doing something to resolve it, we have no right to complain," David said.

So with games, garments and a giving spirit, they're changing a part of downtown Haskell, and hopefully changing lives.

Women have to be referred by a judge and must undergo weekly drug testing. Hope Village hopes to find property, move in a double wide mobile home, and be ready to accept their first participants within the next couple of weeks.