Let’s Start is run by and for ex-offenders
By Meliqueica Meadows
Of the St. Louis American
According to the Missouri Department of Corrections, as of June 30, 2005 there were more than 31,000 adult felons serving various sentences in the 20 correctional facilities and two Community Release Centers run by the state. Including parolees and probationers, the department oversees a total of about 96,000 adult offenders statewide.
A sizeable portion of these inmates are female offenders. During incarceration, they pay their debt to society. What does society owe them, if anything, upon their release?
Monica Simmons and Sister Jackie Toben say society owes these women a second chance, which is what they attempt to provide through Let’s Start, a unique re-entry program for female felons.
“Let’s Start is a support process for women coming out of prison and jail, and what’s unique about it is that the women who have been in the criminal justice system actually run the program,” Simmons said.
Let’s Start is a small program with a small staff of five part-timers and a tiny budget of under $100,000, but Simmons and Toben said they are able to work wonders with what they have. They help recently released inmates and addicts reclaim their lives by matching them with employment, housing and counseling resources.
The “sacred circle” is an integral part of the Let’s Start program that allows women to share their experiences in a support group every Tuesday night.
“They are encouraged to just be present and to tell their story and share their struggles, as well as hear what works for other women. One of the women that has been incarcerated always facilitates the group,” Toben said.
“It’s healing for them to tell their stories.”
The nearly 30 women present at Tuesday’s support group meeting all talked about being thankful for the program and recounted successes of resisting temptation, finding employment or beginning school.
Felicia Moore facilitated the meeting Tuesday at St. Vincent’s Church. Convicted of theft in 1994, Moore remained on the run until 2002. Pregnant and addicted to drugs, she turned herself in and served nearly six months in prison. She has attended the Let’s Start meetings for three years and said her five sons, ranging in age from three to 19, encourage her to continue on her current path.
“They are happy because they see the change in me. They support me coming to the meetings. I knew that if I wanted to be healthy I had to be around healthy people,” Moore said.
“The circle has been my life and an extension of my life,” said another woman during the meeting.
“My girls have grown up down here in this circle. This is how I live, by helping the women grow and mature into who they are and who they want to be. They all have helped me want to grow up.”
The women said they draw their strength from each other and the co-directors, especially Simmons, who has walked in their shoes. Simmons arguably knows more about the criminal justice system than most, as a former social worker with the Illinois Department of Family and Children’s Services (DFCS).
In 1996, when her then boyfriend murdered her four-year-old daughter Katlyn, Simmons was immediately terminated from her position and had to fight a year-long legal battle, during which she became pregnant with a second daughter who was taken by the state at birth. She served 22 months of a five-year sentence for obstruction of justice, in connection with the murder of her daughter. Then, she said, the real battle began when she was released in 2000.
“It was hard. It was hell,” she said.
“I couldn’t go to the same resources because I wasn’t welcome. I had to work a minimum wage job, even though I had a bachelor’s degree, because I could not go back to my field.”
She applied to Washington University and was accepted. She worked multiple jobs to make ends meet and show the state she could support her daughter.
“I had to declare bankruptcy. Everything was gone, so I had to start over from scratch,” Simmons said.
“My saving grace was God and that I had an education. I knew the system, but these ladies don’t have that knowledge so their frustrations are so real.”
With her unique experience, Simmons is able to connect women to resources and provide them with a living example of what is possible for their own lives.
“I understand the different dynamics of the system, because I was on three different ends of it,” Simmons said.
“I was the system (at DFCS), so I understand the idea that not everyone should have their child. I was the one who would remove the child, and I understood what that was about. I used to take the children, and then I was incarcerated and had to fight for my child, and now I’m on the other end advocating for the women.”
Toben said she hopes the women in their program gain a renewed sense of self and that the community supports their successful re-entry into society.
“I would like the community to know that we’re here and that the women that participate in this process are really good, decent people,” Toben said.
“I hope every woman that walks through that door finds peace within herself, develops a healthy relationship with her family and finds meaningful employment.”
Simmons, who will share her story with a national television audience in the spring on the Montel Williams Show, said she would continue to use her experiences to help female inmates make a smooth transition back into their communities.
“A lot of women make wrong choices in choosing men that are not healthy. I share my story that my daughter was murdered by a man I was dating that I thought I knew, but I didn’t know him at all. I was looking for love in all the wrong places and ended up losing my four-year-old child and going to prison and losing everything,” she said.
“Now, what I try to do is speak out in the community and share my story and tell how I and women like me want to contribute to the community. When you first think of incarcerated, you think dirty, uneducated, mentally ill. We’re not castaways. We are viable individuals, and we deserve a chance.”
The Let’s Start weekly meetings are open to members of the community interested in supporting formerly incarcerated women as they re-enter society. For more information about the program or to make a donation, call (314) 241-2324.
