Learn more about the incarceration of women: Read previous stories, find resources and see graphics regarding women in prison.
Cheri Brackett was haunted by what she saw the first time she visited the trailer where the meth she consumed was manufactured.
Within a year she was living there.
Brackett was introduced to the drug eight years ago by a friend as a way to lose weight.
She was able to function on meth for five or six years. But as she progressed from snorting to smoking to injecting the drug, her life spiraled out control.
"I lost my house, custody of my kids," she said. "I lost any ambition and was homeless living in a car. I had no idea how dangerous it was until after the fact."
That's how she ended up living in the trailer she once despised.
"The first time I went to that trailer, I was sickened and couldn't wait to leave," she said. "I had hit rock bottom and was doing anything to survive."
It was at the trailer where she was arrested 15 months ago.
"I knew my health was out of control and was praying that the drugs wouldn't take my life," she said. "It sounds odd to be relieved to be arrested. ... It sounds odd, but it saved my life."
Brackett was in jail and facing seven years to life in prison for endeavoring to manufacture methamphetamine.
That's when she heard about Women in Recovery, an alternative to incarceration for nonviolent female offenders in Tulsa County who have alcohol and drug addictions.
On Tuesday, Brackett was one of 15 women in the program's eighth graduating class.
To graduate, participants must be drug- and alcohol-free, crime-free, employed, actively participating in community recovery support, engaged in reunification plans with their children, and meeting all legal and court requirements.
An after-care program and a three-year follow up evaluation are provided by the University of Tulsa.
"I wouldn't be the person I am today if it wasn't for this program," Brackett said. "It's changed my life."
Women in Recovery Director Mimi Tarrasch said she's seen a huge transformation in Brackett.
"She was a lost soul when she came in," she said. "She had lost her way in terms of how bright and articulate she was.
"She's learned to deal with the demons in her life, and if you don't do that, you're going to struggle to move forward in life."
Since 2009, when the program began, 95 women - including Tuesday's class - have graduated. Women in Recovery is funded by the George Kaiser Family Foundation and operated by Family and Children's Services.
"The transformations that these women have undergone as a result of the Women in Recovery program are incredible," said Tulsa County Presiding District Judge William Kellough.
"This program is an outstanding model for an alternative to incarceration, providing these women with the treatment, supervision and resources they need to re-enter society and reconnect with their children," he said.
"To build a just and stable community requires not only strict enforcement of the law but also a process to rebuild our fellow citizens, mentally and morally.
"Our judicial system fails if it does not take this into account."
Women in Recovery by the numbers
95: number of graduates
66.5: percentage of women incarcerated in Oklahoma for non-violent offenses
64: percent of women who complete the program
29: the number of children who have mothers in Tuesday's graduating class
70: percent of women who were unemployed when they entered the program. Now 100 percent of the graduates are employed.
29.3: mean age of the women in the program
Mike Averill 918-581-8489
mike.averill@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Second chances celebrated
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