Tulsa World: State's women prisoners are focus of a film

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State's women prisoners are focus of a film

By SHANNON MUCHMORE World Staff Writer
Published: 7/20/2008 2:13 AM
Last Modified: 7/20/2008 3:32 AM

The Tulsa Community AIDS Partnership on Monday will present a short film about incarcerated women in Oklahoma and a peer education program that teaches them about HIV prevention and other social issues.

A panel discussion will follow the 11-minute documentary, titled "Empowering the Yard." It was shot at the Eddie Warrior Correction Center in Taft.

Peer educators at the prison are interviewed about why the state's incarceration rates are high and what the program has taught them about self-esteem, safe sex, domestic violence and drug abuse.

Oklahoma incarcerates more women per capita than any other state, said Janice Nicklas, director of the Tulsa Community AIDS Partnership.

"It's just a situation we really need to focus a lot of attention on and go a different direction in," she said.

The panel will include two former incarcerated peer educators, Debbie Burns and Maryann Rodriquez, who is now an attorney.

Also on the panel are Dr. Mike Jackson, chief medical officer for the Department of Corrections; Carla King, deputy warden at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center; Charlotte Gish of the Office of Women's Health in the federal Department of Health and Human Services; and Sharon Warrior, supervisor and case manager for the DOC.

They will encourage viewers to think critically about the female prison population in Oklahoma and the associated risk factors for HIV.

They will also foster a dialogue about what can be done to address these issues, said Melanie Spector, health education researcher for the DOC and panel moderator.

The peer education program started about 15 years ago, said Spector, who founded the program.

College professors teach the women, and the participants receive college credit. After completing the curriculum about women's theory and HIV prevention, they teach others in the prison, she said.

"It's a whole cadre of women's developmental theory and women's developmental issues that can all lead to HIV transmission," Spector said.

The program won a Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Program Leadership award in 2002.

Nicklas said the film and panel discussion should show that the state needs to do more to help women with mental health and substance abuse problems, instead of just sending them to prison.

"We want to bring all parties into the discussion and see if we can do something about it," she said.

‘Empowering the Yard’

What: A film about incarcerated women in Oklahoma and the HIV Prevention Project for Women in Oklahoma Prisons, followed by a panel discussion

When: 5:30 p.m. Monday

Where: All Souls Unitarian Church, 2952 S. Peoria Ave.

Cost: free

For More: 699-4226

Shannon Muchmore 581-8378
shannon.muchmore@tulsaworld.com By SHANNON MUCHMORE World Staff Writer

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