I began my career working in social services with victims of physical and sexual abuse, as well as severe neglect. Back then, the focus was to help them feel safe and start the healing process. They had been traumatized often by the very persons responsible for caring for them. It was emotional work, and it seemed there was a never-ending stream of victims needing support to transform into survivors.
When I was getting my master’s degree, I had the opportunity, for the first time in my life, to co-facilitate a group for folks that were court-ordered into treatment because of domestic violence. I had been working with victims for almost ten years at this point, and a light bulb went off above my head. I thought to myself, “Wait. If I change the behavior of the perpetrator, then there will be fewer victims. Well, that’s kind of impactful, and I need to be doing that.”
And the universe laid out a new path, as it so often does, by connecting me with a new group. I began working with an organization that helped the victims by eliminating the threats. That company worked with offenders to rehabilitate them, to neutralize the danger, and to reduce the number of victims by preventing the crime before it even happened.
It wasn’t too much longer before I had the opportunity to partner with Charles Morton to start our own community protection program, Community Integrated Services, or CIS.
I knew I was doing important work, the kind of work that feeds your soul even when it tests your spirit. But I didn’t realize that many people, even in the social services world, did not understand the scope of this problem.
U.S. Prisons are Crowded with People with Intellectual Disabilities
American prisons hold more than 550,000 people with developmental disabilities. Some estimates report that as many as a quarter of all prisoners have a mental or intellectual disability. The picture gets even more discouraging when you realize that people with multiple sites of marginalized identity (such as people who have a disability AND are low income or those who have an intellectual disability AND are a person of color) are represented at even higher percentages. These people are facing challenges that many of us can’t even imagine.
New Solutions for a New Century
In the 1900s, people with developmental disabilities or mental illness were put into asylums. These institutions were poorly managed, and many were openly abusive. Then, from the 1940s through the 1970s, the big state asylums went away with the hope that people with mental disabilities could be integrated into society. And in many cases, that worked beautifully. In other cases, it did not.
Without the choice of alternative facilities, many people with intellectual disabilities were sent to prison for minor and major offenses. But prisons were not set up to handle the challenges of developmental disabilities, and so a vicious cycle began. People with developmental disabilities are more likely to be incarcerated, treated poorly behind bars, learn more violent means to harm others as those things will be done to them, and, once released, are more likely to return to prison.
In the 21st century, community protection programs for the intellectually disabled are becoming more common. CIS is such an organization that operates on behalf of the State of Washington. We provide rehabilitation and close supervision of violent offenders in a community-based setting, removing them from the traditional prison system. This reduces the burden on overcrowded penal facilities and puts people with disabilities in an appropriate environment for their needs and backgrounds. Specially trained support professionals are assigned to each offender providing 24-hour supervision and support. This is layered with case managers who assist with identifying risk, creating a compassionate plan, and working towards partial or complete rehabilitation.
Often it works, and that is wildly gratifying. We get to see our clients thrive, manage their responses, recognize triggers, develop healthy relationships, get jobs, and really transform. But in some cases, the difficult behavior continues, and we must develop ways to care for violent offenders, protecting them from themselves and the community without abusing or exploiting them.
No matter who we’re working with, our progress is rarely linear. We seldom reach one progressive milestone after another. Instead, it’s a series of victories and setbacks, evaluating and re-adjusting plans continually and slowly finding the approaches that work best for each client.
Lessons from a Protection Community
Violent offenders come to CIS with an intellectual disability, but many are also diagnosed with some combination of mental illness, physical disabilities, and a long tragic history of being abused. Very few of the people who come to CIS have good life skills. Many can’t work appliances, know how to eat healthy, count money, how to track when they have taken their prescribed medications and/or the benefit of doing so consistently. Almost none have had the kind of counseling a person with intellectual disabilities needs to understand what happened to them and how important it is for them to change their harmful behavior.
The Importance of Safe Spaces
I’ve been doing this for almost two decades, and one thing I have learned absolutely is that providing a safe space is essential in the rehabilitation process. A safe space isn’t just a door with a lock. It’s also being supervised by people who are kind and patient. And that requires extraordinary compassion.
When I talk to new employees at CIS, I tell them that all the people that work here came into this world with a leg up. We are relatively smart. We have homes and families. We have friends and the ability to get a job. Most of us are pretty healthy.
But our clients were born with a disability. Most also have a myriad of genetic issues that can include physical handicaps and mental illness. They came into this world with lots of disadvantages. I share a statistic I heard once that indicated that upwards of 83% of persons with intellectual disabilities have been victimized at some point in their life. I then ask those employees to sit with that tragic and heart-wrenching statistic…
It’s our job to come into our clients’ lives and give them a reason to experience joy, be happy, and help them lead a life worth living. We try to bring out the best in a person, even if they’ve done bad things in the past, so they can grow and evolve. Our goal is to help them transition from a menace, compulsively lashing out, into a contributing member of society, able to manage emotions and understand social expectations. We’re able to give many of our clients confidence in themselves, the ability to safely go out into the world and to successfully hold a job.
Easing Chronic Problems in Our Justice System
Protected communities that work towards rehabilitation don’t exist solely because of moral or ethical obligations. It’s not always possible to rehabilitate each intellectually disabled individual, but it is essential to provide protected environments in which rehabilitation is possible.
I started to do this work because I believe it reduces the number of victims by reducing future crimes. I love this work because I believe it is a compassionate, ethical, and moral way to handle the complex problem of violent offenders with intellectual disabilities.
But it’s important for everyone to know that this approach holds the potential to ease a range of chronic problems in our justice system, including repeat offenses, homelessness, unsafe streets, overcrowded prisons, overworked guards, and stressed-out law enforcement. Protected communities provide long-reaching benefits for all parts of society.