“It allows me to be the mom to her that she needs me to be, while being incarcerated,” said Marie Haller, an incarcerated mother in the Residential Parenting Program at Washington Corrections Center for Women. This program allows women with sentences of 30 months or less who come to prison pregnant to keep their newborns by their side. It is proving to be a catalyst for lasting change, prioritizing the irreplaceable bond between mother and child. | Washington State Department of Corrections

After spending time at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor, Chantal Trotter was looking to make a change in her life. Being a mother, she wanted to reconnect with her children and thanks to the Community Parenting Alternative (CPA), she was able to accomplish that goal. “Everybody kind of says I got a second chance, that I started my life over but really I got a new life because the old life I was living wasn’t something that was really gainful,” said Trotter. Her 11-year-o

In February 2019, Washington Corrections Center for Women installed a body scanner in the facility’s visitation room. Operations for the new scanner began in April. Corrections specialist Jennifer Grabil says that preventing dangerous contraband from entering the prison is vital to the facility’s security. In the few months the scanner has been operational, staff have seized one hundred strips of suboxone, thirteen grams of heroin, and seventeen grams of meth from inmates. “I think it’s keeping