BUILDING A NEW LIFE AFTER PRISON
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out she might spend at least 15 years in prison. “I let my sister adopt her, and at that time, I believed I was doing the best thing for her,” Costa says. “We had an open adoption. Nicole would know that I was her mother.”
In December 1998, Costa was released after serving four years and used her bus ticket to rejoin her sister Melinda, her daughter and the rest of her family, who had all moved to Springfield. But her problems didn’t stop with a change of scenery.
“I started doing the same things all over again,” she says. “It’s like I have a magnet. It finds me. I don’t have to find it.” Costa was busted for selling drugs three more times after coming to Springfield. The third time, in May 2007, she was sentenced to five years at the maximum-security Dwight Correctional Center.
It might have been her love of dogs that helped her take the first step to recovery. While in Dwight, Costa enrolled in dog grooming classes, where she learned to bathe dogs and trim their nails. After she finished the program, her teacher recommended her transfer to the Decatur Correctional Center so she could continue her studies. (Students get to use clippers in the classes at the medium-security prison.) Costa also joined a drug treatment program at Decatur, and that’s when she finally decided it was time to change, she says. She considered checking into a residential recovery program when she was released, but then she heard about Project Return. She applied to the program and was soon visited by Paulette Roberts, the clinical program coordinator, and Patsy Howe, the addiction recovery specialist.
Costa started with Project Return after she paroled from prison in September 2008. “Patsy Howe said the day she met me, she told Paulette when they were leaving, ‘Paulette, that one’s a keeper,’” she says. “They all have a lot of faith in me, and that’s OK. I’m going to make it.”
Once the accepted participants are released, they are matched with a partnership team that’s comprised of four volunteers from a capital city area church or service organization. Several Project Return graduates are partnership team members, Edmund says, which is a huge asset to the program.
“This is someone that our new lady coming up can connect to,” she says. “She can see someone who’s been there and been successful.”
Costa was paired with a team from the First Church of the Brethren. Even though it wasn’t required, she started going to church with her team members. She’s found another family there, she says. The first time Paula Harris, one of the members of Costa’s partnership team, met Costa, she immediately pegged her as gregarious and determined.
“RaeLynn has been a blessing not only to our team, but to the church,” Harris says. “She’s put in a lot of hard work and it’s starting to pay off for her. A dog wash and a car wash — who would think of that for a fundraiser? She has some unique abilities.”
Roger Ruth, another team member, confesses that he had never spent time around a former inmate, but experienced a similar reaction: “I met her, and I was like, ‘Wow, this woman is very honest.’ Her personality was very infectious. I knew there was something good working there.”
Project Return, the partnership team and the participant work together to establish a covenant that identifies everything the participant wants to work toward in the next year. Costa told her team that she wanted to manage her own dog grooming business, so members asked the church for donations and helped her get the tools she needed.
In April Costa’s team also helped her move from the mobile home she was living in with her roommate, Richard Duffey, to a remodeled home in Southern View. It’s another positive partnership, Costa says, because Duffey takes care of the rent. She pays the other bills, cooks the meals and cleans the house.
Other teams have helped their participant meet their goals by taking them to find apartments or to find furniture for their new homes.
They offer their participants a break from daily stressors by treating them to movies or dinner, as well as providing moral support. One team held a graveside memorial service for a woman who lost a child, but couldn’t attend the funeral because she was in prison.
The participants are expected to follow certain guidelines. They meet at least once a month with Project Return and with their team. They attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings or other support groups if they’re in recovery, and see a counselor if they’re dealing with mental health issues. They’re also asked to access appropriate health care for their families and apply for jobs. Project Return rewards participants for each success with incentive points. A job application is worth five points, Edmund explains, while attending two AA meetings each week is worth 10.
The points translate into dollars and can be spent on anything the women need, including rent or utilities payments, extra groceries or birthday gifts for their kids. In the beginning, Costa attended the required number of AA meetings and even earned additional points by cooking for her fellow participants. Now that she’s been clean and sober for more than two years, she says, she doesn’t feel like she needs to attend the meetings. She still visits with Howe once a month and calls on family or a team member for support.
“I know what to do when there comes a point where I’m having a bad day, and I want to go get high,” Costa says. “I know how to pick up a phone, and I will.” Edmund has worked in social services for the past 10 years, while Roberts and Howe have both worked in the field for more than 20 years. What appeals to them most about Project Return, Edmund says, is offering an intensive,