The Muddy Paws re-entry program teaches dog grooming to incarcerated women in Tulsa, Oklahoma, often securing jobs for participants upon release.
With over 60,000 of its residents behind bars, the state of Oklahoma is currently the global leader in its incarceration rate. Focusing mainly on the criminalization of addiction, this project looks at how families continue to live within a prison state.
Alyssa Yarnell with her daughter Mackenzie in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Recently, Alyssa graduated from a drug rehabilitation program that is offered to some female drug offenders in place of a prison sentence. Since she got clean, she and Mackenzie have been rebuilding their relationship. "I had let my daughter down enough," Alyssa said of her decision to enter the program.
Alyssa works as a chemical dependency tech at 12 and 12, a rehabilitation facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She says this has been her dream job since she went through detox here herself.
Alyssa swims with Mackenzie at her apartment in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mackenzie currently lives with her father and visits when he allows. Alyssa is working to get partial legal custody of her daughter.
Mackenzie's drawing for her mom
Alicia Forbit gets ready to visit her husband Chris Forbit at Dick Conners Correctional Facility in Hominy, Oklahoma. Soon they will sit across from one another at a table in the waiting room they were married in 2 years ago.
Alicia swims in the Arkansas River after visiting Chris in prison.
Alicia holds the phone to Maddie, Chris's sister, to talk to Chris on his birthday. The two prepared his favorite meal for the two of them and made a birthday cake of vending machine food at their next visit.
An Valentine's Day card Chris made Alicia while he was in prison.
Lindsay McAteer and her son Talon in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Lindsay was in forms of addiction for 20 years, but said things became unbearable when she started using meth. She achieved sobriety while in Women in Recovery. “I was lucky Talon was so young when I found recovery, so he’s never really had to see me in that condition," she said. "Now he was a healthy mom who puts him first.”
Lindsay watches her son Talon build legos before taking him to school. "It's funny that taking him to school is the best part of my day," Lindsay said. "I appreciate so much after being separated."
Lindsay calls her acceptance into Women in Recovery "a gift from God."
Deborah Hansard speaks to her daughter Amber Kirk from the Mabel Basset Correctional Facility, three hours from her home in Mulvane, Kansas. Deborah has been raising her three grandkids on her own since Amber's incarceration.
Crystal Kirk placed a photo of her mother, Amber Kirk, above her bed in Mulvane, Kansas. Her mother is in Mabel Bassett Correctional Center serving a life sentence for drug-related charges while Crystal and her siblings live with their grandmother.
A family portrait of Shaunte Gordon (center) with her daughter Angelina (left), granddaughter Adalynn, and mother Carolyn (right) in Claremore, Oklahoma. Due to generational incarceration, Shaunte became estranged from Angelina after she gave birth to her at 15. They were recently reunited through Facebook.
Angelina looks at family photos from her mother Shaunte, piecing in the gaps in her family history.
Adalynn drew a heart for her great-grandmother Carolyn in Claremore, Oklahoma.
Apirl Pless gradautes from Women in Recovery in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
April Pless, a graduate of Women in Recovery, lives with Zoe Hillard, a current participant of the program. They are raising their children together, of whom they both have partial custody.
Alyssa, 11, runs ahead of her mother at their apartment complex in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her mother, April Pless, recently graduated from Women in Recovery, a rehabilitation program that serves as an alternative for long, drug-related sentences. Alyssa moved in with her mother again shortly after April's graduation from the program and just before Alyssa started middle school.