Resolana’s first six months in the dedicated tank at Dallas County Jail

By Bette Buschow, Resolana founder and executive director

Six months have passed since Resolana established a dedicated tank in the Dallas County Jail.  Here are some numbers to give a broad picture of what this work has accomplished so far.

Between April 1 and Sept 20, 2011, Resolana’s dedicated program tank served 278 (unduplicated) women.  We offered 398 classes to inmates in our classroom and held 57 community meetings in the tank for a total of 455 sessions.  The classes alone represent 5889 “touches” of women incarcerated in Dallas County Jail; with community meetings added, the touches total an estimated 8740.

Resolana has recently added a weekly four day intensive course for our intake group and “open call” classes on Friday afternoons; we will be adding Saturday NA meetings within the month.  Resolana has also begun expanding case management services for program participants, and our new full time clinical manager and interns from the UTArlington and USC School of Social Work will continue to develop this critical part of our program in the next months

Over 1600 in-jail hours were clocked by staff and volunteers during this six month period. This represents a monumental effort by a small staff and dedicated volunteers.

The cost, based on current records of program expenses for this time period, works out to about $6/woman/session.