Alternative to jail time offers help

By John Doherty ~ Times Herald-Record ~ April 23, 2005

Newburgh – Melissa Hoysradt's wake-up call came last August, when she passed out behind the wheel and slammed her car into an 18-wheeler.
It was an accident she was lucky to survive. And it could have brought her a third drunken-driving conviction – and jail time.
Hoysradt, 31, of Orange Lake, has struggled with alcohol and opiate abuse since she was 16.
Yesterday, she and six other women graduated from a new Orange County-sponsored program geared to break the cycle of trouble for women on the wrong side of the law.
"Now I'm getting older, and I'm a single mother. I want a better life for myself. I want a better life for my son," she said. "I think I'm done. I don't think jail would do any one of us any good.
Orange County District Attorney Frank Phillips agrees.
The Women's Enrichment Program was created last year as an alternative to jail for female offenders.
It's similar to existing alternative programs such as drug court, drunken-driving education classes and so-called "john schools" for men arrested for soliciting prostitutes.
All of the women who graduated from the first course in October and at yesterday's ceremony were ordered there by the courts – although the program is open to voluntary participants.
During the weeklong course, the women learn about resources available to them, from GED courses and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to mental-health treatment and safe houses for victims of domestic violence.
"It was good to see what's out there," said Erica Winnard, 22, of Marlborough, whose second drunken-driving arrest was followed by a drunken crash off a cliff.
A college student with an intact family, Winnard wasn't as desperate for help as some of the participants. But the exposure to the program was an eye-opener, she said.
"It showed me how much further down I could go," she said.
Self-esteem is at the heart of the program, says Lynda Mitchell, the assistant district attorney who runs the program.
The program was initially conceived as a way to reduce street prostitution and sought to address the health and emotional issues that can lead women into that life.
But the same methods can work for women charged with other offenses.
One woman was ordered into the program after smuggling a cell phone to an inmate at Fishkill Correctional Facility, where she worked in the laundry. Another woman was arrested for the first time in her life – for larceny – after falling in love with a troubled man.