CLAREMORE, Okla.---Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett says the cycle of incarceration doesn't have to continue. Friday, he announced the results of work done by his commission on the status of women.
They say there's been a 24% decrease in the number of women put in prison. Currently, Oklahoma puts away more women than any other state.
City officials say that's unacceptable, so they're taking steps to keep women out of jail. A coffee shop in Claremore is doing it's part by giving former inmates a chance to make a new start.
"I started using methamphetamine when I was 18, that led me to my first incarceration," She Brews Coffee House Manager Michelle Wise said.
Wise keeps her rap sheet out in plain sight.
"My addiction continued on for another 15 years resulting in three different incarcerations," she said.
Before brewing and serving coffee in Claremore, Wise and six of her co-workers were serving time. That's where she says she got tricked into Rhonda Bears' class, "Women in Transition." But she says it's the best trick she's ever fallen for.
"Without the tricks and the lies, God wouldn't have been able to work in me like he has," Wise said.
Bears created the coffee shop with the intent to hire women who had trouble finding a job after getting out of prison. She's a former inmate herself. She said someone helped her get a fresh start, so now she's paying it forward.
"We share a strong sense of hope in this place," she said.
Studies show providing hope after prison is one way to keep women from going back.
"If we can't keep them out of prison, then let's don't give them excessive sentencing which is really what's breaking the state," She Brews Coffee House Owner Rhonda Bears said.
Wise is now back in school at Rogers State University. She's running away from a prison cell and toward a brighter future, while focused on her faith.
The coffee house is working on a second location near the intersection of Route 66 and W Country Club Road.
For more information about She Brews Coffee House, click here.
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