Nearly a dozen women graduate from a program offered at Nebraska Correctional Center

At the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York, nine women proudly graduated on Monday.

The program is called EMPOWR and it’s goal is to provide incarcerated women with the tools to move beyond the cycle of addiction and abuse, in order to become self-confident, self-controlled, self-directed, self-sustaining and self-empowered women as they begin their journey outside of prison or jail.

“Obviously I’m in prison and obviously I need to be open minded to what is being offered to me and this prison has offered me a lot so I figured one more class that sounds like this, I’m going to take it,” graduate of the EMPOWR program, Kelsey Hallagin said.

The program was created by ‘Released and Restored,’ an almost 14 year old non profit organization.

One woman says the 17 week program isn’t easy.

“It’s just not a surface program, it’s something that you actually have to think about, it’s things you have to look into yourself and see more about who you are as a person,” graduate of the EMPOWR program, April Fischer said.

The executive director says this helps reduce prison over crowding and statistics show an enormous need for a program like this.

95% report experiencing physical violence at the hands of an intimate partner.

“I wanted to get rid of those toxic relationships in my life and that’s kind of why I originally joined the class but it went deeper than that and I got so much more out of it then those toxic relationships,” Fischer said.

“I have boundaries now, I can actually tell people no, I can be confident, I can tell myself you know I’m okay today, I don’t need no validation, I don’t need somebody else to make me feel okay,” Hallagin said.

To join the program, those incarcerated have to apply. The next program starting in January has already doubled in capacity.