House helps women ex-offenders
return to society

By Rachel L. Toalson
Staff Writer
The vase of fresh yellow roses sits near the door of Woman at the Well House Ministries in San Antonio, so the women who live there can eye them before stepping outside.
Richard Chandler included the flowers with his monthly grocery donation—to remind residents that he and his wife believe in them, that God has promised them a future and a hope.
Though the women all have different stories about their path to destructive consequences, they have begun to embrace Chandler’s encouragement.
“I know a lot of people pray for this house,” said Susan Gutzler, who lived at Woman at the Well for more than 10 months after spending 22 months in jail for a drug offense. “I know this change is not blessed without God’s grace and without prayer. That’s what gets us back on our feet.”
In 1996, the Rev. Georgia Stone, a Southwest Texas Conference clergy member, created Woman at the Well House Ministries, a nonprofit, nondenominational organization in San Antonio. She had worked extensively in local jail ministries and discovered the need for a place women could stay after their release.
Statistics showed that many women who were released would return within a year.
Woman at the Well House (Advance Special No. 2060 ) provides services to female prisoners released from the local county jail and the Texas state prison system. Its mission is to “feed, clothe and protect women who come from prison and help them transition into the wider community,” said Priscilla Murguia, executive director.
The organization is named for the Bible story in which Jesus met a woman at a well and ministered to her over a drink of water. She took his words to heart and carried them back into her community.
Women must apply to the house. Murguia and her staff review each application to determine if the woman’s medical or emotional needs are too great—no physician is on campus—and if the woman truly wants to recover.
Woman at the Well can house 10 women at a time, Murguia said. She said she hoped to increase that number in the future because she didn’t like to keep women on a waiting list.
Woman at the Well House reports that nine of 10 women who lived there—more than 200 since 1996—never returned to prison.
Murguia attributes that statistic to the program’s strict structure.
Women typically will stay at the house between six and nine months but can stay as long as a year, Murguia said. That’s generally the time women need to find employment, get appropriate housing and establish financial stability.
For the first 30 days of a woman’s stay, Murguia said she and her staff help her take care of all personal (obtaining proper identification), legal (talking with parole officers about parole terms) and medical issues.
Medical issues are the most complicated, Murguia added.
“My experience has been that most of the women who come to us have some kind of medical need that is not addressed,” she said. “In prison, you don’t get treatment unless it’s an emergency. And there are usually female problems that have developed into other problems.”
Women need official identification before they can obtain any medical assistance, and the only identification with which most women come to Woman at the Well House is their prison ID, Murguia said. They typically will have to write for a birth certificate.
Once she and the staff feel a woman is ready, Murguia said they will provide appropriate clothing and bus fare. That enables the resident to look for a job. Women are limited to searching for half a day three times each week.
Finding a job is difficult, Murguia said. Once a woman says on the application that she is an ex-offender, her opportunities are limited.
“This brands you forever,” Gutzler said. “I’ve done my time, but this will follow me. I wish that could be changed. I didn’t steal anything. I didn’t murder anyone. But it will follow me the same.”
Murguia said, “We just have to encourage her. It’s like putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. Society can be very cruel to these ladies. My staff and I try to encourage her, support her, keep telling her to hang in there with us.
“If they do the footwork and continue to do what has to be done, things do usually work out. Many times, she’ll come back to us and ask, ‘How did you know?’ We’ll say, ‘We didn’t.’ We’re in a journey of faith, too.”
The Woman at the Well House staff tries to encourage women to pursue higher education, too, Murguia said. The staff connected 12 women with San Antonio College in the last 10 years.
Woman at the Well House has an agreement with Texas Extension Service as well. It offers certification programs for becoming a welder, data entry clerk or computer technician.
Baptist Community Services offers a three-month program of job training, including improving math and computer skills and advising women how to dress and interview well.
While Woman at the Well House doesn’t charge women anything to stay there, once women start working, they are required to “tithe back” 25 percent of their paychecks. They are also expected to open a personal savings account and deposit another 10 percent—so they have a nest egg to fall back on after leaving, Murguia said.
The house itself is run strictly, said Sally Bethea, program director.
Women are required to rise early, usually around 6 a.m., and attend an early Club 12 meeting—similar to Alcoholics Anonymous.
“Nine of 10 women who come to the house have substance abuse issues,” Bethea said. The women must attend three meetings each week.
Everything is documented. Wo-men post their daily schedules on a community board for counselors and their housemates to see. They’re required to be home from work by 6 p.m., eat a community dinner, finish their house chores by around 8:30 p.m. and close up the kitchen at 9.
They are allowed an hour a day on the computer and 15 minutes on the phone.
Murguia said the staff doesn’t “ram religion down the women’s throats.” It just “guides them to spiritual formation.”
Every Monday, women from Al-amo Heights UMC, San Antonio, facilitate a Bible study at the house. Residents meet individually with a counselor Tuesdays and Fridays. They attend a life skills class each Thursday. Wednesdays are spent attending a recovery circle meeting and worship service at Travis Park UMC, San Antonio.
Women typically do yard work if they stay in town on weekends. Sometimes they will earn an overnight pass to visit their children but are expected to return by 6 p.m. Sunday. Other women have visitors.
The women say structure has been good for them.
Rachel Ramos came to Woman at the Well House after her first stint in prison. She was separated from her 12-year-old son for four years while incarcerated. She is depending on the house and its structure to keep her clean and sober so she can get her son back.
“My life is an open book with new chapters,” she said. “I have something I can look forward to. I put my recovery first. I need my son. We need each other.”
Laura Cuevas applied at Woman at the Well House after her second arrest for possession. She now works at Luby’s Cafeteria part time, plans to graduate from college in San Antonio and get her two children back with her.
Felicia Brown, who has been in the home for more than six months, works a 40-hour week. She said she hopes to live on her own soon and embrace “the plans God has” for her.
Gutzler, who fought through a five-year drug addiction, said she now feels equipped to leave Woman at the Well House and really make it. She has plans to attend college and obtain a degree.
Murguia and Bethea said the program is essential to keep women out of prison— and ultimately costs the government less.
Incarcerating a woman for a year costs $30,000, Murguia said. Housing a woman for a year at Well House costs a third of that.
“Women’s prison populations are going up 15 times faster than men’s,” Murguia said. “And there is very little out there for men, let alone women. And what’s out there for women is usually designed for men.
“Women have different needs. They have to come back to families.”
Bethea said, “The ones who have just been in an institution for so long, they need something that provides structure but also support and guidance.”
Because Woman at the Well House is a nonprofit organization, it always needs more funding, Murguia said. Seventy percent of its funding is provided through churches, civic groups and individuals. The rest comes from grants mostly given through private foundations. Just recently, the house received its first government grant.
People like Chandler bring great blessings with them, the women say.
He and his wife visit in the middle of every month, toting with them a carload of groceries that will last the women weeks.
They do it, Chandler said, because they know what Woman at the Well House does in the lives of its women.