Program For Incarcerated Women Celebrates A New Campus

Ariel Beasley said her life was going in the wrong direction until she found ReMerge.

"I've been an addict,” Beasley said. “I've been homeless. I've been kidnapped. I've been a criminal. I've been on heroin.”

Those issues are now in her past.

"I wanted to get to get custody of my son so badly," Beasley said.

Beasley enrolled in ReMerge, an alternative program that keeps women in the community and out of jail.

Today, Beasley is a member of the ReMerge Oklahoma Board of Directors.

Friday was a momentous day as ReMerge opened its new campus alongside Gov. Stitt and state Senator George Young.

"ReMerge stands as an example of the very things we should be pushing to make this nation better," Young said. 

ReMerge offers access to housing, treatment, job placement and family services to women and mothers who have non-violent felony convictions in Oklahoma County.

The new campus will be able to help 50 percent more mothers than their previous space.

Stitt said ReMerge has saved the state millions in taxpayer dollars by keeping women out of jail.