A woman incarcerated at the Atlanta City Detention Center tosses her cap in the air after graduating from the New Beginnings Program at the Atlanta City Detention Center on Tuesday, June 9, 2026.
(Chamian Cruz/WABE)
Inside the Atlanta City Detention Center, some incarcerated women are finding their voices and building community through a program aimed at helping them not come back.
More than a dozen women wearing different colored caps and gowns over their jail uniforms and orange slides celebrated the end of the four-month program called New Beginnings on Tuesday. It addresses substance use, mental health and other barriers to reentry.
Nicole Jackson, who served as the program’s chair, said she’s been incarcerated “for a long time.” Over the course of the program, she’s learned life skills, participated in one-on-one counseling sessions and daily devotionals, and visited the law library.
“I’m looking to go home and reunite with my family and do the right thing,” she said. “Go out there and be great.”
The program has helped her get closer to reaching those goals.
“You gotta step on faith,” Jackson said. “You got to understand that things might be complicated, but if you take that first step, you’ll be on your way to something that’s possible.”
According to the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank, most women in prisons and jails have experienced some form of childhood abuse or trauma, and they consistently report higher rates of mental health and substance use disorders than their male counterparts.
Fourteen incarcerated women graduated from the 16-week New Beginnings Program on Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (Chamian Cruz/WABE)
Guest speaker Unique Dixon said she can relate. She’s the creator of The Recovery H.O.T. Gyrl, which stands for healing, overcoming and thriving, and has been sober for the past 10 years.
“I sat in those same chairs, I did some of the same things,” she said.
In her hands is a collage of her old mugshots.
“This is the hope that I get to share with these young ladies, you know, that was me years ago, caught up in addiction and trauma and all of the endless loops that lifestyle brings,” Dixon said. “And just a month ago, I was able to walk with my master’s degree in social work, and I just became a therapist yesterday!”
Counselor Lorene Shields said the program has existed since 1996 and is effective because it helps women in jail focus on their recovery rather than their charges.
“It is really good for the jail to have a program like this for these women so that they are not just locked down every day, all day,” Shields said. “They’re actually using their gifts, their talents, and, you know, bringing those things to the forefront and the sisterhood and creating that community every day.”
