When women are released from Lancaster County Prison, it's usually with no notice.

At all hours of the day and night, ex-offenders find themselves homeless and on the street. With no safe place to go, they often wind up back where they were when they were arrested — and before long, they wind up back behind prison bars.

The House of Ruth aims to break that cycle.

Linda Bird, one of the founders of the transitional housing ministry for women leaving prison, said the key to keeping ex-offenders out of jail is relationships.

"Otherwise, they're going to go right back in," she said.

Bird, whose B.I.R.D. Ministries provide re-entry management services to female inmates, opened House of Ruth — with her husband, Joe — 15 months ago. Twelve women have gone through the program since then.

Now the Birds want more people to know what the House of Ruth can do. On Dec. 5-6, the New Holland Pike center will host an open house for the public called "Christmas Memories."

"The goal is for people to know we're here," she said.

A safe haven
The House of Ruth grew out of Bird's ministry with women in the prison. One of the biggest needs, she discovered, was housing for ex-offenders when they leave 625 E. King St.

In a video on B.I.R.D. Ministries' Web site, Bird notes that she has seen women who just were released from jail walking the streets in January wearing the same shorts and flip-flops they had on when they were arrested.

When women — and men — are released from prison without a home, the result, Bird said, is recidivism. They return to crackhouses and family situations that put them in jail in the first place.

More than 70 percent of female offenders, whose crimes usually involve substance abuse and addiction, go back to prison.

The Birds opened the House of Ruth on a 3.5-acre property — it's on a bus route so residents have transportation — to give women a chance to try a new direction in life.

In addition to housing, the program offers mentoring, drug and alcohol treatment, Bible study and life-skills education.

"Just providing housing doesn't solve the problem," Bird said. "You can't just take them out of the prison and put them into their own apartment. Their thinking hasn't changed."

House of Ruth held a Christmas open house last year, mainly for supporters of the ministry. "It was so successful last year we decided to go more public with it this year," Bird said.

The drop-in open house will include a tour of the property and a video presentation.

"I hope that when people leave here, they have a good, solid understanding of what women coming out of prison are facing," she said.

Lancaster County Prison is overcrowded, and county officials are studying options for dealing with the numbers, including building a new jail. Bird said spending millions of dollars on another prison has limited value.

"That doesn't solve the problem," she said. "We have to attack it at the root."

"Christmas Memories" at the House of Ruth, 2311 New Holland Pike, will be open from 6-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 5-6. Refreshments will be offered. For information, call B.I.R.D. Ministries, 295-3301, or visit www.birdministries.org.

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Helen Colwell Adams is a Sunday News staff writer. E-mail her at hcolwell@lnpnews.com.