New Hour, which helps women who served behind bars, opens new headquarters

Danielle Smith said she may soon regain custody of her son thanks to a Long Island nonprofit dedicated to women and mothers who, like her, served time behind bars.

Smith, 39, of Hauppauge, stood among a crowd of formerly incarcerated women and elected officials to celebrate the new, larger Brentwood headquarters for the nonprofit organization New Hour for Women and Children.

Since its founding in 2015, executive director Serena Martin-Liguori said, New Hour has helped nearly 13,000 women like Smith reenter the workforce, academia and the housing market, as well as navigate the legal system and their relationships with their children. Their new headquarters boasts a reading nook where mothers staying at shelters have a safe space to bond with their children.

While serving 8 months behind bars for a DWI with her then-8-month-old child in the car, Smith said women from New Hour visited her and other women "to show us that somebody loved us." Three years after her release, she has a home and has begun training to become a substance abuse counselor.

"I’m able to fight for my son now ... and it’s really thanks to these women," Smith said. "They saved my life in more ways than I can even state."

The nonprofit aims to turn its beneficiaries into staff. Martin-Liguori, its leader since its inception, was sentenced to 3 years behind bars when she was 20 years old in 1999.

"When I came home from incarceration, there was no ... safe space for women to get support and resources, and also for mothers to reconnect with their children," she said.

The nonprofit’s work also "means we’re keeping our communities safe," Martin-Liguori said.

The five-year recidivism rate in Nassau County is 62%, according to New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services data. That figure is 67% in Suffolk County. Men are more likely to reoffend than women in both counties.

Among the nearly 13,000 women New Hour has helped to date, Martin-Liguori reported a 2% recidivism rate.

Compared to their male counterparts, Martin-Liguori said women face unique challenges after their release. She said they often "make less money than men" and "often come home and have to take care of children versus men who are able to just focus on themselves." Nearly all — 95% — of the women New Hour serves "live below the poverty line," and "nine out of 10 are survivors of abuse."

A surprise announcement minutes before the ribbon cutting Friday afternoon left Martin-Liguori in tears. In 2022, she said, New Hour secured a home just a couple of miles away from its headquarters to create six-to-24-month housing for women released from incarceration.

"This was our dream when we started this whole business," said George Kraus, who, along with his wife, Patty, was inspired to establish New Hour a decade ago and fronted tens of thousands of dollars to get it off the ground. "We’re almost there, but what’s holding us from finishing this is funding."

The Florida couple who summer in Southhampton then shared with the crowd that they would donate the last $300,000 estimated to cover the remaining construction and furnishing costs so the house could be ready in the coming months.

"That was a shock," Martin-Liguori said. "Every year they give money, but that is beyond generous."