The number of women in prison is growing.

When they get out, sometimes the options look bleak. Now Long Beach has a new place for female parolees to call home.

LaTasha McGee is cooking up a classic meal: meat and potatoes. Cutting onions and cleaning dishes might seem like a chore, but McGee loves spending time in the kitchen, even if it’s not her own.

McGee is on parole after racking up several charges including theft and child endangerment.

She has eight children. She has lost custody of the minors. In the home for formerly incarcerated women at 940 Dawson Avenue she says her life is on a better path, even though you can’t miss signs of her past.

“My life is, well, it’s not what it used to be, but in a sense of righteousness it’s heading in definitely the right direction,“ said McGee.

While McGee adds in the spices, Susan Burton, the founder of A New Way Of Life Re-entry Project, is cooking up a surprise. Burton just brought her nonprofit to Long Beach.

A stack of gift wrapped skateboards in the home aren’t there for the adults, but rather the children they don’t see every day while they’re on parole. McGee took the presents upstairs to her room. She’ll keep them there until she sees here youngest sons.

This is also where she keeps her family photos. She has a hardback album full of pictures of her kids. Looking at these memories is hard and McGee is not alone feeling this way. More than three-quarters of women in jails are mothers.

The Vera Institute of Justice found that women in jail are the fastest growing correctional population in the country.

“It’s kind of mixed feelings because, I don’t know, I don’t have keys to a door for my children to open,” said McGee.

The cook is usually the last to eat, but she doesn’t dine alone. Surrounded by friends, McGee’s hopes are beginning to simmer because she could get off parole within the next six months.