FEMALE PRISON RANKS DOUBLE

Citing Study, Norton Plans Bills to Improve Conditions

The nation's female inmate population in state and federal prisons in the
1990s doubled, growing far faster than the male population, according to a
federal study released yesterday by the General Accounting Office.
The study, commissioned by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), also found
that the majority of women in prison are incarcerated for nonviolent crimes,
are mothers and are incarcerated at great distances from their children, and
that women in prison are more likely to suffer from HIV infection and mental
illness than men are.

The study--the second commissioned by Norton on women-in-prison
issues--prompted her to prepare three bills to help improve conditions
for incarcerated women.

"In placing women in carbon copies of male institutions, the U.S. and
the states are not meeting some important gender-specific health and
other services," Norton said. "As a result, prison systems have failed
to respond effectively to rates of HIV infection and mental illness
among female inmates that are greater than among males and have
actually reduced drug treatment--even though nonviolent drug crimes
are the major cause for female incarceration."

A separate study on the transfer of female inmates from D.C. prisons
to Bureau of Prisons facilities found that two-thirds of the 218
female inmates relocated were sent to a federal prison in Danbury,
Conn.--a facility 300 miles from the District. That's too far and one
more reason to seek a community-based program in the District, Norton
said. "It's so far that there is very little contact between the
children and their mothers," Norton said. "That creates a situation in
which it will be very difficult to intergrate these mothers back into
the care and supervision of their children once they're home."

The GAO looked specifically at the federal Bureau of Prisons, the
California Department of Corrections and the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice--the nation's three largest prison systems.

Norton said she will introduce a bill that requires, as a condition
for receiving federal funding for construction of prisons for female
inmates, states to submit a plan on how they intend to provide
gender-specific health and other services.

She said she also will submit a bill requiring the Bureau of Prisons
to use existing prison construction funds to establish two pilot
community-based facilities in the District for nonviolent, short-term
or pregnant offenders.

A third bill would allow sentencing alternatives in the federal
system, such as allowing first-time nonviolent offenders to serve
their sentences at a community-based facility.

Norton, speaking at a news conference at the Capitol yesterday, said
the rapid rise in the number of female inmates has, unfairly, long
stood in the shadow of the widely publicized growing male inmate
population. "Society has paid no attention to the overcrowding of the
female prison populations," Norton said.

The nation's female inmate population rose from 5.7 percent of the
U.S. prison population in 1990 to 6.5 percent by 1998, according to
the study. The result, Norton said, was greater overcrowding in
federal prisons for women than for men.

Norton also pointed to a finding that female incarceration for violent
crimes in state prisons has decreased from 49 percent in 1979 to 28
percent in 1997, and for property crimes from 37 percent to 27 percent
in that period. That means that women are being incarcerated for drug
crimes committed often to feed drug habits and for less serious
property crimes than men, Norton said. "Mandatory minimum and repeat
offender provisions have had the unintended effect of sharply
increasing female incarceration in male-pattern institutions even
though, unlike the males, the female inmates have been convicted for
overwhelmingly nonviolent crimes," Norton said. In what she called the
"most shameful" finding, Norton pointed out that while the number of
female inmates in federal and state prisons has increased from 1990 to
1997, treatment for drug use has declined. Because females are a small
percentage of the nation's prison population, fewer prisons are
required for them, meaning imprisoned mothers are often at great
distances from their children, Norton said. The study reported that 84
percent of federal and 64 percent of states' female inmates are
mothers. Norton said she believed a community-based sentence program
and other alternatives would help relieve this problem.

She said she was also troubled by the study's finding that female
inmates have a higher rate of HIV infection and mental illness than
men. Black females are also more than twice as likely as Hispanic
females and eight times as likely as white females to be incarcerated.
In part, that's because of the unequal racial impact of the mandatory
minimum and repeat offender provisions, Norton said.

In June, Norton released the results of her first GAO-commissioned
study on women in prison. The study found that prison systems in the
United States, including the District's, continue to see sexual
misconduct by correctional staff members against female prisoners.