FEMALE INMATES TO BE SENT OUT OF STATE

Panel allows move of 120 women to West Virginia prison to ease crowding

Madison -- In as little as two weeks, Wisconsin for the first time will send
female inmates to a prison out of state to ease severe crowding, under a
contract approved Thursday by a key legislative committee.

On a 12-3 vote, the Joint Finance Committee gave the state Department of
Corrections authority to send 120 women to a federal minimum-security prison
in Alderson, W.Va., about 65 miles southeast of Charleston.

The contract with the federal Bureau of Prisons will cost the state $58.30
per inmate per day, or about $2.5 million a year. The state will transport
the prisoners to the federal prison camp as early as Aug. 14.

Until now, Wisconsin has shipped only male convicts out of state to ease
prison crowding.

After the vote, Kristine Krenke, warden at Wisconsin's only medium- and
maximum-security prison for women in Taycheedah, said the agency had no
alternative.

"We have really exhausted all options to try to keep people in Wisconsin,"
Krenke said. With no single cells available, she said common areas of the
prison were being used to house prisoners.

The Taycheedah prison near Fond du Lac has an operating capacity of about
430, yet held 683 inmates Thursday, Krenke said. Other Wisconsin facilities
for female inmates also are crowded beyond capacity, she said.

"It's a real unfortunate reality," Krenke said of the unprecedented move to
transfer female inmates out of state.

However, having visited the West Virginia prison, Krenke described it as an
excellent facility offering treatment and educational programs, and she said
that as many 40 Taycheedah inmates had expressed an interest in transfers.

In selecting inmates for transfers, Krenke said women who have children and
want to remain in Wisconsin would receive no special consideration. "That
was not one of the considerations in reviewing either men or women for
out-of-state transfers," she said.

Krenke said inmates would be sent to Alderson if they meet the camp's
guidelines for placement at the minimum-security prison, and if their
sentence is long enough to justify the expense of sending them to West Virginia.

In an attempt to provide some relief at Taycheedah, the state built a
150-bed barracks at a cost of $1.1 million. But Krenke said another barracks
at Taycheedah was not the answer.

"You're not only talking beds," Krenke said. Besides bunks, a prison should
offer inmates programs aimed at rehabilitation, she said. "Because Wisconsin
definitely does not see itself as a state that warehouses people," she said.

Rep. Spencer Coggs (D-Milwaukee), Sen. Brian Burke (D-Milwaukee) and Rep.
Barbara Linton (D-Highbridge) voted against the out-of-state transfer of
female prisoners.

Coggs said he objected to the transfer even though his position probably was
politically unpopular.

"Obviously, prisoners don't vote, and often times the poor families that
they come from don't vote," Coggs said.

But Coggs said he felt compelled to object, primarily for two reasons.

Coggs, who was one of the state lawmakers to tour Texas jails last summer,
said he found out that Wisconsin convicts in that state come under so-called
Texas rules.

"Texas rules often times treated model prisoners from Wisconsin with less
regard than the most heinous murderers and rapists in the state of
Wisconsin," he said.

Coggs said the vast majority of Wisconsin's inmates come from Milwaukee, and
many would return to Milwaukee after serving their time. He said he was
concerned about their attitude upon returning home and whether they would
commit new crimes.

"The vast majority of these prisoners, whether male or female, will be
coming back to my community," he said. "They're not going to be going to
Brookfield, Whitefish Bay or River Hills."

Wisconsin's inmate population now totals 16,429, yet the state prison system
has an operating capacity for 12,628 inmates, including cells the state is
renting elsewhere.

While female prisoners amount to less than 6% of the inmate population, the
number of women imprisoned in Wisconsin has been growing at a faster rate
than the male inmate population.

Since January 1996, the female inmate population has increased from 508 to
952, or 87%, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

During the same period, the male inmate population increased from 10,777 to
15,477, or 44%.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett