FEMALE INMATE POPULATION ROCKETING FROM DRUG CRIMES

FRANKFORT, Ky. - Kentucky's female prison population is growing at a faster
rate than male inmate totals, fueled by drug-related crimes and perhaps a
new attitude toward prosecuting and sentencing female offenders.

The number of women with felony convictions incarcerated in Kentucky grew
by nearly a fourth, from 1,387 in June 2003 to 1,728 in December 2004,
according to Corrections Department figures. Less than 40 percent of the
total is housed at Kentucky's only women's prison at Pewee Valley in Shelby
County. The rest are scattered around county jails, halfway houses and
treatment centers.

"It's an alarming statistic, most certainly," said Glenda Woods of the
Kentucky Commission on Women.

The social consequences aside, the population explosion has caused enormous
management headaches for the Corrections Department in trying to figure out
where to put them, how to care for them and how to try to rehabilitate them.

"They're higher maintenance," said Grant County Jailer Steve Kellam, whose
jail routinely houses about 80 females, though the total usually includes
some women under federal sentence.

Women inmates have to deal with separation from children and sometimes
their own pregnancies. They have more medical issues and, for local jails,
simply transporting them back and forth to court or other institutions is
more problematic than with male inmates.

"We are getting a different kind of inmate in," said Cheryl Million,
spokeswoman for the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women. "We're
getting younger, more violent, more drug charges."

Although the kinds of crimes that prompted incarceration have not changed
dramatically in the last five years, corrections and academic officials
believe much of the increase in female population can be attributed to
drugs. A burglary or sex crime might be committed to finance a drug habit,
or violence could grow from a drug deal gone bad.

"I think prosecutors and judges are looking at women more equally than they
did historically," said Kentucky Corrections Commissioner John Rees.
"They're treating women more like men."

The male population in prison is also growing, but at about half the rate
as females.

Rees said the population problems at KCIW are so bad that only pregnant
inmates, those with medical or mental health problems or those under the
most serious sentence are admitted. The rest are left to stay in county
jails until space opens. Prison programs for drug treatment, rehabilitation
and skills training are not keeping up with demand.

Having only one female prison causes other problems, some very unusual.
Co-defendants in criminal cases are in the same place, unlike the male
population, where they are strictly kept in separate institutions. There
are instances of members of the same family in the same prison, even
mothers and daughters, Million said.

"We have to deal with all those issues," Million said.

In addition, more inmates are going into segregation for infractions,
despite some advice.

"They try to teach them - just do your time and get out," Million said.

Yet the time is often getting longer. There were 169 inmates serving
sentences of 15 years or more at KCIW in 2000. That figure was 213 by last
year.

The female inmates are coming from cities and rural areas, east and west.
"It's everywhere," Rees said.

Rees said he has considered moving some female inmates into private prison
cells or even using a section of the new prison opening in Elliott County
for female inmates.

"Pewee Valley has done a fantastic job," Rees said. "The only problem is I
need to clone it."