BEHIND BARS Female population soars in US prisons BY STEVEN STYCOS

Even as the number of women in US prisons more than doubled from 1992 to 2002, Rhode Island’s female prisoner population remained fairly stable at about 200, says Cindy Drake, deputy warden for the women’s facilities at the state Department of Corrections.

"We’d like to think it’s because we’ve made a commitment in the last 10 years," commented Teresa Foley, professional-services coordinator at the women’s facilities, "that every woman [prisoner] has transitional programming." But Foley cautioned that a careful statistical analysis of DOC’s results has yet to be completed.

While praising Rhode Island’s treatment of women inmates, a panel of reformers called for major changes in drug laws and prison policies while speaking last Friday, December 3 at Brown University. Speakers, sponsored by the Rhode Island chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, endorsed more education and less punishment for women accused of non-violent drug-related crimes.

Their calls come just a month after the US Department of Justice released statistics showing that the number of inmates in state in federal prisons rose by 2.1 percent last year, even though the rate for violent crime continue to decline. DOC officials say Rhode Island is bucking that trend with women prisoners by inviting social service agencies like the Urban League of Rhode Island and the Providence Center into the prisons, so that women meet drug counselors, fuel assistance program administrators, and others who can help them succeed when they are released. If those connections are not made on the inside, women offenders will not seek help on the outside, states Drake, a former state social worker, because, "They’ve been put down so many times."

The most common female crimes, shoplifting and prostitution, are related to getting money for drugs, Drake notes. Once women are in jail, DOC moves quickly to provide drug counseling and other rehabilitation because 51 percent of Rhode Island’s female prisoners serve six months or less behind bars.

Another speaker, Mary Barr, executive director of the prison reform group Conextion Inc., calls education and jobs, "the two major deterrents to crime," and argues that putting female drug users in prison "is actually propagating [drug use]." Other panelists advocated prison programs specifically designed for women and endorsed repeal of harsh drug laws, including the lifetime ban on those with drug convictions from living in public housing.

Carol Shapiro, executive director of the New York City-based Family Justice, says almost all drug-treatment programs are designed for men, and that many do not work for women. The boot camp-style prisons used in some states, but not Rhode Island, for example, inappropriately humiliate women, she says, by shaving their heads and having male guards scream orders at them. Women respond better to drug treatment programs that permit them to discuss their addictions, something many men are reticent to do, she adds. Sexual stereotypes also cause women to be returned to prison more often than men, she contends, for minor probation violations like visiting a bar or violating a curfew.

To maximize an offender’s chance of success, prisoners’ families should be involved in treatment programs, she argues. To do that, Shapiro opened a neighborhood center in New York City that provides a range of social services to offenders and their families. The Family Life Center on Broad Street in Providence provides similar services.

Another panelist, Lynn Paltrow, decried the prosecution of women for taking drugs during their pregnancies. Despite widespread publicity about "crack babies," little medical evidence exists that cocaine use during pregnancy causes birth defects, insists Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women. The prosecutions, particularly in South Carolina, illustrate than women are punished more severely than men for comparable offenses, she says. No one prosecutes fathers arrested for drunk driving, she notes, because they may endanger their children during future drinking bouts.