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•  Read an update on pat search rules and the battle to end sexual abuse of women prisoners!.
• Read an update on Valley State Prison for Women, 2003.
• Read last year's update on Valley State Prison for Women (2002).
• Read "Rule 53, We Need You," about the continuing abuse of women prisoners.
• Read the testimony of Corey Weinstein, MD, presented at the California State Legislature's hearing on women in prison, October 10, 2000.

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•     You are Here: Articles > Essence > Sept, 2000 > Article Sponsored Links Content provided in partnership with Print article  Tell a friend  Find subscription deals WOMEN IN PRISON. (African-American women have fastest-rising incarceration rate in US)Essence, Sept, 2000, by Angela Y. ...
• Although Black women are eight times (and Latinas four times) as likely to go to prison as White women, imprisoned women of color are not seen as victims of racist and sexist discrimination. Isn't it time for us to learn how to recognize the structures of racism and sexism that are sometimes even more injurious than overt acts of discrimination on the job, at school or in interpersonal relations? Some of us may feel relatively secure and successful in our jobs, our educational careers and our lives, but others, unable to find the jobs and education promised by the advocates of reduced welfare, will end up in prison for offenses that are often most harmful to ourselves. Women in prison are among the most wronged victims of the so-called war on drugs, which, as Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) continues to insist, is, in effect, a surreptitious war on Black and Latino communities. The sentencing practices known as mandatory minimums have turned imprisonment into the main strategy for managing people who turn to drugs and make other unproductive choices when trying to cope with the difficulties they confront in their lives. The defendants--most are Black or Latino--facing convictions for possession of five grams of crack cocaine receive a five-year mandatory federal sentence with no possibility of parole. ... Contrary to most available sources--including those inside prisons and jails--it is not just a series of bad choices that land Black women in prison but a deadly combination of reduced possibilities and extensive police targeting or public monitoring.
• As the story of Dorothy Gaines reveals, many women spend their most important years in prison only because they have intimate relationships with men who are drug traffickers. Kemba Smith, the sister who became involved with a drug dealer as a student at Hampton University, was sentenced at age 24 to 24 years in federal prison. Such women, unable to bargain with prosecutors because they can offer no information, are invisible victims at the dangerous intersection of racism and sexism. Will these women be abandoned, forgotten and treated as if imprisonment is an inevitable consequence of individual irresponsibility?.
• Many Black men experience continuity in how they are treated in school, where they are disciplined as potential criminals; in the streets, where they're subjected to police profiling; and in prison, where they're warehoused and deprived of virtually all rights.
• For women, the continuity of treatment from the free world to the universe of the prison is even more complicated, because they confront the same forms of violence in prison they confronted in their homes and intimate relationships. The criminalization of Black women includes persisting images of our perceived hypersexualilty, which serve to justify sexual assaults against us in and out of prison. Such images were vividly rendered in a recent Nightline series taped on location at California's Valley State Prison for Women (November 1999). Many of the incarcerated women interviewed by Ted Koppel complained of receiving frequent and unnecessary pelvic exams, even during doctor visits for such routine illnesses as colds. In an attempt to justify these exams, the prison's chief medical officer explained that women prisoners had rare opportunities for "male contact," and they therefore welcomed the superfluous gynecological exams. This officer was eventually removed from his position because of these comments, but his reassignment did little to alter the pervasive vulnerability of imprisoned women to sexual abuse.

• The United States of America is a federal political system with national, state and local governments. States are primarily responsible for criminal justice legislation and are the main operators of prisons, which generally hold people sentenced to terms of imprisonment longer than a year. Local governments within statesgenerally operate jails that detain people before they are tried or when they have been sentenced to imprisonment for periods of less than a year. The federal government operates custodial facilities for people who are accused or convicted of violating federal laws. It also provides funds to states, local government and other bodies for a wide variety of criminal justice purposes. ...
• Federal and state constitutions and laws specify a range of rights for people held in jails and prison. The laws and practices of the federal, state and local governments and their agencies must comply with the federal constitution, as interpreted by the courts. ... There are also state laws that protect the rights of inmates because such laws are applicable to everyone (such as laws against assault) or apply to inmates specifically (such as laws prohibiting sexual relations between correctional staff and inmates). In many matters, such as the use of restraints, the supervision of women prisoners and the separation of children from adults, US law provides a lower level of protection than international standards for people deprived of their liberty. The US Constitution does however prohibit sex discrimination by states (and their agencies), which has provided the basis for some successful legal action on behalf of women in prisons and jails.
• Several national non-governmental organizations have developed detailed standards for the treatment of accused and convicted people in custody. ... Two of these organizations, the American Correctional Association (ACA) and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC), use the standards as the basis for assessing and monitoring facilities that wish to be accredited with these organizations. Generally, facilities can choose whether or not to seek accreditation although some facilities become accredited or adopt standards because they are required to do so by state authorities. ...
• Around the USA, jails and prison struggle to cope with the rapidly growth in the incarceration of women. This photo shows the women's cell area in the Franklin County jail in October 1995. ...
• In November 1998, Amnesty International delegates toured Valley State Prison for Women in California which housed almost twice as many women (around 3700) as its design capacity (1980). The gymnasium was closed for conversion to a housing unit. ...

• Visit of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women to US women's prisons (1 to 18 June 1998).
• The United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women of the Commission on Human Rights, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, concluded today her mission to the USA to inquire into human rights violations in US women's prisons, both at federal and state levels.
• The Special Rapporteur's preliminary investigations point to the fact that sexual misconduct by prison staff is widespread in US women's prisons. Sexual misconduct appears to be pervasive particularly in the State of Michigan. ... For example, the State of Georgia has inaugurated a comprehensive programme to combat sexual misconduct in women's prisons. Minnesota has an exemplary prison for women in Shakopee that can serve as a model for best practices.
• The Special Rapporteur travelled to Michigan, having made extensive preparations for her visit with representatives of the Michigan Department of Corrections. On the eve of her visit, she was, however, informed by the Governor of Michigan that she was not going to be allowed to meet with State representatives nor visit any of the women's prisons envisaged. The Special Rapporteur considers this refusal particularly disturbing since she had received very serious allegations of sexual misconduct against Florence Crane Women's Facility, Coldwater, MI, Camp Branch Facility for Women, Coldwater, MI, and Scott Correctional Facility for Women, Plymouth, MI. The Special Rapporteur regrets that she was not able to have a constructive dialogue with Michigan state authorities in connection with these allegations.
• The Special Rapporteur also received serious allegations of sexual misconduct occurring in the security housing unit of the Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, California. ...
• During her mission, the Special Rapporteur visited federal and state prisons, as well as Immigration and Naturalization Service detention facilities, in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Georgia, California and Minnesota. The Special Rapporteur also studied issues related to access to health care and parenting/family programmes for incarcerated women. In addition, the Special Rapporteur was appraised of positive initiatives undertaken by prison authorities to address the issue of violence against women in prisons.
• On Wednesday this week, Ms Coomaraswamy met with officials of the Federal Government to brief them on the details of her mission and thanked them for the excellent cooperation extended by the US Government.

• Home > News > Ellen Richardson's statement for May 8, 2003 rally for Education Not Incarceration.
• via Network on Women in Prison .
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• Ellen Richardson's statement for May 8, 2003 rally for Education Not Incarceration.
• On May 8th, 2003, teachers, students, parents and concerned community members from across California rallied at the state capitol to advocate for education funding over prison spending. Following is a statement from Ellen Richardson, a prisoner incarcerated at Valley State Prison for Women, which was included in various activities at the rally: .
• State Money for Schools Not Prisons .
• My name is Ellen Richardson, I am currently incarcerated at Valley State Prison for Women. ... Like many other mothers and grandmothers in this prison, we are very upset over the budget cuts planned for the schools in this state. ...
• It is so difficult for our voices inside the prison to be heard. ... Taking money from our schools and our children is more of a bad choice than ones most of us made to get ourselves into prison. ...
• I would presume that most tax payers in this state do not realize that the tax dollars allocated in the budget for prisons do not go to the inmate population in the form of programs and classes to stop the revolving door. The majority of your hard earned tax dollars goes for the very salaries and benefits of employees working for the prison system that donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the governor. ...
• In fact the few budget cuts for the prison system are for the very programs that can help women stay out of the system and go home. ... Ask yourselves, where in the prison system is this money going? .
• So please know that the mothers and grandmothers in this prison would gladly give up what little we receive to insure the education of our children and grandchildren. ...

• Women in Prison.
• CPMP provides parenting instruction, substance abuse treatment, and educational, vocational and basic life-skill training for the mothers and health and development services for the children. ...
• Although at one point CPMP administered seven facilities in California, for the past few years, only two such facilities existed, in Oakland and Pomona. ... The program currently serves approximately 47 mothers, with an actual capacity for 70 women. The discrepancy between the number of spaces and the number of women admitted is striking, particularly because, at any given time, 150 pregnant women are imprisoned at Valley State Prison â “ many of whom are eligible to be moved into the program before their children are born. ...
• LSPC sued the CDC in the late 1980s for its failure to fully implement the program; one of the terms of the 1990 settlement was that pregnant women who requested an application would receive one and be able to submit it before delivery. ... Currently, proposed legislation AB 1530, sponsored by Assemblywoman Negrete McLeod, will require pregnant women not only to receive information about the program when they enter Valley State, but also a program application, program qualification guidelines, the time frame for application, and the process for appealing denial of admission to the program at that time. It also provides stronger language about the eligibility of pregnant women, â œrequiringâ � rather than â œauthorizingâ � the CDC to accept pregnant women into CPMP. ...
• Some pregnant women may have had a prior involvement with Child Protective Services and fear losing custody. In addition, the women are dependent on only a few individuals for information regarding their choices â “ one social worker, two doctors, and one nurse - who do not always give the women accurate information. Despite the fact that the law states that if space is available, a pregnant woman can be moved to a facility, LSPC receives reports of prison doctors refusing to medically clear women for CPMP until after her babyâ ™s birth. Women are told that they have no right to the program, or that the doctors are not contracted to authorize them to go. ...
• Most disturbing is the fact that even when women are medically cleared, they are not done jumping through inhumane hoops. On a recent visit to the Oakland CPMP, Cassie Pierson, LSPC staff attorney, discovered the disturbing trend of women being forced to choose between their teeth and reaching the program before giving birth. In order to be dentally cleared, women had to have several teeth extracted for treatable conditions like cavities. ...
• Legal Services for Prisoners with Children .

• Sociologist examines health care conditions for women prisoners .
• There is a crisis in health care for women prisoners in California, where inmates are routinely denied access to trained medical providers, receive inadequate diagnostic and follow-up care, and suffer interruptions in the delivery of prescription medications, according to Nancy Stoller, a professor of community studies at UCSC.
• Stoller, a sociologist who began studying the health care of women in prison more than 25 years ago, recently received a $45,000 grant from the California Policy Seminar (CPS) to examine health care conditions for women in California state prisons. ...
• "When I started studying the health issues of women in prison, I was moved by their situation even then, and by their inability to get the smallest things taken care of," said Stoller. "Since then, the prison system has grown enormously, and the general attitude toward prisoners, both women and men, has become much more punitive. ...
• The grant was funded by CPS's California Program on Access to Care, a subsection dedicated to studying whether the state's poor, rural, and immigrant populations are losing access to health care. The vast majority of women prisoners, who make up 8 percent of the state's prison population, are poor and from minority and immigrant backgrounds, said Stoller. ...
• Recent legal cases indicate that the Department of Corrections has failed to comply with major portions of the settlement of a lawsuit that challenged the quality of health care at two women's prisons in 1997, and the state now faces a separate impending lawsuit regarding conditions at its largest facility for women, Valley State Prison in Chowchilla. In addition, Amnesty International recently accused the state of being abusive to women prisoners and failing to provide adequate health care, in violation of United Nations standards. ...
• "Women have unique health care needs, and they are having problems getting adequate care," said Stoller. "We know that from a public health viewpoint, a little prevention saves a lot of dollars later, and the Department of Corrections can benefit, as well as other state agencies that end up taking care of many of these women after they are released. ...
• Among the areas that Stoller will investigate are the provision of preventive health care like pap smears, mammography, and HIV education, which she said "can reduce the economic, social, and health care burden for parolees, their families, and the state. ...
• There is currently no routine call-up of prisoners for age-related procedures like pap smears and mammograms, said Stoller, and non-emergency care requires inmates to make a $5 copayment for each medical visit, a fee that is beyond the reach of many women prisoners.
• In 1975, fewer than 25 women statewide had been sentenced to more than three years. Today, at least 700 women are facing sentences of more than 12 years. The trend toward longer-term incarceration has contributed greatly to the aging of the prison population and a correspondingly higher need for medical care, said Stoller.

• Other ways to search for an article.
• Two prisons -- the Central California Women's Facility and the adjacent Valley State Prison for Women -- currently house 64 percent of California's total female prison population, or almost 7,300 inmates, according to the most recent California Department of Corrections (CDC) statistics. Together, the two prisons constitute the largest women's prison complex in the world, and now house far more prisoners than they were designed to. Overcrowding is a constant problem, and prison activists insist that under such conditions there isn't enough -- let alone good enough -- health care to go around. ...
• San Francisco-based Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC) will file suit against Valley State later this year over alleged violations of privacy and health care needs, as well as accounts of systematic sexual abuse. According to staff attorney Cassie Pierson, the agency has received letters from women prisoners who have complained of not being able to get prescriptions on time for chronic and potentially contagious diseases. ...
• " The prisoners sometimes wait three to five days, even two to three weeks, for refills of medication, including antibiotics," Pierson says. ...
• At the Central California Women's Facility, California Prison Focus and Women's Positive Legal Action Network have recently focused their efforts on repealing a new prison policy dealing with medication for HIV-positive patients. Previously, HIV-infected women received a monthly supply of their pills and were allowed to take their required doses in the privacy of their cells. That policy was changed last December; now inmates and activists claim that these women are required to stand in line outside every day -- sometimes as many as three times a day -- so health care providers can observe them taking their medications. ...
• California Prison Focus's Judy Greenspan explains that the new policy is a great hardship for women who must sometimes miss meals and work -- and even face punishment for tardiness -- as a result of waiting in line. "On average, women report that they're spending two and a half hours a day outside standing in line for their medications, even if they're sick," says Greenspan. ...
• Greenspan also notes that many medications for HIV must be taken four to six times a day in order to prevent drug resistance. ...
• This article has been made possible by the Foundation for National Progress, the Investigative Fund of Mother Jones, and gifts from generous readers like you.
• © 1999 The Foundation for National Progress.

• Women in prison:.
• Because I'm a federal prisoner in California, I hear more about what goes on in California state prisons than in other states. ... There needs to be, given the proliferation of the, California prison state run by the California guards union with its maximum control units brutality, gladiator fights and carnival shooting sprees.
• But in spite of their unceasing labors and dedication, prisoners continue to die at the hands of the state inside these prison walls. Until recently, because of prison and AIDS' activists, there was a possibility of a compassionate release for a prisoner dying of AIDS or cancer. ...
• Women prisoners were recently slapped in the face. The court appointed assessor in the Shumate suit (a class action suit filed by Charisse Shumate and other women prisoners at Chowchilla against medical malpractice and lack of treatment) is prepared to announce that the DOC has complied with the court's order to provide adequate medical care. This is in a prison where the head doctor told Ted Koppel on Nightline that the reason for unneeded pelvic exams instead of other medical treatment was that women are sexually-deprived and like them! (This Dr. was moved to a desk job for revealing the practice. ...
• Women are dying in Chowchilla and Valley State prisons from lack of adequate medical attention. They aren't dying from lack of forced sexual attentions! A one or two year sentence has become a death sentence for several women in this past year.
• Women everywhere are struggling to stay alive and to be treated as human beings. ... female prisoners have a lot in common with women in Taliban dominated Afghanistan. ...
• Afghani women are imprisoned behind the shuttered walls of their family homes. ...
• Prisoners-women and men-would do well to remember and support the missing women, and all the missing who are locked away and hidden. ...
• Few women may receive an officially imposed death sentence, but we are dying behind these prison walls. There are even prisoners who support the death penalty (though not for themselves I'm sure). There are others who act as executioners for the guards and/or prisoner bullies. Can we stand by silent and accept dying as our "punishment" for being less human?.

• Dutra transferred to Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla.
• Less than 48 hours after being sentenced to 11 years in prison for manslaughter, Sarah Dutra was transferred to state prison Wednesday.
• 11, 2001, death of Woodbridge resident Larry McNabney, Dutra, 22, was sentenced Monday to 11 years, with credit for 458 days already served.
• After spending more than a year in the county jail, she is now serving her sentence at Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Nellie Stone said.
• Located about halfway between Merced and Madera, the prison has 1,980 beds and 937 staff members.
• On March 19, 2002, Dutra was arrested for her role in the death of McNabney, whose body had been found buried in a Linden vineyard six weeks earlier.
• Charged with murder for financial gain, Dutra could have face life in prison without parole for her role in the death, but earlier this year a San Joaquin County jury instead found her guilty of voluntary manslaughter.
• With credit for time served, Dutra could be released on parole shortly before her 30th birthday, Deputy District Attorney Thomas Testa said.
• Women inmates are the minority in California, and in 2001, just 30 women convicted of manslaughter were admitted to the state prison system. ...
• Valley State Prison, which operates on a $63 million budget, offers a variety of programs that "enhance inmate productivity, emphasize self-improvement and reduce idleness and recidivism," according to the CDC's Web site.

• (Fwd) (Fwd) Re: Sexual abuse at Valley State Prison .
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• org> Organization: California Prison Focus To: amnestyis@amnesty. ... org Date: Sun, 7 Jun 1998 21:27:42 +0000 Subject: Re: Sexual abuse at Valley State Prison Reply-to: judyg@igc. ... org Priority: normal CALIFORNIA PRISON FOCUS MEDIA ADVISORY MEDIA ADVISORY MEDIA ADVISORY For Immediate Release: June 8, 1998 For More Information Call Michelle Foy (510) 539-7072 (pager) Leslie DiBenedetto-Skopek (415) 821-6545 (phone) CALIFORNIA PRISON FOCUS EXPOSES SEXUAL ABUSE AT VALLEY STATE PRISON San Francisco, June 8 -- California Prison Focus today demanded a meeting with California Department of Corrections Director Cal Terhune to discuss charges of sexual harassment and abuse in the Security Housing Unit at Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla. In a letter sent to CDC Director Terhune, the prisoners' advocacy group demanded an end to the intimidation and sexual abuse of women prisoners by staff. Prompted by the receipt of letters and a group grievance from women prisoners outlining incidents of sexual harassment by prison staff, CPF made a preliminary investigative trip to Valley State Prison on June 5. Interviews with ten women prisoners revealed multiple incidents of physical, sexual and verbal abuse of women SHU prisoners by corrections officers. "We are alarmed by reports of daily abuse and mistreatment of women SHU prisoners," said Michelle Foy, spokesperson for CPF's Valley State Prison Committee. "This mistreatment, which includes sexual assault, improper touching, leering at women in showers, intimidation and constant verbal harassment must be stopped," Foy continued. "We are not the only organization concerned about the sexual abuse of women prisoners at Valley State," commented Jake Davenport, Chairperson of the Valley State Prison Committee. ... According to Davenport, CPF is asking State Senator Richard Polanco's Joint Committee on Prison Construction and Operations to investigate SHU conditions also. In their letter to Director Terhune, California Prison Focus called for the immediate removal of male corrections guards from the security housing unit at Valley State Prison for Women.
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• Amnesty International is calling on the California prison authorities to rescind a policy which allows male guards to conduct intrusive "pat down searches" (clothed body) of female prisoners.
• "Cross-gender pat searches -- which according to a state training video, involve guards touching intimate parts of the inmate's body -- are inherently degrading and inconsistent with international standards and constitute a form of violence against women" Amnesty International said.
• Amnesty International's action was prompted by news that Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW), the state's largest women's prison, has recently reinstated the practice after banning it for several years. ...
• Research has shown that pat down searches and other intimate contact involving male guards can be particularly traumatizing for women prisoners, many of whom have histories of being physically or sexually abused before their incarceration.
• US authorities have justified the practice on the ground that the USA's equal opportunities laws provide that men and women should have the same employment rights. However, some US jurisdictions have placed restrictions on the role of male guards in women's custody facilities, without contravening these laws.
• "Male guards should be barred from carrying out pat or strip searches of women prisoners and from routine access to women's living areas. ...
• The Committee expressed concern in 1995 that allowing male officers access to women prisoners in US detention facilities had "led to serious allegations of sexual abuse of women and the invasion of their privacy". ...

• Women's Prisons .
• Justice Department and the state of Michigan over the abuse of women inmates in its prisons. ...
• Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, has been barred from visiting three Michigan prisons accused of widespread sexual misconduct against its women prisoners. ...
• The Governor of Michigan, John Engler, has stated that the federal government has filed a ''baseless lawsuit'' in charging his State with violating the rights of women prisoners and is facilitating the U. ...
• ''I view the United Nations as an unwitting tool in the Justice Department's agenda to discredit the state of Michigan in spite of the objective evidence that the state of Michigan has not violated the civil and constitutional rights of women inmates,'' Engler said in a letter to the Office of the U. ... High Commissioner for Human Rights. ...
• Coomaraswamy, who has just completed visits to both federal and State prisons, as well as Immigration and Naturalisation detention facilities, in the States of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Georgia, California and Minnesota, was prevented from visiting women's prisons in Michigan. ...
• Although she had made extensive preparations to interview inmates at three prisons in Michigan- the Florence Crane Women's Facility and Camp Branch Facility for Women in Coldwater, and the Scott Correctional Facility for Women in Plymouth - Engler barred Cumaraswamy on the eve of her visit. ...
• The Special Rapporteur said she ''regrets'' she was not able to have a constructive dialogue with Michigan State authorities because of ''very serious allegations of sexual misconduct'' in all three prisons. Coomaraswamay was also prevented from meeting with State representatives in Michigan. ...
• In his letter, Engler said that Coomaraswamy obviously was unaware of the lawsuit filed against his State by the Justice Department and the political motivations behind it. ''They filed this lawsuit despite extensive efforts on the state's part to document that the allegations that the Justice Department has made are without merit,'' he said. ...
• ''Under these circumstances, I am sceptical of the federal governments' motivation for inviting the Special Rapporteur into Michigan to study the issue of violence against women in prison,'' Engler said. ...
• ''I must conclude that the Justice Department hopes to use the Special Rapporteur as a sword against the State in this unncessary litigation,'' he added. ''I cannot permit, as a matter of both sound legal strategy and good common sense, the State to participate in such an effort,'' he declared. ...
• Coomaraswamy said that preliminary investigations pointed to the fact that ''sexual misconduct by prison staff is widespread in American women's prisons. ...

• ------------------------------- Friends---here is the list which I have of the addresses of death rows in the USA for both men and women. ... I will then make the changes, and publish a complete directory/listing for the network. Thanks! Rick Halperin AI-Texas ------------------ MEN Holman Facility PO Box 3700 Atmore, ALABAMA 36503-0037 (phone: 334-368-8383) William Donaldson Correctional Facility 100 Warrior Lane Bessemer, ALABAMA 35023-7299 (phone: 706-232-4053) Arizona State Prison- Eyman SMU-II Box 3400 Florence, ARIZONA 85232-3400 (visits: phone-(visitation)-520-868-8520 -- fax-520-868-8541) phone-(admin. /general)-520-868-0201 Arkansas State Prison Maximum Security Unit 2501 State Farm Road Tucker, ARKANSAS 72168-9503 (phone: 501-842-2519 fax: 501-842-1977) San Quentin State Prison San Quentin, CALIFORNIA 94974 (phone: 415-454-1460) Centennial Correctional Facility PO Box 600 Canon City, COLORADO 81215-0600 Osborn Correctional Institution PO Box 665 Somers, CONNECTICUT 06071 (phone: 860-566-7500) (fax: 860-763-0826) Delaware Correctional Center P. ... Box 500 Smyrna, DELAWARE 19977 Sussex Correctional Center PO Box 500 Georgetown, DELAWARE 19947 Florida State Prison PO Box 181 Starke, Florida 32091 (phone: 904-964-8125) (fax: 904-964-9068) Union Correctional Institution PO Box 221 Raiford, FLORIDA 32083-0221 (phone: 904-431-2000) (fax: 904-431-2010) Georgia Diagnostic Facility PO Box 3877 Jackson, GEORGIA 30233 (phone: 770-504-2000) Idaho Maximum Security Institution (IMSI) P. ... Box 14 Boise, IDAHO 83707 (phone: 208-338-1635) Menard Correctional Center PO Box 711 Menard, ILLINOIS 62259 Pontiac Correctional Center PO Box 99 Pontiac, ILLINOIS 61764 Tamms Maximum Security Facility PO Box 2000 200 East Supermax Road Tamms, ILLINOIS 62988, Indiana State Prison PO Box 41 Michigan City, INDIANA 46361 (phone: 219-874-7258) Kentucky State Penitentiary Death Row PO Box 128 Eddyville, KENTUCKY 42038-0128 Louisiana State Prison Maximum Security, General Delivery Angola, LOUISIANA 70712 (phone: 504-655-4411) (fax: 504-655-2319) Maryland Penitentiary 401 E. ... Baltimore, MARYLAND 21202 Mississippi State Penitentiary Unit 32 C Building Parchman, MISSISSIPPI 38738 (phone: 601-745-6611) Potosi Correctional Center Route 2 Box 2222 Mineral Point, MISSOURI 63660 (phone: 573-438-6000) Montana State Prison 500 Conley Lake Road Deer Lodge, MONTANA 59722 (phone: 406-846-1320) (fax: 406-846-2951) Nebraska State Penitentiary PO Box 2500 Lincoln, NEBRASKA 68502--0500 Ely State Prison PO Box 1989 12000 N. Bothwick Road Ely, NEVADA 89301 Capital Sentence Unit New Jersey State Prison PO Box 861 Trenton, NEW JERSEY 08625-0861 (phone: 609-292-9700) Penitentiary of New Mexico PO Box 1059 Santa Fe, NEW MEXICO 87504-1059 (phone: 505-827-8200) (fax: 505-827-8263) Clinton Correctional Facility P. ... Box 2000 Dannemora, New York 12929 (phone: 518-492-2511) Central Prison 1300 Western Blvd. Raleigh, NORTH CAROLINA 27606 (phone: 919-733-0800) Mansfield Correctional Institute PO Box 788 Mansfield, OHIO 44901 (phone: 419-525-4455) Oklahoma State Penitentiary PO Box 97 McAlester, OKLAHOMA 74502 (phone: 918-423-4700 fax: 918-423-3862) Oregon State Penitentiary 2605 State Street Salem, OREGON 97310-0505 (phone: 503-378-2445) (fax: 503-378-3897) SCI-Greene 1040 E Roy Furman Hwy Waynesburg, PENNSYLVANIA 15370-8090 (phone- 412-852-2902 fax- 412-852-2909) SCI PO Box 99901 Pittsburgh, PENNSYLVANIA 15233 SCI-Huntingdon Drawer R Huntingdon, PENNSYLVANIA 16652 SCI-Graterford Box 244 Graterford, PENNSYLVANIA 19426 (phone-610-489-4151) SCI-Camp Hill PO Box 200 Camp Hill, PENNSYLVANIA 17001-0200 Lieber CorrectionalInstitute PO Box 205 Ridgeville, SOUTH CAROLINA 29472 (phone--803-896-3700) South Dakota State Penitentiary 1600 North Drive, P. ... 133) Utah State Prison PO Box 250 Draper, UTAH 84020 Sussex State Prison 24414 Musselwhite Drive Waverly, VIRGINIA 23891 Washington State Penitentiary 1313 North 13th Avenue Walla Walla, WASHINGTON 99362 (phone: 509-525-3610) Death Row Box 400 Rawlins, WYOMING 82301 ----------------------------------------- WOMEN Julia Tutwiler Prison For Women 8966 US Hwy 231 North Wetumpka, ALABAMA 36092 Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville PO Box 3400 Goodyear, ARIZONA 85338 (phone-602-853-0304) Women's Unit 800 W.

•   STATE NEWS .
• More moms in prison could mean more trouble for their children .
• Donna Sexton, 27, is an inmate at the Tennessee Prison for Women. ...
• The state has expanded the Tennessee Prison for Women to hold 647 inmates, houses 350 other women at a private facility in Nashville and has built a new center for 112 in Memphis.
• When a mother goes to prison, children also get a sentence. Experts estimate children with mothers in prison are five times more likely to end up behind bars.
• "Their whole family falls apart," Glenda Lingo of the Nashville organization Parents In Prison told The Tennessean.
• His grandmother, Laura Lee Robinson, fears Daniel is headed for a lifetime of trouble. ... He takes medication each day for Tourette's syndrome and attention deficit disorder. His older brother is doing well in school but seems starved for attention.
• Experts say many kids of convicts do poorly in school, and some never overcome the stigma of having a parent in prison. They may blame themselves for their mothers' disappearance or take it out on schoolmates.
• "When a mom is put in prison, it can be like a death," he said.
• That's nearly 2 percentage points higher than the increase for men.
• "Even though the media often talk about African-American men, the rate of women is growing faster," said Joanne Belknap, a sociologist at the University of Colorado and author of the book "The Invisible Women: Gender, Crime and Justice.
• She says her boyfriend William Putnam, the father of her youngest son, told her he was going to rob the Valley Forge Market on Highway 19 outside of Hampton in 1993.

• INSIDE VALLEY STATE PRISON FOR WOMEN.
• When I got to prison, I was surprised that I couldn't tell a murderer from a bogus check writer. They're all women. ...
• I was on my way to California's newest women's prison. ... " He said women would take an ass-whipping better than a man because we were "used to being beat. ...
• Few women wanted to use the toilet in the back of the bus because one of the male guards had his post right beside it.
• Finally, a sign announced the prison and I got a lump in my throat. ...
• "Stripping" is justified under a security issue: "To maintain the order and security of the prison," yet, how is it possible to breach security when we are transferred from the inside of one prison to the inside of another prison on a bus in shackles and chains with guards toting shotguns?.
• Being naked or remaining naked for any length of time brings physical as well as emotional vulnerability.
• Four years later, a Senator doing a walk-through of this prison ordered that "vanity" screens be installed for cells where "stripping" is done. ...
• Finally we were told to face the wall again and squat and cough three times as an officer held a vanity mirror five inches under each of our vaginas to again search for "contraband. ...
• The officers issuing our personal property took anything they felt was not within the guidelines "allowed" at this prison even though it had been "allowed" at the other. Half of the property we had brought with us was rejected for one reason or another.
• Possessions are important for their symbolism, not just the material comfort they provide. ...
• Prison life is a continuous process of mortification. First, there is the extreme sensory deprivation of prison life, the oppressive grayness of the prison environment, the unrelieved harshness of metallic surfaces which amplify every sound. ...

• Introduces:   Crystal Montford # 56573 Valley State Prison for Women Box 92 Chowchilla, Calif, 93610-0092   Birth Date:  1/2/74 Release Date:  1/2/05   Physical Description:  Puerto-Rican / Black, Long hair Light Eyes,  38-28-38,   5’5,  150 lbs.   Interests:  Boating, Cruises, Dancing, Singing   Short Statement:  Looking for someone genuine that ants to share writing, talking, and companionship with a honest yet fun female. ...
• return name & mailing address  for them to reply to you.

• LINKS TO SITES ON WOMEN AND GIRL OFFENDERS.
• Adolescent Female Aggression: Proposal for a Research Agenda, Alison Cunningham (2000).
• Publications about federally-sentenced women, Correctional Service of Canada.
• Women and Crime: Imprisonment Issues, Patricia Weiser Easteal (1992).
• Women Prisoners and Correctional Programs, Margaret Cameron (1991).
• 38: Mothers in Prison Diane Caddle and Debbie Crisp (1997) scroll down to find a link to a. ...
• Home Office Research Study 170: Understanding the Sentencing of Women, Carol Hedderman and Loraine Gelsthorpe, eds. ...
• Women in Prison: A Thematic Review, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons (1997).
• Follow-up to Women in Prison: A Thematic Review, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons (2001).
• Resources for Girls in the Juvenile Justice System, American Bar Association, Juvenile Justice Center .
• "Not Part of my Sentence": Violations of the Human Rights of Women in Custody, Amnesty International (1999) .
• The Findings of a Visit to Valley State Prison for Women, California, Amnesty International (1999).
• Women Offenders, Bureau of Justice Statistics (1999).
• Women in Prison, Bureau of Justice Statistics (1994).
• Women Offender Issues, National Institute of Corrections.
• California Coalition for Women Prisoners.

•   SEARCH FOR  .
•     You are Here: Articles > The Progressive > April, 1999 > Article Sponsored Links Content provided in partnership with Print article  Tell a friend  Find subscription deals STOPPING Abuse in Prison. (widespread sexual abuse of women prisoners)The Progressive, April, 1999, by Nina SiegalContinued from page 3.
• Despite all the positive steps, however, women are still being abused in America's prisons and jails. Investigators from a number of California-based law firms who recently visited the Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, California, heard stories of at least a dozen assaults by specific guards. They also found "a climate of sexual terror that women are subjected to on a daily basis," says Ellen Barry, founding director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, based in San Francisco.
• "The instances of both physical and sexual abuse are much higher than any other institution where I've interviewed women," she says. "The guards are really brutalizing women in a way that we really haven't seen before. ...
• Valley State Prison inmate Denise Dalton told investigators that a doctor at the facility groped her and conducts inappropriate pelvic exams. "If I need Tylenol, all I need to do is ask him for a pelvic and he will give me whatever I want," she said.
• But most of the abusive conduct was of the type that, Barry says, made for "a climate of sexual terror" in the prison. ...
• Advocates for prisoners say there still needs to be a dramatic cultural shift within the system before women are safe from the people who guard them behind bars.
• "I think we have to keep in perspective the limitations of litigation and advocacy work for truly making a change in this arena," says Barry.
• One problem that advocates cite is the recalcitrance of the unions that represent prison guards. "The people we really have to win over are not legislators, but the unions," says Christine Doyle, research coordinator for Amnesty International U. ... They don't look at these women as human beings. ...

• On an otherwise ordinary Saturday morning, a middle-class, middle-aged, bilingual woman (we'll call her Silvia) turns off of Highway 99, glances at the stark, sprawling buildings of the Central California Women's Facility and continues on to Valley State Prison for Women, the next in a long series of men's and women's detention facilities scattered throughout California's rural Central Valley. ...
• In fact, making friends with a criminal is something she had never imagined, until a representative of a Christian organization called M2 (Match-Two) came to her church with a heartfelt plea for local volunteers. ...
• That's when Silvia learned that thousands of prisoners from distant urban areas go for years without any visitors. ...
• Silvia wonders what she'll say to a Latina in prison. ...
• Passing through the prison's security system is slow and time-consuming. ... She's glad she remembered not to wear blue or green (the colors of prison uniforms), as she was instructed. ...
• Wearing pink and white, Silvia gives her shoes and watch to a guard and waits as the objects are searched for contraband. ... She steps into a large, hectic room that looks like a school cafeteria, except for the seating arrangement. Women wearing blue or green face a guard station, while visitors dressed in other colors can sit facing any direction. ...
• For Maria, the visit is both exciting and frightening. ...
• In fact, her name languished on a waiting list for nearly two years. She wishes the visit could be one from her family members, but her children are far away, being cared for by strangers, and her parents and siblings live in Mexico. Her husband, arrested along with her, is in another, far more dangerous Central Valley prison. ...
• Maria and Silvia embrace shyly, then sit down at a small table, Maria facing the guard and Silvia facing a patio filled with animated children, subdued husbands and smiling, tearful women wearing blue. ...
• The two women talk about their families, and about hope, and God, and the weather, and silly things like Cuban coffee and Mexican tamales. Both women shed a few tears and murmur a few prayers. Little is said about the crack cocaine that landed Maria in prison. ... Practically all of these women are here on drug charges. ...

• 'Let My Dying Mom Out of Prison' .
•   But unless a judge shows compassion, Karma's mother will not be there, because she is dying in prison. ...
• The state could save hundreds of thousands by sending Karma's mother, and others like her, home.   After all, it can cost a small fortune to keep a terminally ill person in prison.   As our state fights the worst budget crisis in its history, taxpayers are carrying the burden of keeping dying, medically incapacitated people locked away from their families.   Meanwhile, the budget for the Department of Corrections budget has been spared from any cuts. ...
• Karma's mother, Beverly Dias, 51, is dying at Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla ( Madera County ).   She has 20 months left on a 6-year sentence for possession of 6. ...   The only treatment remaining for her is to undergo a liver transplant. ...
•   She is so incapacitated that she is unable to walk to the cafeteria for meals, instead relying on cellmates to bring food for her. ...
• Working with our nonprofit organization, Dias applied to get out of prison early under California's compassionate release law, which allows the early release of prisoners who have less than six months to live and who pose no threat to society.   The intent of this law is to allow prisoners to spend their last days with their families and not alone in prison. ...
• Last week, after previously denying her release, the director of the California Department of Corrections, Edward Alameida, reconsidered and recommended Dias for compassionate release. ...
• The plea of Beverly's daughter Karma is the plea of all children who wish for their parents to come home to die.   We are working with dozens of other women who will die in prison. ...   In the past two months, two terminally ill women whom we worked with have died in the custody of the corrections department, despite qualifying for compassionate release. ...   These deaths followed a 10-day period in July, when three other women we represented died in similar fashion. ...

• Luis "Bato" Talamantez is a human rights activist and artist who speaks on the prison–industrial complex. ... Drawing on his experiences of 30 years behind bars, he works to expose conditions at maximum security prisons like California’s infamous Pelican Bay, Corcoran State Prison and Valley State Prison for Women. Talamantez is co-founder of California Prison Focus and currently pens a column for their publication. ...
• Please contact Speak Out for more complete biographies, .

• State Fumbles Prison Lab Testing.
• A California laboratory that processed medical tests for thousands of state prisoners in the 1990s was shut down by health inspectors in 1997 for faking results on screens for AIDS, hepatitis and other serious diseases. ...
• Without retesting, potentially thousands of prison inmates who had lab work done by B. ...
• Donna Wilson, chief of quality programs for the department's Health Care Services Division, said she believes individual prison medical officers took the appropriate steps to retest any prisoners whose health was in question.
• "What I hope we will be able to document is that they did undergo an organized approach to appropriately retest," said Wilson, who has worked for the department since 1998.
• One woman was given another HIV test 13 months after her initial test, and another woman was retested for a thyroid condition but not for other possible illnesses.
• Prison rights attorneys who learned about the B. ...
• "This is really unconscionable," said Donna Willmott, litigation coordinator for Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, a San Francisco law office for low-income women inmates.
• Clinical Labs, situated in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Fe Springs, is described in federal and state documents obtained by The Chronicle through state Public Records Act requests.
• They reveal for the first time how a reckless medical testing laboratory --which had been warned by prison officials for late and shoddy work since 1995 -- won low-bid contracts to run thousands of medical tests on state prisoners and faked the results in a scam inspectors call "dry-labbing. ...
• Tipped off by the chief medical officer at Chuckawala Valley State Prison in Imperial County, inspectors paid a surprise visit to B. ...
• There was evidence that lab operators were simply making up results on vital medical tests for thousands of prisoners -- tests for AIDS, hepatitis and cancer -- and typing them into a computer.
• "Basically, we caught them with their hand in the cookie jar," said Tom Barr, an investigator for the Laboratory Field Services branch of the California Department of Health Services.
• Seven state prisons received notices from federal regulators in March 1997 warning that the problems at B. ...
• Prisons notified were: Northern California Women's Facility, Stockton; Calipatria State Prison, Calipatria; Lancaster State Prison, Los Angeles; Chuckawala Valley State Prison and Ironwood State Prison, Blythe; Central California's Women's Facility, Chowchilla; and Deuel Vocational Institute, Tracy.
• The Corrections Department's Wilson said there may be no directives from top department administrators to retest inmates because medical decisions were delegated to each prison. ...

• Screening of "Truth to Power," which documented women prisoners' testimony about the reality of life in California's prisons. ...
• Researching and preparing documentation for recent legislative hearings about women in prison. ...
• Attending legislative hearings in October 2000 held inside Valley State Prison for Women. ...
• We also work with nonprofit organizations in the community, including Justice Network on Women and Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. ...

• PRELIMINARY PROGRAM FOR THE 1998 JOINT MEETING OF THE LOUISIANA POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION AND THE MISSISSIPPI POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION February 27th and 28th Holiday Inn Vicksburg, Mississippi .
• Chair: Jo Richardson, Louisiana Tech University Papers: "CLEF: Achieving Global Peace Security in the 21"' Century" Emmanuel Nwagboso, Jackson State University "Sources of Conflict: U. ... Foreign Policy" Jo Richardson, Louisiana Tech University "The Way of the Word, the Way of the Warrior: United States Response to Nationalism in the 21"' Century" Jarrett Kahn, University of Southern Mississippi Discussant: Paul Kaiser, Mississippi State University .
• Sirgo, McNeese State University Papers: "The Adventures of Native Mississippian Hale Boggs in Louisiana, the District of Columbia and Other Environs" Henry B. Sirgo, McNeese State University "Attitudes in Louisiana Regarding Affirmative Action for Women and Blacks" Michael Kurt Corbello, Southeastern Louisiana University "Political Ideology. ... Shaffer, Mississippi State University and John Trenkle, Mississippi State University Discussant: Stephen L. ...
• Chair: Kate Greene, University of Southern Mississippi Papers: "Fredrick Douglass's Vision of the American Constitution" Jack Amos, Mississippi Valley State University "Malcolm X on Exile" Knicholas Bradley, Mississippi Valley State University "Twoness in W. ... DuBois Thought" Marcus Stewart, Mississippi Valley State University "Ida B. Wells and the Woman Question" Kamilah Edwards, Mississippi Valley State University "Welfare Spending: The Enemy of Racial Resentment" Demecher Ware, Mississippi Valley State University Discussant: Gordon Daniels, Mississippi Valley State University .
• Chair: Solomon Terfa Papers: "Pathways to Prison: Career Detours of National Chief Executives" Donn M. ... Singh, Mississippi Valley State University "SGI, Japan's Premier NGO" John M. ... Singh, Mississippi State University .
• Tucker, Mississippi State University "Confirmation Treatment of Women and Minority Nominees for Federal Judgeships" Diane Wall, Mississippi State University and Sarah Pittman, Mississippi State University "Reexamining Presidential Success and Legislative Productivity" Branwell DuBose Kapeluck, Louisiana State University "Administrative Hearings, Use of Counsel, and Hearing Outcomes" Jim Vanderleeuw, Lamar University Discussant: C. ... Miller, Jackson State University .
• Chair: Rathnam Indurthy, McNeese State University Papers: "Democracy as a United States Export" Kristen Droke, Mississippi State University for Women "Reforming the U. ...
• Chair: Ed Wheat Papers: "Political Discourse as Theater: Ways to Address Genocidal Action" Bernard Bray, Talladega College "Law and Justice in Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy" Larry Chappell, Mississippi Valley State University "Tocqueville and the Liberal Internationalists" Robert Waters, Mississippi Valley State University Discussant: Mark Griffith, West Alabama University .

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