WOMEN'S PRISONS: LABORATORIES FOR PENAL REFORM

With the growing pressure for prison reform, the areas of agreement among reformers are examined with women offenders as the focus of study. Recent national data set the figure of women incarcerated in 1 day at 15,000, representing about 4% of the total inmate population of the US. A brief history of women's correctional institutions is given along with the reforms pioneered by women, but now scarcely available. Suggested as models for such experimental reform are: Pennsylvania Citizens Task Force Report on Regional Community Treatment Centers for Women; the US Bureau of Prisons' handbook on the facility for federal offenders; recommendations by the Governor's Task Force on Offender Rehabilitation for all of Wisc's major correctional institutions to be replaced by a system of community based treatment by June 30, 1975. The goal proposed for experimentation is community treatment centers in Ur areas, either in Milwaukee or adjacent counties with maximum utilization of services (public transportation, job training, counseling, hospital & mental health centers, recreation, etc) already available to the general community. Other centers could then be maintained with fewer staff, resulting in considerable taxpayer savings. E. Loomis.