The Nation - News from Sept. 26, 1988

New York City declared a state of emergency to help it cope with dangerous overcrowding in its jails, complicated by a fivefold increase in the number of women inmates over the last 10 years. Ruby Ryles of the city Corrections Department said that a system meant to house 16,900 inmates is packed with 17,185 internees. The order will allow the city to add jail beds so that hundreds of prisoners may be moved, she said. The city also was busing 360 new inmates to Upstate jails, and asking that state facilities take about 500 state convicts out of city cells. In the last three weeks, Ryles said, 1,100 inmates have entered the jails.