Women in Prison: Sisterhood Sometimes Penetrates the Bars : At Muncy, Pa., Site, Prisoners Go to Court to Widen Their Rights

Women convicted of even minor felonies often enjoy fewer privileges behind bars than men serving time for murder or rape, prison reform advocates say.

“Women prisoners’ concerns do not get the priority men’s do,” said Ed Koren, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project. “If they’re thought about at all, they’re way down the list. They don’t complain about it, so correctional people are not really required to do anything about it.”

The numbers may be one reason. Only about 5% of the state and federal prisoners nationwide are women.

But buoyed by some court rulings in recent years, female prisoners are beginning to see some changes.

In 1983, for example, women at the State Correctional Institution at Muncy wanted a law clinic, a privilege established long ago in men’s prisons. Officials denied the request, leading Sharon Wiggins and four other inmates to file a class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court.

The suit also alleged that vocational, educational, medical, rehabilitative and psychological services at Muncy were inferior to those at prisons for men. They also contended that exposure to fire hazards and asbestos endangered their safety.

“We decided that maybe it was time to take a look at not only the legal situation, but a lot of other things that we were concerned about--education, the medical department, the way we were placed in jobs,” said Wiggins, who is serving a life term for killing a man during a bank robbery.

Prison reform advocates say the claims are similar to those involving women’s prisons in many states.

In the landmark Glover vs. Johnson case in Michigan, U.S. District Judge John Feikens in 1979 ruled that education, employment and legal services for women prisoners were inferior to those for men. He later ordered a series of improvements in those programs and the creation of a trust fund to benefit female prisoners.

The federal General Accounting Office in 1980 warned that such suits would increase as long as female offenders did not have facilities, training or services equivalent to those for male offenders.

Reform advocates say advances have been made as the number of women in state and federal prisons has doubled during the 1980s.

“The number increase will ironically increase the numbers of programs,” said Martha Stone, legal director of the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union.

Charlene Snow, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the Glover vs. Johnson case, said: “My sense is that the Glover decisions have enabled complainants in other states to use the language of the judge and the decisions to bring suits and get things settled.”

The Last Straw

At Muncy, Wiggins said, the inmates believed that rejection of the law clinic was the last straw.

“I decided that it was just time for me to either stand up and be heard or stop complaining and never doing anything about it,” she said.

The lawsuit has not come to trial. But attorneys for both sides say many of the inmates’ complaints have been resolved. They now have access to a legal program, a drug and alcohol treatment counselor, a mental health clinic and strengthened vocational and educational programs.

“Unquestionably, a number of the changes that were made are a direct result of this litigation,” said Susan Cary Nicholas, managing attorney of the Philadelphia-based Women’s Law Project, which is co-counsel for the plaintiffs along with Thomas Place, a professor at the Dickinson School of Law.

Muncy, nestled in the lush farmland of the Susquehanna Valley, today is a prison of stone cottages where inmates can grow vegetables and play softball with teams from nearby towns. They also can qualify as paralegals and learn house painting, upholstery, computers and auto mechanics.

Most Are Mothers

Muncy administrators speak of a window of opportunity to change the lives of inmates, most of whom are mothers and will leave prison after less than five years.

“They need to be able to leave prison with something in their bag of tricks besides themselves,” said Supt. Ann M. Goolsby.

The path often starts with basic education, and inmates who need it can receive one-on-one tutoring from the staff, outside volunteers and other inmates.

The prison was established in 1920 as the State Industrial Home at Muncy. It was Pennsylvania’s only state prison for women until July 1, 1984, when a minimum-security women’s prison opened at Waynesburg. Eleven housing units and 10 other buildings are clustered on Muncy’s 62-acre campus.

Goolsby estimates that 70% of the 525 inmates were imprisoned for drug-related crimes. They range in age from 18 to 69, with most between 25 and 39. Eighty are lifers. Six are men.

Send Them to Country

“The history of Muncy is very typical of women’s prisons,” Nicholas said. “It was built at a time when it was fashionable to believe that the appropriate treatment of women offenders and juvenile offenders was to send them far out into the countryside to obtain fresh air and good healthy work and to remove them from the corrupting influences of the city.”

Muncy’s setting in rural Lycoming County is within a short drive of the Federal Correctional Institution at Lewisburg and the Allenwood Federal Prison Camp, but it is a four- to five-hour drive from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, where most of Muncy’s inmates come from.

The distance became a sex-discrimination issue in the lawsuit, because many men’s prisons are closer to major cities, where families can visit more easily.

“You cannot travel to Muncy by public transportation for visiting hours,” Nicholas said. “This is absolutely devastating to women who need to maintain contact with their kids.”

A $4,000 contract with the Salvation Army to provide transportation for children and care-givers is awaiting prison approval, said Steve Jacobsen, president of Project IM-PACT (Inside Muncy-Parents and Children Together), a new program that provides a homelike setting for inmates to meet with children inside the prison.

Can Work for Licenses

Apprenticeships, following the example set in federal prisons, were started at Muncy in 1979. Inmates can qualify for a license in upholstery, caning and refinishing furniture, auto mechanics, food services and building construction and maintenance.

Elsie Denison, who promoted prison apprenticeships before retiring from the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Labor Department, said Muncy has an exemplary program that not only offers good training but helps inmates find jobs or further training once they leave prison.

Two job-placement specialists travel around the state looking for jobs that would be suitable for inmates completing their terms and helping them make the adjustment.

The prison this fall will open a power sewing factory that will be part of the prison system’s Correctional Industries, allowing inmates to earn a bonus while learning skills that could help them find jobs outside prison.

The suit’s complaint that women with psychiatric problems received inadequate treatment has been resolved with the temporary conversion of one cottage into a state-certified mental health clinic. An $840,000 mental health addition to the prison infirmary is awaiting an architect.

Complaints on Safety

The lawsuit’s complaints about fire safety and asbestos have met with divergent fates.

“Prisoners at Muncy are housed in buildings with antiquated cell-lock systems, requiring that each of 40 to 45 cells be unlocked by hand by the guard on duty in the event of fire or other emergency,” the suit stated.

A $1.89-million project to install an electronic locking system, fire detectors, emergency exits and lighting was completed Sept. 25, 1986, said Kenneth G. Robinson, press secretary for the Department of Corrections. The project was part of a systemwide improvement in the prisons’ Life Safety Code, he said.

Still unresolved is the presence of asbestos, a mineral fiber once widely used in building products but now associated with certain types of cancer.

Two inspectors hired by the plaintiffs in October, 1987, found asbestos-containing materials throughout the institution. Jerry Roseman and Lynne Lamstein of Occupational Health Consultation Services Inc. in Bethlehem said in their report that prison maintenance workers had tried to remove and repair the materials without proper training.

Worked Around Asbestos

On March 8, nearly three months after the inspectors’ report was sent to state attorneys, two inmates and two staff maintenance workers were asked to work above and around crumbling asbestos from pipes, according to a court motion filed in April.

Robinson said the department now has contracted with Lancaster Laboratories of Lancaster to review the extent of the asbestos problem.

Wiggins, interviewed in the formal conference room of the prison administration building, said the suit has not endeared her to all inmates.

“There are those inmates who feel, and maybe rightly so, that we shouldn’t make such a fuss,” she said.