Women’s Obsolete Prisons

Women are the fastest-growing portion of California’s prison population -- their number has increased fivefold in the last two decades -- and the reason has little to do with some perverse new gender equality in crime. Movies like “Kill Bill” notwithstanding, female criminals remain as different from male ones as they were 20 years ago.

More than two-thirds of the women were convicted of nonviolent drug or property crime, whereas 50% of men were locked up for violent offenses. Women’s numbers in prison have soared because of rising rates of substance abuse and tougher incarceration laws implemented in the “war on drugs.”

By using for women the policies, practices, programs and facilities designed decades ago for violent male offenders, the state is missing out on cheaper, more successful methods of incarcerating and rehabilitating them.

That was the key observation in a report released last month by the Little Hoover Commission. The study by California’s nonpartisan government watchdog goes on to recommend that the state transfer many of its nonviolent female convicts from prisons to halfway houses overseen by counties and often run by nonprofit or for-profit prison companies.

On Wednesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faulted the prison system’s lack of “courage and accountability.” The report outlines some reforms he could take now.

Though the day-to-day cost of a halfway house can in some cases rival that of prison, states such as Oregon have found that the facilities dramatically decrease long-term costs by lowering recidivism. Under the alternative sanctions recommended by the Little Hoover Commission, counties would be eligible to receive dollars once reserved for the state to house nonviolent offenders.

To shift the funding, Schwarzenegger would have to stand up to the powerful California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. because such a move would threaten its members’ jobs.

Three-quarters of California’s female prisoners are housed in a remote San Joaquin Valley town far from their children and other relatives. About 64% of female offenders are parents of minors, and of those, nearly half are single mothers. Yet most of the children never visit their mothers because they cannot travel so far.

The report recommends an expansion of a tiny array of state programs, enrolling only 140 women today, that let female offenders live with their children as they undergo treatment for drug addiction and other disorders. The aim is to develop better parenting skills.

Far from lenient, these programs hold the biggest of sticks over their inmates every day: If they are late to vocational education one day, or fail a drug test, they could lose the privilege of keeping their children with them.

Ample studies cited in the report show that such programs motivate women to become responsible citizens. The women eligible for them should get a chance to turn their lives around.