NCJ Number
146116
Date Published
1993
Length
116 pages
Annotation
Statistics on women's jails address offender characteristics, staff, administration, and programming
Abstract
The research design called for site visits to the maximum feasible number of women's jails. Through several sources, 18 exclusively women's jails were identified for study. From the original list of 18 jails, two of the largest facilities did not participate because of logistical or political concerns over questionnaire administration. Five jails were selected for site visits. The jails are located in major urban areas on the East and West coasts. Site visits and data collection determined that four of the five jails were overcrowded. Although some jails are providing or helping with a variety of inmate programs, often the programs are limited to sentenced inmates, and many work programs are sex-role stereotyped. All five jails were headed by male administrators, although the custody staffs were overwhelmingly female. The report recommends additional research on various aspects of women's jails. It also suggests that a national conference of women's jail administrators be held to discuss common problems and possible solutions to those problems. 21 tables and 44 references