ABC News Facts on Women in Prison

By Jon Barlow

Oct. 29, 1999 — Amid the sprawling, dusty pistachio and almond plantations of Chowchilla, Calif. spreads the Valley State Prison for Women.
     A massive and modern facility constructed only five years ago, Valley State is already at 180 percent capacity. The 3,600 inmates make it the largest women’s facility in the world.
     Nightline’s six-part series, Crime and Punishment: Women in Prison, provides a look at what Ted Koppel and Nightline’s producers and cameras found after spending a week with the correctional officers, administrative staff and inmates behind the chain link, razor wire and electrified fences of Valley State Prison.

Drugs and Prison
Eighty percent of the inmates at the prison, that’s about 3,000 women, have been convicted of drug or drug-related charges. But if sending them to prison is supposed to remove drugs from their lives, the system has failed. Inmates and staff alike admit that drugs are readily accessible inside the walls. For many of the incarcerated addicts, methods of smuggling can be extreme. One inmate describes her tactic:
     “I would always have the person that brought me the drugs double it in two balloons and he’d stick the balloon in the chips and I’d pretend like I’m eating a chip and I’d swallow the balloon. The next day I’d have a bowel movement and I retrieve the drugs.”
     In an interview with Ted Koppel, Warden Ray Middleton talks about combating the problem, touting a recently instituted drug treatment program. The Warden believes that this program is money well spent. Figures show that the recidivism rate of prisoners who participated in the program are down from around 80 percent to 20 percent. Unfortunately, he has only enough funding for 256 beds in the program.
     More than 85 percent of the inmates are mothers. The prison, on average, houses around 100 pregnant inmates at any given time. About 80 percent of the inmates have been physically or sexually abused on the outside. Ninety-five percent of Valley State’s convicts will be released, but 80 percent of them are expected to return.
     The total population of women prisoners in State prisons in 1998 was 84,427, a number up by 92 percent from 1990.

E-mail on our Women in Prison series
C O M M E N T:  I do not understand WHY you are airing this series. Is it to generate sympathy for these women? If so, it fails miserably. These women are criminals and are exactly where they belong and they should feel fortunate that they do not have to face being raped, beaten or killed as men face in male prisons on a daily basis.
     I would hope in future programs that you would cover topics that have more substance.

R E S P O N S E:   A number of viewers have asked questions similar to Mr. Reda’s. Nightline has been producing the Crime and Punishment series for a number of years focusing almost exclusively on men’s prisons. More than any other group — more than men, children, whites, African Americans, Hispanics — the number of women in prison is growing faster than any other segment of society. Our goal was simple: to give you, the viewer, a look into a world you rarely see. Mr. Reda is correct: these women are criminals. But, he is wrong by suggesting that our goal was to generate sympathy.
     When a person commits a crime, that person must do the time. No one disputes that, not even most female inmates, who unlike their male counterparts, often openly admit their guilt. But, there are some unique problems for women in prison. Most women are there for non-violent crimes. Most are there for drugs or drug-related crimes. Most have children. Most were abused, physically and/or sexually before they got to prison. Most women have few family members or friends who visit them. Many have no visitors.
     So why should we care? Increasingly, Americans are telling their elected officials to clean up their streets, to lock criminals up and throw away the keys. Today, fewer convicts are getting out on parole. More convicts are spending more time behind bars. Our state and federal governments are spending almost twice as much money today on prison construction than they were a decade ago. Most of these prisons are already overcrowded. Many states cannot hire correctional officers fast enough. The Texas Department of Corrections employs more than 90,000 people, California more than 46,000, making these two agencies the largest in their states
     So, are you getting your money’s worth? Most convicts will one day get out. In California, about 95 percent of women in prison will be back on the streets. But, about 70 percent of them will find their way back behind the walls again. The revolving door seems to be turning faster than ever. Rehabilitation is expensive and not very popular with our elected officials. But if it can be shown that a long-term investment in programs, like the drug rehab program at Valley State Prison for Women, is successful, politicians just might be willing to give it a chance.
     If the Women in Prison series generated discussion and concern about issues concerning crime and punishment, then we accomplished what we set out to do.

top of page