California Prison System Fails Women, Study Says

SACRAMENTO — California’s beleaguered, one-size-fits all correctional system is failing one group of offenders more dramatically than any other — the 22,000 women convicts and parolees whose crimes are overwhelmingly nonviolent, according to a study released today by a government oversight panel.

Continuing its critical reporting on the state’s $6-billion-a-year penal system, the bipartisan Little Hoover Commission said the number of women behind bars in California has increased five-fold during the last two decades. Despite that surge, the state continues to run prison programs and facilities designed mostly for violent men, the report said.

Few women released from prison receive help finding a job, housing or counseling for the drug addictions that typically landed them behind bars. Compounding their struggle on parole, women paroled for drug offenses — about one in three — are barred by federal rules from receiving most government assistance and, in many cases, from qualifying for public housing.

Not surprisingly, half of all female ex-convicts violate terms of their parole and wind up back in prison, almost always for nonviolent behavior, the report says.

While the recidivism numbers are worse for male parolees, the costs of failure are steeper when it comes to women parolees, the report said. About 64% of women offenders have children, and of those, nearly half are single parents.

As a result, their incarceration and re-incarceration take a heavy toll on families and on the state’s social welfare system. Research shows that the children of incarcerated parents are five to six times more likely than their peers to wind up in prison, and 10 percent are in foster care.

“If we fail to intervene effectively in the lives of these women and their children now, California will pay the cost for generations to come,” said Commissioner Teddie Ray, chairwoman of the subcommittee that produced the report.

But rather than tailor its programs to address the particular needs of women, “the state has remained focused, almost singularly, on a policy of punishment and incapacitation designed for male offenders,” the report said.