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Advocates press commission to pause $361M women's prison plan and review classification data
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Summary
A coalition of researchers and advocates told the commission the state lacks data to justify a new $361 million minimum-security women's prison and urged an interim status review and fuller use of county prerelease beds.
Advocates and researchers urged the special commission to scrutinize the administration's plan for a new women's prison and to examine whether alternatives would better serve reentry goals.
"The administration has approved $361,000,000 for a minimum security women's prison, and that is continuing to go ahead," said Norma Glassell of the Women and Incarceration Project, who asked the commission to produce an interim status report so the legislature and public can evaluate the plan's data and fiscal assumptions.
Glassell and other witnesses said the Department of Corrections appears to overclassify many women to medium-security placements and is not fully using county minimum- or prerelease beds that could provide lower-cost, community-proximate reentry supports. "Over 80 percent [of women] meet the minimum security requirements and are overridden because they are in a medium security prison," Glassell said, urging the panel to demand the DOC and DCAM show bed projections, utilization projections and the rationale for demolition and new construction.
Sheriffs and DOC representatives replied that while collaboration and better referrals are possible, some women need the higher level of custody because of criminal history or acute medical needs; they also said the state has legal and clinical constraints that shape placement choices. The commission accepted Glassell's testimony into the record and said it would consider written follow-up and the request for a focused interim report.
