San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-02-20
WOMEN BOOTLEGGERS SHOW
y NEED OF FEDERAL PRISON
EXCLUSIVELY FOR FEMALES
Penitentiaries Have No Quarters for Women and
Z Are Crowded AS 1t Is So That Women Convicted
4. of Dry Law Violations and Under Narcotic
.. Act Have to Be Sent to County Jails.
Number Is Increasing.

see at least 800 women convicted I'M.
der the VOlstead act alone. State and
county authorities are refusing to ac'
cept our women prisoners and we have
only two places available to send
them, a fairly modern institution at
SOnOma, Cal. and an ordinary county
Jail at Caldwell. They have room for
about ten additional women at these
two places. When they are filled we
will be squarely up against it, unless
Congress acts before it adjourns and
gives us the needed facilities"
Although the women share the risks
and get about the same punishment as
the men in the bootleg game. they do
not get an equal share of the SpOfls,.
according to the evidence which has
come into possession of the attorney
generals office. go
They are drawn into the game"
according to Mrs. Willebrandt, usual
~ not because of the money reward.
but because they have become en-
amoured of members of gangs usually
the ringleaders. l have in mind one
girl who worked in one of our prohibi
ton enforcement offices. \ bootleg
fer managed to make her acquaintance
and deliberately made love to her with
the idea of utilizing her as medium
of information on what was going on
in our office. She snccumbed to his
wiles and, of course, later on. was
found out, arrested and convicted.
Use Women as Drivers.
"WOmen are being used more and
more to operate the automobiles in
which liquor is being transported, be-
cause they are less likely to be sus-
pected. Frequently the rum runners
their wives and sweethearts with them
on long hauls for the purpose of cOun-
teracting any suspicion regarding the
objects of the trip. Two girls were
convicted only short time ago. be-
cause they had accompanied pair of
professionals on a long trip into Penn
sylvania and Ohio.
"A complete plant was discovered By
our officers in what was TO all intents
and purposes a very beautiful home.
Two women had been installed there.
one a dignified gray-haired individual
with blooming young girl, supposed
to be her daughter. The women resid-
ed there for no other purpose than to
make it appear a bonafide residence.
FINALLY. however, the presence of
automobiles there at unseemly hours
directed suspicion and finally raid
was made. When the officers
searched the premises they turned up
complete bOotlegging establishment.
The place was near the coast where
the cOntraband easily could be shipped
in. But they also had established a
complete distilling outfit, so that they
could take genuine liquor and adulter-
ate it thus enhancing their profits
Why, they even had a complete print
ing outfit for turning out the labels
for the fake bottles.
"All of the women who are caught
in such plots come in for severe SEN
tences. OF course there are excep,
tions. especially where some are not
at all a bad sort. but simply have be-
come entangled in the game through
falling in love with the male heads. a
lot of them, though, are not past re-
demptiOn and could rebuild their lives
if they were punished in a humane
manner. But we are forced to send
them to filthy jails and state prisons
that are medieval to say the least.
Drug Addicts Suffer Too.
"But it is not alone the woman boot
leggerS who have TO suffer from this
lack of government facilities for hui
name treatment. Take the women and
girls who are convicted under the mar.
cotic act. Many of them are high.
class individuals. Some of them
trained nurses who have fallen vic
tins to drugs while working at top
speed at their profession. Instead OF
being sent where they can receive first
class modern hospital treatment, they
are thrown into dirty jails and allowed
to suffer.
ut is because many Of these women
should be given another chance that |
am trying to have a federal prison for
females established which will be on
the modern ideas of penOlOgy.'
A bill has been introduced in Con-
gress by the way which would convert
| the old weather bureau station at
Mount Weather in the foothills Of the
Blue Ridge into a reformatory where
all federal women prisoners could be
sent. They would get treatment for
any ilU that affected them and event
ually be given an opportunity to re-
form