The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-02-21
SPECIAL PRISON
NEEDED FOR
WOMEN
Assistant Attorney General
Points to crowding of
Penitentiaries.

Female Federal prisoners haze
in the past been, fGrrmed Oat to
, State pe,,itentiaries and county
idiLs 1Chich are 11oaC closed to them
on account of the increase IN mate
prisoners. The Federal peniten-
tio1ies, Wl,ich also are oUeTcTOa0ed
aUith male prisoners. are not
equipped to accommodate a0on1en
prisoners.
A bill is pending IN Congress to
proVide for the establishment of
a United States industrial home
for aco7nen,' to meet this unhappy
situation.
By, Mrs. MABEL WALKER
WILLEBRANDT,
(Assistant Attorney General Of the
United StateS9
Written Expressly for Cosmopolitan
a. News Service.
The prison problem cannot be sue
cessfully met if men and women are
confined in the same institutions.
Women have so much to over
come in any prison in the way of
changing old habits and building up
new inhibitions that penologists are
coming to understand that they
should not be subjected to the emo
tional interference that comes from
the proximity of the sexes.
The Federal Government has alb
solutely no place of it's own in which
to place its women prisoners.
The three Federal penitentiaries.
Atlanta, Leavenworth and Mcneil
Island. are designed for men only
and handle men only.
Has EARNED Out Women.
The Federal Government has been
obliged to farm out its women
prisoners to State penitentiaries and
county jails and reformatories.
We have, in the entire country, a
standing average of about 800 female
Federal prisoners, gathered, for the
most; part, from good elements Of
society.
They may be classed as follows.
Bootleggers-those who actually
bootleg, those who act as camou-
flages in automobile transportation
of liquor, and the wives of boot
leggers who assist their husbands;
violators of the Mann act, violators
of the Dyer act, interstate auto
mobile thievery, accomplices in
0CLd4CdIIOIISy In0
stenographer of the absconding
.1lices or sweethearts, women
D.-4iiz. cashiers who go wrong, wom-
en- postal law violators, clerks who
pilfer the mail, and blue-sky opera
tors who use the mails to defraud,
Violators of the anti-narcotic law
and .narcotic-drug addicts who ask
to be imprisoned in order to get
away from the drug. These latter
generally are OF q better class Of
women.
Care Costs e. s. S95. 900. 4
the present time we aRe payl
ing but $4,000 per year to Stated
and counties for caring for these
prisoners, but last fall, during court
terms, practically every State and
county informed us they could care
for no more women Federal prison
ers, and we have been unsuccessful
in finding other places for them.
The Federal penitentiaries are
crowded with men; Atlanta with
2.447, Leavenworth with $500 and
Mcneil Island with Social more
than comfortable capacity.
To place a few of these women In
each of these penitentiaries will
only intensity the problem of deal
ing with each sex.
There are 100000 ex-convicts
turned back into. society each year.
which is something to think about,
and our problem Of women prison
ers is a part of this problem and
we are not meeting it until we
provide them with the means to re-
turn to society in a way that will
not cause them to become menace.