Women's work release center sits unused: State unfairly discriminating against females by not staffing site for them, critics say

It took 10 years for the state to propose, plan, finance and build its $4 million New Castle County Women's Work Release Center.

Nine months after construction ended, the 96-bed facility has yet to open, and officials with the state Department of Correction don't know when it will.

"It's very frustrating that this facility is sitting empty and has been for months, and no one from the commissioner on down can give us any idea when it will open," said Janet Leban, executive director of the Delaware Center for Justice and one of the center's longtime advocates. "It's especially frustrating because the state had years to plan for this opening, and apparently no one did."

Department officials say it would take 27 employees to open the facility, built on the grounds of the Baylor Women's Correctional Institution, near New Castle. The new center has an operating budget of $1.6 million, which was approved by the General Assembly last year, but never spent.

Leban and other critics say the problem is the state's attitude toward women inmates and the low priority it assigns to rehabilitating them.

"[National] research shows that women offenders get the short end of the stick because their numbers are small when compared to men," Leban said.

Since 1976, studies on prison inmates have consistently found there is lack of programming for women.

Corrections officials are eager to open the facility, but say they have a statewide shortage of corrections officers -- more than 280 vacancies.

"We see this as a real step forward for addressing women's needs specifically," said Noreen Renard, chief of the state's Bureau of Prisons. "It will give them a place where they can discuss issues in a group of women rather than in a coed one."

Tanya Wingate, 30, of Newark, who spent four years in Baylor and at the Plummer Community Corrections Center in Wilmington on theft-related charges before her release about 15 months ago, said Renard is right about that.

"It definitely would help women who are getting ready to rejoin the community," she said. "Why is it sitting there empty?"

Balancing resources

Opening the new facility would reduce overcrowding at Baylor, the only women's prison in the state. Baylor's inmate population averages 380-plus women daily and has recently sometimes reached 400. It was designed to hold 212.

Despite that, Department of Correction spokeswoman Beth Welch said, "We can't draw down [correctional officers] from existing facilities to staff the women's center. That's a safety issue. As we move along and increase hiring, then it will be feasible to open this facility."

Superior Court Judge Susan Del Pesco understands that reasoning. She is, she said, "sympathetic to [Correction Commissioner] Stan Taylor's plight." Taylor "is in a tough spot. He can't risk reducing the number of correctional officers in the [maximum-security] facilities and risk another rape," she said.

In July, a counselor at the Delaware Correctional Center near Smyrna was abducted, raped and threatened with death when an inmate passed through two security checkpoints with a homemade knife. The inmate, Scott Miller, a convicted serial rapist, was shot to death after trying to kill counselor Cassandra Arnold. A review of the incident found that forcing corrections officers to work extended overtime shifts contributed to lax security.

Still, Del Pesco said, the facility should be opened as quickly as possible. Not doing so could have disastrous consequences. She explained that many women serving time in Baylor are mothers. If they are not adequately prepared for release, there is a possibility they could wind up back in jail -- and so could their children.

Unequal treatment

Lawyer Jennifer Ranji, chairwoman of the Women and the Law section of the Delaware State Bar Association, noted that a 2000 report on female incarceration in the state found that 80 women were on a work-release waiting list. Women who remain in a maximum-security facility when they are eligible for a less restrictive level confinement miss out on the programs offered at the work release centers. That means they're not as prepared to re-enter society, she said.

Renard agreed that women are getting shortchanged. As a result, she said, programs at the new center will be designed specifically to meet their needs.

The programs will mirror many of those already offered in the state's other work release centers. These include residential treatment for drug abusers, educational programs, job skill training, parenting classes, mental health counseling sessions and life skills training. The difference is that they will be tailored for women. For example, few male inmates have custody of their minor children. As a result, parenting classes for them are markedly different from those designed for women with custody of their children.

Women's needs differ

Additionally, because about 70 percent of female inmates are victims of some level of domestic abuse, the new center would have programs targeted to them. Often, women who take part in group sessions with men do not participate fully, experts said, and miss out on their benefits.

"We know that women that have been abused in their lives often won't disclose information about that abuse unless we provide them with a safe place," said Carol Post, executive director of the Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence. "They need someone who is listening to them respectfully in a place where they feel safe from retribution regardless of what they say."

That's why, she said, most programs for abused women traditionally have been staffed by women and do not include male participants.

Wingate agreed.

"There are so many different issues that come about when a person is in treatment," she said. "They need to address things that have been part of them for their entire lives at a time when they are very vulnerable, and if they don't feel safe doing that, women won't."

Having a separate facility for women, Wingate said, "would eliminate all the extra stuff that comes along when men and women are locked up together. Many women, for example, will get involved in relationships with male inmates, and that's not helpful. The purpose of treatment is to focus on your issues, not on a new relationship."

While at the Plummer center, Wingate worked with a mentor under a Delaware Center for Justice program. That mentor helped her work through a lot of issues, she said. The program, however, ended in December when its grant money ran out.

"A facility like the one they're talking about would have been a great help for me and a lot of other women in my situation," said Wingate, who was involved in a relationship while at Plummer and is a single parent. "In a women's facility, you don't have to worry about men judging you or playing on your vulnerabilities. You go to programs designed for women run by people who focus on those issues specifically."

Former Baylor inmate Arketha Maker, 33, said the new women's center "would help you get a job, but they would do more than that. You'd get to go home on the weekends, for example, so you can re-establish contact with people."

Maker also took advantage of the justice center's mentoring program. She had been addicted to narcotics and has been sober for more than two years now.

"The help that I got is the kind of help you need to get back into the community when you get out," she said. "Without it, you might not make it."

Renard said the department also plans to offer housing programs, which would be particularly helpful to women with children.

"Believe me, we understand the value of this facility. The commissioner and the governor are meeting regularly to figure out what can be done," she said.

The longer the center stays closed, critics said, the more money it costs state taxpayers. Women who do not get help before leaving prison are at a greater risk of returning to jail -- at a cost of about $24,500 per year per inmate.

Leban said the General Assembly understood the need for a women-only center a decade ago when it first approved the concept.

"They knew that women were not doing well at Plummer. Some got pregnant, others were harassed," Leban said.

Department issues to address

Center advocates contend the corrections officer shortage can be fixed by increasing salaries. The starting salary for Delaware corrections officers is advertised on a state Web site as $29,593. In New Jersey, the starting pay is $39,888.

But Welch said the problem is more complex than that. She pointed out that although Delaware corrections officer salaries have risen more than 24 percent in the past few years, there is a limited pool of applicants due to physical tests and background checks. The department has had success at recent recruiting fairs, she said, and is starting to close the vacancy gap. Taylor, however, has estimated that it could take another 12 to 18 months to close it completely.

That is too long to wait for the new center to open, Ranji said. She called it "disturbing" that female inmates are bearing "the larger burden" because they do not have a work release center of their own.

"While male inmates also face a shortage of [work release] beds, those who eventually get in do have a facility whose programming is dedicated to their needs," Ranji said. "That is not the case with female inmates. ... They are still not provided with programming that is designed to address their needs."