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If you’ve never faced incarceration or don’t know someone who has, then why should you care about the challenges women face in prison? Well, the statistics are disturbing—and it’s not like Orange is the New Black. Deanne Benos, Chair of the American Probation and Parole Association’s Women & Girls Committee and Founder of The Women’s Justice Initiative (WJI), has educated thousands across the country around why this issue should matter to us all. Now she’s bringing big change to how Illinois treats the women’s population in its prison system.
“There are few greater examples of gender injustice than skyrocketing incarceration of women and girls,” said Benos. “Only3 of 100 rapists go to prison, yet the fastest growing justice population are their victims: Women suffering trauma and addiction from sexual and domestic abuse. Society is punishing women for crimes of survival, and re-victimizing them in a male-dominated prison system ill-equipped to address their unique needs.”
A landmark assessment from WJI and national expert, Alyssa Benedict, revealed Illinois women’s prisons reached record levels from 2010-2015, while expanding male-centered policies. As an example, in 2013 Logan men’s prison was converted into one of the nation’s largest women’s prisons, yet prepared staff with only a 1.5-hour Powerpoint on working with 2000 women, of which 770 suffered serious mental illness, 98 percent had histories of sexual/domestic abuse and 73 percent were mothers to 3,700 children.
Logan’s conditions was rampant with bigoted verbal abuse. Women received 3-5 times more discipline than men and punished with fewer child/family visits, more prison time and even denied maxi pads. Suicide attempts increased ten-fold.
After the assessment, IDOC began making historic reforms, and WJI developed national model legislation called the “Women’s Correctional Services Act” (HB3904) requiring prisons to adopt gender responsive, trauma-informed and family-centered policies.
“I proudly worked with WJI on this historic legislation to set standards ensuring women are never overlooked by our prison system again,” said HB3904 sponsor State Rep. Juliana Stratton. “By addressing their unique risks/needs, we will make prisons safer, while improving outcomes for women and their children.”
The hard work of WJI is about to pay off —it’s just one Senate vote away from reaching the Governor’s desk. Let’s hope it gets there.