Is There a Way Out? A Community Study of Women in the San Francisco County Jail

• NCJ Number: 76540
• Author(s): D K Lewis; L Bresler
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 155 pages
• Grant Number(s): NIE 6-78-0146
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare; Van Loben Sels Foundation; Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr Fund; David and Lucile Packard Foundation
• Corporate Author: Unitarian Universalist Service Cmtte, Inc
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study of 68 female misdemeanants in the San Bruno County (San Francisco) jail focuses on the problems female offenders encounter while in jail and upon reentry into society and evaluates the effectiveness of service programs.

Abstract

A prisoner profile examined such variables as race, age, marital status or living arrangements, children, family background, education, vocational training, employment, and arrest histories. Racial differences were significant in areas such as education and offense. For example, two-thirds of the black women in the jail had left high school without graduating. White women were charged with prostitution and theft, both typically 'female' crimes, while black women were charged with a broad range of offenses, specifically property offenses, including receiving stolen property and forgery. In jail, the Prisoner Services program, established to help prisoners cope with life in the jail and later expanded to help the women develop release plans (such as housing, employment referral, training and education programs, drug counseling), has been beset by low staff morale, and pay, and inadequate administrative backing. While separate women's classes alleviated some of the problems of coeducation in the corrections setting, they did not offer equal services or diversity and tended to concentrate on low-paying traditionally stereotyped skills such as typing and clerical. Moreover, because 70 percent of the women served fewer than 60 days, little educational benefit could be expected. Community-based post release programs included vocational training and employment service (such as federally funded apprenticeship programs) and drug treatment programs. Areas of greatest need include more and better planned in-jail programs, assertiveness training, a wider range of support systems for women desiring to change their lifestyles, expanded job opportunities, and more effective community-based programs. Chapter footnotes and four appendixes are provided.