NCJ Number
166739
Date Published
1995
Length
38 pages
Annotation
This booklet reviews the 150-year history of the Women's Prison Association and Home (WPA), from 1845 to 1995.
Abstract
Founded during a period when immigrants were crowding New York City and filling its prisons, the WPA, as an arm of the Prison Association of New York, visited prisons for women and reported on conditions in jails and station houses. They also taught sewing, basic reading skills, and an appreciation for a higher morality. Over its 150 years, WPA has maintained a tradition of public information and advocacy designed to ameliorate jail and prison conditions for women. It also works to increase public awareness of and support for effective, community-based responses to crime. In 1995 the WPA continues as a nonprofit agency working to create opportunities for change in the lives of women prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families. WPA provides programs through which women acquire life skills needed to end involvement in the criminal justice system and to make positive, healthy choices for themselves and their families. In 1990 WPA founded the Women's Justice Alliance, a coalition of more than 150 public and private agencies committed to improving programs and public policy for women involved in the criminal justice system.