DislocationandRelocation-YaleLawSchool.PDFVIP

Dislocation and Relocation: Women in the Federal Prison System and Repurposing FCI Danbury for Men Anna Arons, Katherine Culver, Emma Kaufman, Jennifer Yun, Hope Metcalf, Megan Quattlebaum, and Judith Resnik Arthur Liman Public Interest Program* Yale Law School September, 2014 Aerial photo of Danbury prison and camp. Source: John Pirro, FCI Danbury Converting Back to Men’s Prison , NEWS TIMES (July 3, 2013), available at /news/article/FCI-Danbury-converting-back-to- men-s-prison-4645323.php. This Report tracks the lack of progress in keeping federal prison space in the Northeast available for women and the impact of the absence of bed-spaces for women on the implementation of federal policies committed to reducing over-incarceration. The problems began in the summer of 2013, when the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) announced plans to transform its only prison for women in the Northeast—FCI Danbury—into a facility for men.1 The BOP explained that this self-described “mission change” was a response to the need to provide more low-security beds for male prisoners. Liman report Dislocation and Relocation Danbury distribution Aug. 29, 2014 1 At the time of the announcement, the Danbury prison complex was composed, as it had been since 1994, of two separate facilities for women: a low-security Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) and an adjacent satellite camp for minimum-security prisoners. At full capacity, the FCI housed about 1,100 women and the camp held approximately 150 women. Both were often over the stated capacity. The BOP’s 2013 pro