Prisons adapt to female inmates
Once the thin blue mattress rolls out from under the single bed, the prison cell is sleepover-ready.
The trundle bed is the best thing Suzanne Locke has here. Along with good behavior, it allows her to host her 6-year-old daughter, Marae, for monthly overnight visits during her 12-year sentence for arson in the state prison for women.
"She's my saving grace," said Locke, 26, who says she was high on methamphetamine four years ago when she set fire to a house and a trailer home over unpaid drug debts. "This little girl loves me. She's got me up on this huge pedestal, and I've got to live up to her standards."
Women are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. prison population, a trend fueled by their growing involvement in drug crimes and by longer sentences in general. But once behind bars, their needs are often overlooked because of tight budgets and the attention given to sex offenders and death-row inmates, advocates say.
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Once the thin blue mattress rolls out from under the single bed, the prison cell is sleepover-ready.
The trundle bed is the best thing Suzanne Locke has here. Along with good behavior, it allows her to host her 6-year-old daughter, Marae, for monthly overnight visits during her 12-year sentence for arson in the state prison for women.
"She's my saving grace," said Locke, 26, who says she was high on methamphetamine four years ago when she set fire to a house and a trailer home over unpaid drug debts. "This little girl loves me. She's got me up on this huge pedestal, and I've got to live up to her standards."
Women are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. prison population, a trend fueled by their growing involvement in drug crimes and by longer sentences in general. But once behind bars, their needs are often overlooked because of tight budgets and the attention given to sex offenders and death-row inmates, advocates say.
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