What's better than jobs? $3.6 Million more for RI prison. (apparently)

Posted by: Bruce Reilly in Crime & Criminal Justice on February 09, 2010 Print PDF

It has been about two years since the Department of Corrections unveiled their state of the art "Reintegration Center."  The 174-bed prison cost $17 million, designed to provide programming for those closest to release.  At roughly $100,000 per cell, this mission was scrapped after five years of development because apparently there was no money for staffing.  
Some called for it to become a Mental Health or Drug Treatment facility- neither of which currently exist in proper from at all- or even a homeless shelter, and somehow serve the community.  But now, for just $3.6 million more, we can re-reintegrate the facility into a shiny prison for women.
Most of the money, they claim, will go towards feminizing the toilet scenario.  If this were $3 million of the budget (83%), this would amount to about $11,000 per cell, across two facilities.  I wonder which plumber got THIS contract?
The Department of Corrections cites humanitarian concerns as a leading cause for such a move.  Director A.T. Wall, Warden Carole Dwyer, and RIBCO president David Mellon all cite grisly conditions for women prisoners and staff alike.  Mold, flooding and asbestos are just some of the reasons to seize this opportunity.  They also cite extreme heat and cold, multi-usage of chow halls for visiting rooms, and lack of space for drug treatment and other programs like in the men's facilities.  But one should take a gander at the men's facilities and see the false comparison.
Maximum Security has a decades old heating system that often leaves first tier prisoners wearing winter clothes to bed while third tier prisoners are sweating in their sheets (in winter).
Medium I Security's drug program is conducted in a cell block day room, and prisoners walk through rain or snow to the dining hall.
Minimum Security conducts visits in the chow hall, drug program in the day room, Segregation is on the same floor as regular inmates, and similar building conditions as the Women because it was constructed in the same era.
But let us look closer at the mathematics of this prison expansion.
88 Minimum Security Women will move into the Bernadette building, a small facility that once housed men's Work Release but has not had prisoners for some time.  This leaves a 149 bed capacity prison available.  For now, the Office of Probation and Parole will take over as they are trading buildings with these prisoners.  But there it will be, the Dorothea Dix facility always ready for staffing.  Dix is not considered to be in terrible shape like McDonald, and the only rationale given for the move is to be next to the other facility.  Yet the men's facilities sprawl across an area several miles wide, so this is a misleading explanation at best.
127 Women (Awaiting Trial, Medium, and Maximum) will move into the 174-bed "Reintegration Center."  Their former digs held 150.  They gained 24 more beds.  Added in with space at Bernadette and Dix, Rhode Island has a vacancy of about 185 women.  Anyone who has studied prisons knows that they do not like vacancies.  Combined with a change in the prostitution laws, there will certainly be some members of the prison industrial complex itching to insert some wayward women... 90% of whom will have substance abuse, mental health and economic issues leading to incarceration for prostitution or drug possession.
In a state calling out for a more constructive investment with their weaning funds, prisons is not on the tips of their tongues.  We hear the talk of Small Business, Green Jobs, and Working Waterfront.  We hear the call for drug decriminalization, probation reform, and closing men's prisons.  We even hear from all sides the need for reintegration programs among our predominantly male prison population.  
But what goes through the mind of Governor Carcieri?  More women behind bars. 
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