Women comprise only seven percent of the state's prison population, and their needs are often ignored as California grapples with its much larger male population, say prison reform advocates.

About 80 percent of the nearly 11,000 women in California's state prisons are mothers, the majority single mothers. They struggle to find relatives to care for their children and yearn to maintain contact with them while serving their sentences. Inside prison, they do their utmost to maintain a sense of self-worth and dignity as women, despite what many say are humiliating and degrading prison policies.

But as the California female inmate population continues to climb to unprecedented levels (there were only 3,564 women prisoners at the end of 1986), women of faith are asking what more can be done to assist women in prison and their children.

A delegation of interfaith women recently spent a day touring and meeting with inmates at California Institution for Women (CIW) in Corona, some 40 miles east of Los Angeles. The group included more than a dozen Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopal and Jewish women and San Gabriel Region Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala, who chairs the California Bishops' Committee on Restorative Justice.

The delegation was organized by Women and Criminal Justice, a new non-profit advocacy organization directed by St. Joseph of Carondelet Sister Suzanne Jabro, former director of the archdiocesan Office of Detention Ministry (now called the Office of Restorative Justice). The network is seeking to partner with incarcerated women and prison administrators to create pastoral and public policy reforms that address the specific needs of incarcerated women and their families.

"As a society, we must promote and embrace policies and practices that support the reality that men and women are different and diverse," Sister Jabro tells The Tidings. "This is good news. It is only bad news when any system pretends it does not matter that the policies and practices do not take gender into consideration."

Breaking cycles
Many of the 2,000 women at CIW are serving sentences for drug use or drug related crimes, like stealing money or material goods to fund a drug habit or becoming involved in a drug deal. More serious crimes involve murder, including the murder of partners or spouses who domestically abused them.

Herbert Sanders, associate warden for business services, tells the delegates that CIW administrators want to help women "break the cycles of victimization and addictions that has them trapped."

Many women suffered early emotional, physical and sexual trauma that may have influenced them to behave in ways that landed them in prison. One woman in the mental health unit of CIW talks about having been impregnated by her brother at age 14. Other women talk about the incest and domestic violence that precipitated their addictions.

"So many women have been traumatized as children. We have arrested development," says inmate Romarilyn Baker.

Prison programs have little to offer incest survivors, says Sister Jabro. Women are mostly left on their own to reflect on their life experiences and support each other to heal.

In such an environment, prison chaplains and faith-based volunteers play an important role to help women reconcile their troubled pasts, take responsibility for their criminal actions, experience God's forgiveness and begin making plans for a better future.

Tina Brown, an incest and domestic violence survivor, now serving a 25 years-to-life sentence for attempted murder of her spouse, says she once asked a priest: "Where should the shamed ones sit?"

"You sit in the front row!" he replied, an act of compassion that moved her to tears.

Holy Names Sister Louise Bond, the Catholic chaplain at CIW, coordinates a weekly rosary group, liturgical services, Mass, Bible study, retreats, clothing distribution to women being paroled, and classes in "spiritual growth for tough times" and conflict management. Currently, Christmas cards are being collected and distributed so that women can mail them out to their families. Some 250 Catholic and Protestant volunteers come in to teach, visit and support the women. There's still a need for more volunteers.

"If people are focusing on their relationship with God and learning a certain trust, they are going to be able to improve their lives and become faithful in living out their values," says Sister Bond.

Still mothering
Dawn Davison, the acting warden at CIW, wants to strengthen bonds between incarcerated women and their children. Ongoing contact with children is a key motivation for women seeking to rehabilitate their lives and survive the tough prison experience.

It's a critical connection for children, too. Recently a Girl Scout troop held a meeting in which inmate mothers and their daughters worked on crafts together.

But because of state budget cuts, visiting days have been cut from four to two, a source of profound frustration to the women. Others lament slow mail delivery and noise-interference in phone lines. They want shorter visitor clearance, especially for family members visiting from long distances and more toys in the visiting areas so women can play with their young children.

The youngest children are the newborns. As of mid-November some 61 CIW women had given birth this year. Usually women are with their babies for two days, before their child is put in the care of relatives or government-sponsored child services. A social worker will assist an inmate who chooses to give up her child to adoption. Women who decide on an abortion are sent out for the procedure.

Sister Bond, who has been in her position one month, says she hopes to find more resources for pregnant women, so that they can trust that a baby they brought to term would be well taken care of.

Gender-responsive
Women, who break or are suspected of breaking prison regulations -- getting into physical fights or plotting to hurt someone -- can be sent to solitary confinement while their infractions or alleged infractions are being investigated. They live 22 hours a day in their cells by themselves, eat meals alone and get only a two hour break outdoors in barbed-wire fenced-in areas -- sometimes for months.

The women have sinks in their rooms, but can only shower three times a week, something they say is very upsetting when they have their menstrual periods. They complain that razors aren't allowed and so they can't shave under their arms, leaving them feeling a loss of dignity.

"This is basic. We are not men," says inmate Brown, 42, of her desire to have solitary confinement policies reflect the special needs of women.

Most prison guards are male, and in the general prison women also express dissatisfaction with prison pajamas that have long slits up the thighs and see-through robes.

The higher rates of violence in the male prisons result in more stringent rules being ordered for all the prisons. Incarcerated women ask that policies decided in Sacramento be set differently for women than for men.

Last spring CIW implemented a new "Get Down" procedure which means that when there is any altercation, even verbal, inmates are ordered to sit on the ground wherever they are at the moment, including in wet grass and puddles --- sometimes for up to an hour. The elderly, infirm and those with arthritic conditions have a hard time getting down fast enough. Some report being yelled at or threatened with write-ups, adding to their emotional stress and fear.

A new policy effective Dec. 1 stipulates that each inmate store all her clothes and possessions in a six cubic foot locker in her cell. Women are to keep only a couple of appliances outside the locker.

Inmate Diane Fellman, 57, says she has to choose between her clock, television, reading light, hairdryer and radio. And a significant portion of her locker space is used for storing files from her lengthy legal case.

Lieutenant Larry Aaron, administrative assistant to the warden and the public information officer, says Sacramento administrators want the women's prisons to be in compliance with the men's prisons. It is easier to search a cell when women have all their property stored away, and it decreases fire hazards, he adds. However, Warden Davison has requested that women inmates be allowed more appliances, he says, and the prison will exempt appliances and legal documents from the new policy until they receive guidance from Sacramento.

The inmates opine that recent proposals to house up to three women in seven-by-ten foot cells are a bigger fire hazard. CIW was designed for 1,026 inmates, but on Nov. 10, the day of the delegation's visit, there were 2,010 women being housed.

The women who persevere are the ones who resist external and internal pressures to succumb to self-loathing and bitterness.

"We're not going to let this place break our spirit," says Baker, who has served 16 years time at CIW for murder.

Many women in prison are determined to contribute to society now, she says. They read books into tapes for the blind. They train puppies to serve as helpers for the mobility-impaired in the community and support a local battered women's shelter. Baker leads self-help support groups on relapse prevention and domestic abuse.

"We do a lot of community service work so that we can heal and reconnect with the community and atone for our crimes," says Baker, 40. "We feel our remorse deeply. We're hoping that the community, God and our neighbors will accept the new creatures we've become. You can believe in second chances and still be tough on crime."

As the delegation meets with inmates in the prison chapel, the women ask for prayers.

"Pray for me to become a better person spiritually, physically and emotionally," says Kelly Dinh, 25.

They ask for visitors. "By showing up and listening, we know someone else cares," says Manu McKinley.

They ask for advocates. "Believe in us, and believe we still have a future," says Baker. "Help create better people in here."

Interfaith delegates say they hope to meet with Warden Davison early next year to discuss policy recommendations and ways to partner on behalf of women in prison.

The annual Get on the Bus event, sponsored by Women and Criminal Justice, wants to add CIW to its program next year and offer transportation so children can visit their mothers around Mother's Day.

Already, a group of interfaith women meets with incarcerated women at CIW each month for a dialogue circle they call "Women of Wisdom."

"Women enjoy being in relationship, sharing personal journeys and supporting one another," says Sister Jabro. "Women in prison and women on the outside benefit and expand worldviews from being in conversation and learning from one another."

Editor's note: To contact Women and Criminal Justice, call (213) 637-7648. To contact Sister Louise Bond at CIW, call (909) 597-1771, ext. 6366.