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December 22, 2008
VT: Women's prison opens, but not enough women to fill it
http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/83334/
Women's prison opens, but not enough women to fill it
Monday December 22, 2008
ST. ALBANS, Vt. (AP)
Vermont corrections officials have rearranged the state's prison system,turning the correctional facility in St. Albans into awomen's prison.
But while that change has been in the works, new programs designed to keep women out of jail have helped drive down Vermont's female inmate population by 40 percent.
That means that when the St. Albans prison reopens to admit women in a few weeks it will have 140 empty beds.
State Senator Richard Sears, the Bennington Democrat who chairs the
Legislature's Corrections Oversight Committee, is among those who are
surprised at the dramatic reduction in Vermont's female prison population.
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Posted by lois at December 22, 2008 09:44 PM