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Instead, the Bureau of Prisons will construct a new facility for female inmates that will be located near FCI-Danbury and maintain a satellite camp for women close by as well, U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., announced along with Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
The FCI in Danbury is the only secure facility for women in the Northeast.
"We are pleased the Bureau of Prisons has changed course ... to keep women sentenced to federal prison in the Northeast close to home," Murphy said in a conference call. "This policy will save money. By keeping women closer to home, you reduce recidivism."
While the construction work is done, 100 women from the Northeast who are incarcerated in Danbury will be moved to a facility in Brooklyn, N.Y. The other 1,200 female prisoners will be transferred to facilities closer to their homes.
"These women clearly did something wrong, that's why they are in prison, but their kids didn't do anything wrong, their families didn't do anything wrong," Murphy said.
Blumenthal praised the effort to keep female prisoners from the Northeast in Danbury. "Keeping moms and dads closer to their kids keeps crime rates lower," he said.
The senators applauded the decision in their statement. “The original plan put forward by BOP to transfer female inmates out of Connecticut would have nearly eliminated federal prison beds for women in the Northeastern United States, dramatically disrupting the lives of these female inmates and the young children they often leave behind," they said. "We are pleased that will no longer be the case.”
Previously, the Bureau of Prisons had announced that it would convert the FCI-Danbury from a secure facility for women into a men’s facility. Although it still intends to turn the existing secure facility into a men’s facility as it announced in July, it now intends to turn the existing minimum security Satellite Camp for women located near the FCI-Danbury into a low-security facility for women. It will also maintain a minimum security camp facility for women near the new FCI by constructing a new building next to the FCI.
Currently, both the FCI and the Satellite Camp at Danbury house only female inmates, and they are the only federal prison facilities in the Northeastern U.S. that house female inmates. The women had been slated to be moved to a new facility in Aliceville, Ala., they said.
The entire transfer and construction process will take about 18 months. While the work is done, the Bureau of Prisons plans to move the more than 1,300 female inmates to various locations around the country near their residences or to Brooklyn, N.Y., for those from the Northeast. The Bureau of Prisons will also move some of the current inmates with upcoming release dates to Residential Reentry Centers, or halfway houses, and others will be moved to the satellite camp.
When the work is done, about 1,000 male prisoners will be transferred to Danbury. There will also be space for about 400 female prisoners between the new low-security facility and the camp, enough space for all prisoners from the Northeast, the senators said.
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