Bad Prison Policy for Women The decision by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to transfer more than 1,100 women from a federal prison in Danbury, Conn., to other locations, including a remote facility in Aliceville, Ala., was rightly denounced as bad policy when it became widely known earlier this summer. Now, 11 senators from Northeastern states have sent a letter to the bureau's director, Charles Samuels Jr., asking him to reconsider the plan to send prisoners to Aliceville. The senators, led by Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, argue that the transfers would make it difficult if not impossible for families to sustain the visits that make it more likely that inmates will re-enter society successfully once they complete their sentences. The move would leave the Northeastern corridor with no federal beds for female inmates. Women make up only about 7 percent of the federal inmate population, but their numbers have grown in recent years, in part because of the war on drugs. Most women in federal prisons are there for nonviolent crimes like drug and property offenses. Many such inmates could be housed at community-based facilities that provide drug treatment, mental health care and other services. The Danbury prison is within driving distance of Hartford, New York City and Boston, and is well suited to keeping inmates in touch with their families. By contrast, the senators" letter says, the newly opened prison in Aliceville is more than 1,000 miles from these cities, and Aliceville has no airport, train or long-distance bus service. Erected in rural Alabama at a cost to taxpayers of $250 million, the facility is a throwback to the time when prison officials were more interested in warehousing inmates than in making it easier for them to maintain family ties. The prison bureau says that overcrowding made Aliceville necessary. But that is no excuse for wrenching these Danbury inmates out of reach of their families. The senators have urged the bureau to gauge the impact of the proposed transfers. It should determine how many of the women have children under the age of 18 and how far this move would take them from their families. And it should explain what measures will be taken to help those transferred to Aliceville re-enter society when they are released.