Indiana Women's Prison
| Location | 2596 Girls School Road Indianapolis, Indiana |
|---|---|
| Status | open |
| Security class | mixed |
| Opened | 1873 |
| Managed by | Indiana Department of Corrections |
The Indiana Women’s Prison was established in 1873 as the first adult female correctional facility in the country. The original location of the prison was one mile (1.6 km) east of downtown Indianapolis. It has since moved to 2596 Girls School Road, former location of the Indianapolis Juvenile Correctional Facility. As of 2005[update] it had an average daily population of 420 inmates, most of whom are members of special-needs populations, such as geriatric, mentally ill, pregnant, and juveniles sentenced as adults. By the end of 2015 the population increased to 599 inmates. Security levels range from medium to maximum. The prison holds Indiana’s only death row for women; however, it currently has no death row inmates. The one woman under an Indiana death sentence, Debra Denise Brown, is being held in Ohio.
Established in 1873, the Indiana Women’s Prison was not only the United States’ first separate institution for female prisoners, but was also the first maximum-security female correctional facility in the nation. Formerly, female felons had been detained at the Indiana State Prison, located first in Jeffersonville and later in Clarksville. When Quaker prison reformers Rhoda Coffin and Sarah J. Smith learned of the abuses suffered by women prisoners at the hands of the male guards, they lobbied for an end to sexual abuse of women in state prisons. Soon after, Ellen Cheney Johnson facilitated the opening of the Dedham Asylum for Discharged Female Prisoners in Massachusetts. In 1869, their bill for a “Female Prison and Reformatory Institution for Girls and Women” passed the state legislature and served as a precedent to prison reformers across the country.
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