European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 28, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                By Kay Bartlett associated press inmates complain about the occasionally the the locked doors to their but they concede if you have to be in is where to the director Calls the 42bed facility there women serving oneyear sentences or less new generation located in a suburb of it is one of the few privately operated adult jails in the its a jail that has Security but features juice Access to carpeted cells and paintings in the dining it has been called the Holiday inn of jails and one inmate says if they make it any people wont mind coming at other inmates heatedly its a real jail All they it comes with strip fences and barbed wire in the solitary Handcuffs for prisoners being locked doors and loss of Good time for the cells Are actually pleasantly of the sort you can find in a modest College the inmates have embellished them with the rooms Are and sometimes with individual lights and prisoners can plug in their hair stereos and even their own to comforts include a Popcorn typing High school equivalency self help a weekly Art and the Opportunity to Wear ones own one a 27yearold writer who had her first article published at brought along her typewriter and spends two hours a Day at i suspect were the Only jail in the country to get than you notes from the inmates after they says Bill who has been in correctional work for 22 years and is the director of this women jail or he ran a Halfway House for women for the volunteers of America before taking the Job the jail is an experimental Effort by the a nonprofit service organization whose roots go Back to 1896 and whose roots in the nations prison system Are equally the founders of Ballington and Maud immediately began working with prisoners in sing sing Penitentiary in Booth was the first woman allowed into sing says Raymond president of the new Orleans headquartered she took the work with the men in sing sing As a personal Campaign and opened a Halfway House where she housed men for 30 to 60 Days after their Voa has leased the Roseville jail for five years at per its the first jail the organization is actually although it has operated Halfway houses for a Long if the jail Experiment proves Voa officials say they will consider taking Over All employees Are Voa some from the correctional Field and others from a varied salaries Are slightly less than the state pays for similar jobs in a stat maintained at the Voa is spending fewer taxpayers dollars per the prisoners seem to like it and it seems to fit the Page 14 the stars and stripes Holiday inn clockwise from top right women prisoners participate in an exercise class at the female facility in Robin Tietz overlooks her wardrobe As her cellmate Judy Freitag watches television in their jail Freitag and Tietz around a barbed wire Fence enclosure at the 42bed Voa Ideal meeting a Community Voa charges a Day for each to cheaper than the counties or Federal government budget per the idea took form when Ramsey county found that so few of its Short term prisoners were female less than 5 percent it was uneconomic to create programs for and a women who happened to be the Only female prisoner in a jail Felt like she was in solitary Ramsey began sending women prisoners to Hennepin county but Hennepin county needed the space and discontinued the program two years Nelson figured the Voa was ideally equipped to run a regional prison for counties with problems like Ramsey and worked out the plan with Ramsey correctional they converted a former juvenile detention Center and the first prisoners were received last the place became the volunteers of America regional corrections but most people Call it the name of the former juvenile from the it looks like a Small High school set among 40 acres of Trees and pretty much surrounded by its not visible from the main intersection nearby or from the Road going right by besides the surrounding the Federal government has contracted to use the facility As the prison now about typically includes women serving time for passing bad armed and like 31yearold Rosalind have been imprisoned Shes serving time for writing a Check on someone else Down at county jail youre treated like a Smith there Are Little Dinky one television and youve got to be up at for no reason at theres nothing to do once you get Here i feel that in treated As a human being who has committed a this int a its still so Many of the girls Here think fingerprinting and Mug shots Are fun and not its ill never commit another crime they even talk about How they could commit the crime Many of them dont take advantage of the Only about 10 or 12 bother to get up for Smith attends narcotics Anonymous meetings and uses the computers for self improvement none of the programs is makeup time is 7 and breakfast is at All Beds must be made by prisoners rotate on the housekeeping if you Are not assigned on a Given you can go Back to bed As soon As the room Check is the Library is tapes and computers Are available and exercise class begins at 10 for those wishing to take another exercise class is Given in the some spend most of their time in their others participate another who didst want her name says her main objective is just to hold herself but she feels that the jail is doing everything it can to youre not raped of your dignity they let you know that you Are a Pat serving a oneyear sentence for an aggravated robbery she says she did not complains that the staff makes up new rules every the situation has improved since she but she has other the doors to our rooms should be she they keep saying there going to let us go in and out of the but they dont do now youve got to bang to get they Only come around on the half you could be having a heart attack for All they a 22yearold serving one year for passing stolen credit cards and feels very Lucky to have landed the judge kind of went off the guidelines to Send me she he said he didst feel i was a career so he took a Day off my sentence because the women prison was full and then my sentence was one year so he could Send me if i had to do a year Down there at the women prison i feel i would have been a lot harder than when i came i feel like in getting a head Start my mom and i have gotten closer together and Ive set real Ive Learned Type and Hope to qualify for the work release a 20yearold Strawberry blonde with a Tattoo of the Thor crowned Christ on one complains that its Boring Ive been incarcerated everywhere in she says with More than a Trace of a Ive been thrown around like a Raggedy Ann at least in the workhouse there was More for us to she says the Christ Tattoo was the Only one big enough to cover the name of a former she has been imprisoned for juvenile delinquency and Shes promised herself Shes going to Stop injecting herself with cocaine when she gets Shes worried the Marks on her hands might be but she says Shes looking Forward to getting out and the first thing Shell do when her 60 Days Are up ill go Back on the streets but i cant afford to get if i get caught again that nine months in jail and a ill Only go with people i know for a there have been but generally things have run fairly smoothly in the first eight months of we dont want Happy people we want Content Nelson one of the first things he did was to shut Down the to monitors in the recreational areas and take out the room we begin with the premise that we dont have electronics make for poor we have a staffer out there roaming around within the inmate her Job is to see situations before they become the prison can hold 42 inmates but has never been that though it reached 39 at one Point it can break even financially with a population of the Voa has contracts with two county governments and the Federal government and is working on completing contracts with other we have to go out and sell the other counties that we can potentially make better says we dont guarantee but we do have the August 1985 the stars and stripes Page 15