European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 2, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Ragaz be prison for women by Paige St. John associated press colonial co ii age son spacious grounds and i curly of Ncry greeted Liz when she arrived in Virginia. An Ronly woman held out ruts and said. Come on in 5wcoiio come on in. Hal w3, to serve your 30-year sentence for this was i s Welcome to the Federal correctional Insh Lute at Alderson the Sedera government s Only All women s prison. There where the Green prior River winds among rolling Hills the Al Lluent come to take Mineral Waters and Farmers bring livestock to Market Liz curls up on Iho bed in her Liny private room. There s a Fluffy Pink Rug. Bissol Heads and ribbons Are draped around the Mirror. Snapshots Are pinned 1o Tho Wall reminders of the daughters Liz left behind in far off Texas neither li7 nor the will specify her offence in this place says Liz. You can not entirely. This is a prison Days Joan Gump a pacifist who took a sledgehammer to a missile silo and must spend eight years away firn her 12 children the head counts. Homosexuality contraband snitching inspections . Isolation Lack of privacy Lack of control a Are typical of prison life. Added to Hal Ore it absent children. A social worker says Aboul 80 percent of the women at Alderson Are mothers what happens to the children the families of she women Here is Gump says things go wrong at Home the children 90 Inlo i rouble. They go to Pil their mothers Sil helpless in prison Cut Olf by inc Sarne mountains thai make Iho View so pretty. It is so heartbreaking another inmate says. Everyone in Tho Visi Hng loom starts crying ii Musl be the most in Cense torture there is the intense pain of being Coli orally lir Liz s daughters Are growing into strangers. She copes she says by not thinking about in. You can l be a Mother. You iry to be a i Rind says Doia Brown serving or for murder Brown s husband pm ill a h a younger a Oman and la a her three sons intend Lor Trey Taslov i m re Blore Hoy got Inlo tit a o . You la see in in p Versle thai you think my god they re so violent they re so cold they re so Overly hmm Allol a sudden itus one woman is going to have a need and then the goofy one you think 15 so null responds Gump says ii is so Good. It 15 just so Good. You can l count on it but it manifests mostly the women shut their turmoil inside if icy did to Brown says in would tie a mess around Hoie " easygoing As life is in Alderson. Compared with other prisons temptation to escape remains Charles Hanson disciple Lynette squeaky Tommo escaped last Christmas when she thought her cult guru also in prison had cancer and i just had to gel she was captured alter three Days. Fromm was sentenced in an assassination attempt on then president Gerald Ford. Another inmate fled in the Winter of 1934 to reach the bedside of her ailing father her Frozen body was found in an abandoned Lucil Siloro about one mile from Tho prison six weeks later. Alderson s Warden is Ronald Burkhart. At some Federal prisons he says you can Cut the tension with a knife Here the tone is More relaxed. 1 Don t want it to be he s speaking in his on a humid. 90-degree Day holler inside. The Warden has his lie knotted his suit coat on inmates of Alderson prison form no nation a Only All female fire department. And the air conditioner Olf. He looks comfortable. Burkhart plays in Cool. Eighteen prisoners Escen cd the year he univ cry 1984 five fled last year and Only one so far Shis year. Our first Wall is our stall he says. Friendly but not More relaxed inmates Means lower escapes. When nuclear disarmament Radical Helen Wood son tried to escape in March she Hung an end Banner on Ilic per on Fence walked the Culer Gale and pourer White p3nt an the parking lot. Guards marry her Back in. The Warden slay Al cd i i she said i escaped did t i and i said. No. You did to " Burkhart says. Security at Alu Oison is not oppressive. On Tho grounds maximum Security murderers some holding hands Are chatting Wilh minimum Security embezzler beneath Majestic Oaks. The Only gun visible is one carried by n guard who patrols the 59-acre penile Liaty s perimeter walking along a Chain link Fence Hal does t always hoop neighbourhood dogs out. Beyond ho1/,or arc the mountains and Miles and Miles of Woods which make a stroll to Freedom much less inviting the i Jok Ikon Kial keeps prisoners in also keeps their families out Tho remoteness is a Lea Barrier says John Vodicka who Wilh his wife runs a hospitality House for what Lew i Malo relatives make the journey to this Rural Corner of West Virginia where Greenbrier Summers and Monroe counties meet. Amtrak pulls through Alderson about one mile Down the Road from Ilia prison three limes a week. A Van brings families from Washington d.c., twice a month. The Only other Way is by car. Last thanksgiving Vodicka says Only some 65 of the8l2 inmates received visitors. The geographic isolation grates. Aldo son s inmate sunday october 2. 1988 population is 45 percent Black and 24 per Cyril hispanic More than 150 inmates Are colombians and Many of the women Don t speak English. Most Are in pad because they then Livo in a cottage set aside for Tho firefighters and emergency medics a technicians. The women take special Delight in lolling Aboul the time they arrived at Sceno of a car Accident and treated the injured child of a Pittson guard. In this rather unusual coexistence town Folk Don t worry when the prison whistle sounds an occasional escape Avert. You just Aboul expect it says a Wai Liess at Iho aide son livestock Market sconce bar mostly i never think about it. If it were men you d think of More hardened criminals. If a Man escapes you have to watch Loril. Bui women among the Butler known prisoners at Alderson have been Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally serving Lime for then world War i activities in a chasm o1 the Nalson s enemies Singer Billie Holiday was there once on a drug conviction. No prison is wholly trouble Iree. In 1979. Inmates complained of mistreatment by guards and inadequate health care. One woman told a civil rights Lask Force Hal prison doctors d
