Filed Date: Jan. 25, 1972
Closed Date: 1976
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In January 1972, a female inmate at the federal correctional institution at Alderson, West Virginia, filed a class action lawsuit claiming sex discrimination and a constitutional denial of equal protection against the District of Columbia Department of Corrections and the U.S. Attorney General. The class action was on behalf of all women convicted of D.C. offenses serving time in federal prisons. The Plaintiffs alleged that D.C. women were serving more time than D.C. men with similar sentences and circumstances because the women were paroled later. The Plaintiffs asked that the transfer of D.C. women to federal facilities be halted and declared unconstitutional. Clarice Feinman and Claudine SchWeber, Criminal Justice Politics and Women: The Aftermath of Legally Mandated Change, Women & Politics Vol. 4 No. 3 (Fall 1984).
The problem occurred because D.C. had no facilities for women offenders serving more than one year, so the women were sent to federal institutions located outside of D.C. As a result, the women were seen by federal parole authorities, whose release guidelines were more rigid than those of the D.C. Parole Board. Clarice Feinman and Claudine SchWeber, Criminal Justice Politics and Women: The Aftermath of Legally Mandated Change, Women & Politics Vol. 4 No. 3 (Fall 1984).
According to the D.C. Circuit in Cosgrove v. Smith, 697 F.2d 1125 (D.C. Cir. 1983), on December 10, 1976, the Federal Bureau of Prisons entered a consent decree in this case approved by Judge William Bryant, stipulating that all female offenders sentenced in the District of Columbia would be paroled under local, rather than federal, standards, regardless of the site of incarceration or the type of offense, be it D.C. or U.S. Code. The female inmates were to remain in federal prisons but the women were allowed to personally request transfers to the D.C. Department of Corrections "nine months prior to their parole eligibility date." This was done to permit the D.C. women from federal institutions to be heard by their own parole board. The agreements was known as the Garnes Decree.
According to L. Steinitz, The Garnes Decree in Reality: Parole Eligibility and Determination for D.C. Women in Federal Correctional Institutions (1981), the Women Offenders Network (an organization sponsored by the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor) discovered in 1981 that the agreements made in Garnes were not being carried out because the D.C. Department of Corrections was not accepting transfer applications from women who had first met with the federal parole authorities and had received from them a presumptive parole date.
A hearing was held on H.R. 2050, a proposed bill to transfer parole authority to the D.C. parole board, and other bills before the Subcommittee on Judiciary and Education and the Committee on the District of Columbia House of Representatives. The bill did not pass, but on July 1, 1982, a new agreement was signed between the Federal Prison System and the D.C. Department of Corrections. The agreement was designed more precisely to carry out what Garnes had ordered. L. Steinitz, The Garnes Decree in Reality: Parole Eligibility and Determination for D.C. Women in Federal Correctional Institutions (1981).
Summary Authors
Jessica Kincaid (3/21/2014)
Last updated March 17, 2024, 3:15 a.m.
Docket sheet not available via the Clearinghouse.State / Territory: District of Columbia
Case Type(s):
Key Dates
Filing Date: Jan. 25, 1972
Closing Date: 1976
Case Ongoing: No
Plaintiffs
Plaintiff Description:
Female inmates from D.C. in the federal prison system
Plaintiff Type(s):
Public Interest Lawyer: Unknown
Filed Pro Se: Unknown
Class Action Sought: Yes
Class Action Outcome: Unknown
Defendants
The District of Columbia Department of Correction, State
Defendant Type(s):
Case Details
Constitutional Clause(s):
Available Documents:
Outcome
Prevailing Party: Plaintiff
Nature of Relief:
Injunction / Injunctive-like Settlement
Source of Relief:
Form of Settlement:
Court Approved Settlement or Consent Decree
Issues
General:
Discrimination-basis:
Affected Sex or Gender:
Type of Facility: