Central California Women's Facility

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LAT: 37° 5'35.99"N, LONG: 120° 9'1.75"W
ZIP CODE: 93610
Central California Women's Facility is a state prison located near Chowchilla, California(5miles South-East from the Airport), and houses 3,109 females. This relatively new prison was established in October of 1990 and in only 16 years has grown to become the largest female prison in the country. In 2003, the prison had a budget of US$82 million and employed 931 staff. Central California Women's Facility holds prisoners of all security levels: level one through level four (minimum through maximum security), close custody, administrative segregation, and death row. (Inmates assigned to a Segregated Housing Unit (SHU) term are transferred to Valley State Prison for Women, also in Chowchilla.) The prison has numerous educational and community service programs designed to encourage inmates to stay involved and stay educated^[1].

[edit] Medical Controversies

Central California Women's Facility has been at the center of controversy regarding medical services: many of the female inmates have suffered from life-threatening diseases since the prison's opening in 1990. In 1997, the health facilities in Central California Women's Facility were temporarily shut down because lab testers were faking results to make the prisoners believe that they had AIDS or other serious diseases. The year before, investigators found testing equipment at several California state prisons, including Central California Women's facility, that had not been used recently, which meant that lab testers were faking results and typing them into the system health records. From July to November of 1996, a private lab had billed CCWF US$161,000 for excessive medical tests including HIV tests and Pap smears even though the tests had never been used on the inmates. The prison received a notice (FROM?) ordering that the patients be re-tested with Pap smears and HIV tests and that they be informed of their current conditions. It is unclear whether CCWF ever retested their inmates before the health facility was closed for a short period of time in November of 1996^[2]

In the year 2000, five women died within a month — three of these five women suffered from terminal illnesses that were overlooked by the staff, and two of the five women died suddenly in their cells.

[edit] Death Row

As of October 2006, California had the largest number of women on death row of any state. All thirteen of the women on death row reside at Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla^[3]. Maria "Rosie" Alfaro was the first female inmate on death row at CCWF. In 1992 she was sentenced to death for murdering a nine-year-old girl^[4].