The mission of the Women’s Units at the Suffolk County House of Correction is to house female offenders in a safe, orderly and secure manner that ensures public safety, yet acknowledges women’s developmental, experiential, cultural, and physical realities. By assessing individuals’ strengths, we seek to create an opportunity for personal growth in an environment that promotes education, gender sensitive programs, and greater connection to families and community resources. We strive to empower women by providing the resources for them to discover and restore their self–worth and dignity, while promoting accountability.
Within the first hours of their incarceration, all female inmates and detainees receive a community resource guide that contains a list of services and programs available to them throughout Suffolk County that they can utilize upon their release. This guide provides even the shortest–term detainee or inmate with information that can assist them in obtaining needed mental and physical health services, as well as social services, employment and educational resources.
Within 24 hours of booking, female inmates and detainees are assigned a caseworker and given information about the comprehensive services available through Women’s Programming. While sentenced to the House of Correction, female inmates, like their male counterparts, are administered gender specific and trauma informed educational and vocational programming, along with social, psychological and medical services designed to provide them with the best possible opportunity at success outside while lessening the chances that they will recidivate. Addressing needs that have been identified as specific to the female population, recovery, re–entry and life skills, domestic violence, and anger management have been targeted as areas of programming focus.
To encourage willing participation in rehabilitative programming, an accountability unit has been introduced which features fewer privileges and limited access to canteen and recreation for inmates who refuse to enroll.