Activists Challenge New Women’s Prisons Promoted as Trauma-Informed Facilities

While abolitionists push for reduced incarceration, state governments in Louisiana, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts and Illinois are moving forward with new women’s prisons or major remodels, often branding them as trauma-informed or gender-responsive. The Louisiana facility, described as a "campus" with classrooms and a delivery room, opened last year, and a re-entry center in Maine was completed in 2017. In Vermont, activists halted a zoning request for a $97 million prison in Essex after a local campaign involving canvassing and testimony from formerly incarcerated women.

Massachusetts announced a $360 million "re-imagining" of its sole women’s prison, framing it as a national model for trauma-responsive care. Illinois plans a new women’s prison in Crest Hill, despite criticism that existing facilities are unsafe and that decarceration measures such as medical parole are underused. Groups like FreeHer Vermont, No New Prisons Illinois, Project Abolition and the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls argue that new construction perpetuates harm and that alternatives should be pursued.