ABSTRACT Title: FACTORIES WITH FENCES: THE EFFECT OF PRISON INDUSTRIES ON FEMALE INMATES

Over the past thirty years, the number of women incarcerated has risen significantly and increased attention has been paid to the needs of female offenders. One area that has been frequently overlooked in this discussion is the issue of employment and skills training. While female offenders, similar to men, often lack the education and work experience to be competitive in the labor market, little attention is paid to whether the correctional work programs currently in place are effective for this population. Prison industries programs are a unique type of work program in that inmates are not simply offered vocational training, but also gain direct work experience in a specific industry. Initially developed to reduce inmate idleness and offset correctional costs, this program is also thought to have rehabilitative purposes by increasing inmates ’ likelihood of employment upon release and thus reducing recidivism. However, existing evaluations of prison industries programs are limited and often plagued with serious methodological concerns. This study examines whether employment in the federal prison industries program, UNICOR, reduces institutional misconduct and recidivism among femal