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Therefore the coed institutions are surrounded by fences rather than high walls. Guards wear street clothes and carry walkie-talkies rather than guns or clubs. Male inmates stroll about in jeans and T shirts, while many of the women favor colorful halter tops and slacks.
As part of the education program at Framingham, the 62 men and 61 women can take courses in computer programming and basic business skills.
More than half of them commute daily to jobs or schools in the surrounding area. The Federal Correctional Institution at Fort Worth holds Gestalt therapy sessions as well as providing transactional analysis for the 400 male and 100 female residents. To encourage a sense of responsibility, Pleasanton officials give all residents keys to their own rooms. The rooms, however, cannot be locked from the inside.
Though it is too early to judge conclusively, penal experts believe that coed incarceration is a success—at least in improving behavior. Warden Charles Campbell of the Fort Worth prison, which has been coed for nearly three years, reports that "we have not had a drug overdose or the kind of fights characteristic of serious drug trafficking. In fact, we've had little of the violence commonplace in more rigid prisons."
Known homosexual activity has declined drastically both at Fort Worth and at Framingham, which has been coed since 1973. Explains Convicted Murderer Murdoch MacDonald, a Framingham resident: "Just to be around women releases uptight fantasies. It lessens homosexual actions." At the Robert F.
Kennedy Youth Center in Morgantown, there has not been a single case of homosexual rape reported in the three years since the prison became coed.
Quickest Exit. Still, there are drawbacks. Fort Worth had the third highest number of escapes in the federal prison system last year, presumably because of loose security. Most of the runaways returned voluntarily. The prison is also reported to have had nine illegitimate births, though the women may have become pregnant on weekend furloughs or work releases.
Officials say that whatever their problems, coed prisons are clearly far more humane than their predecessors.
Although inmates point out that no prison can be pleasurable, most occupants of the coed facilities prefer them to standard slammers. As Toni Brook Chandler, 18, a Framingham resident, puts it: "When you see a man around and he sees you, you stop and say, 'Wow, I've got a reason for getting out.' " The quickest way out is to stay in line while in prison.