Epilogue 2 –Two Years Later in the Life of Warden Katherine Kelly
What started out as an experiment in corrections has exceeded even my wildest expectations. Since the new prison opened two years ago, 120 women have completed their sentences and been released. I am extremely proud to report that we had a 0% return rate. That’s right, absolutely no recipism!! I guess my theory was right…no woman in their right mind who served time here would ever want to return! The fact that no one returned even on a parole violation is particularly impressive.
Just bas impressive, is fewer and fewer women are being committed here. The old reformatory averaged 300 new inmates a year. We average 91, mostly crimes of passion like murder. The word apparently has gotten out. Sell drugs, commit robberies, burglaries and thefts if you will, but NOT in this state!
Thirteen other states are currently studying dropping their current women’s penal system and switching to my “Discipline and Control" concept. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I have twice earned the award of “Warden of the Year" by the National Prison Administrators Society.
As for my personal life, it couldn’t be better. Shelly and I are in a committed relationship, even though in this ultra-conservative state, we keep it very low-key. She sees a therapist regularly to help her deal with the prison rapes she experienced at the hands of McManus and Johanssen….we are both so glad those days are gone forever in this state.
Shelly has been promoted, and is now my second in command at the prison. She no longer is the disciplinary barber on a regular basis. She enjoys it so much though, she occasionally still shaves the head of a maximum security inmate to “stay in practice." I tease her because she insists in staying in practice only on the best-looking of the max-girls!
What is the one thing I most attribute my success too? It has to be the haircuts. Despite all the tough correction, discipline and control we infuse into our inmate’s criminal lives, it all starts with the haircut. Be at a “Bad Girl’s Bob", “Big House Buzz-cut" or a “Con Kojak", from the moment we give it to them, they know they are no longer in charge of anything. They know they have lost control of their lives to us, the prison staff.
We can only pray our success continues until the day comes a place like SPW no longer needs to exist!
