Norton Celebrates Women History Month at Halfway House with Returning BOP Women (3/30/09)

Norton Celebrates Women’s History Month at Halfway House with Returning B.O.P Women Putting Their Lives Back Together

March 30, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Instead of the usual celebration of famous women, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) this morning is visiting the Fairway halfway house for women to commemorate Women’s History Month with a “Salute to the Ladies of Fairway,” between 10 a.m. and noon. Norton will take flowers, and the book, “Women in Congress: 1917-2006” to present to the women at the 60-bed residential, re-entry facility. Fairway is the only halfway house for women returning from the Bureau of Prison, where male and female D.C. inmates are housed. Norton said that the halfway house annually serves 1,059 returning inmates, as well as pre-trial women and others serving out misdemeanor offenses. “These women, at an average age of 43, are not youngsters, and with halfway house services they are good bets for successful re-entry,” Norton said. “Their status and role as mothers is another plus for their success.” Among the women, 34 of them together have 87 children and 33 grandchildren.

Norton is preparing a hearing on halfway houses for men and women in the District. “I believe that Women’s History Month will be put to good use by encouraging these women, who are putting their lives back together. They are citizens of our community,” Norton said. “By visiting them to celebrate Women’s History Month and bringing them gifts, we are encouraging these D.C. women in their re-entry activities and assuring them that we respect them as women.”