The Association on Programs for Female Offenders

Mission Statement

The Association on Programs for Female Offenders (APFO) has its roots in the women’s reformatory movement of the mid-1800s, when influential women such as Maud Ballington Booth, co-founder of the Volunteers of America, lobbied for better treatment of women and girls in prison. By 1912, the organization that later became the American Correctional Association created the Association of Women Members to provide a forum for women and to examine the needs of female offenders. Although its name changed, for the next 50 years, the purpose of what finally became the Women’s Correctional Association was to represent the interests of both female employees and female offenders.

With the expansion of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to state and local government in 1972, women were no longer restricted to working only with female offenders and developed other concerns, including how to succeed in male facilities. To ensure an ongoing focus on female offenders, those working with women and girls petitioned ACA in 1976 to recognize the Association on Programs for Female Offenders as an affiliate organization.

APFO’s mission is to provide advocacy and professional support to improve programming for women and girls under criminal justice supervision. Members include those working directly with female offenders as well as correctional administrators, researchers, and others who are concerned about ensuring that offenders receive gender-responsive programming and that staff are provided training and support necessary to work effectively with women and girls.

Those Joining APFO have an opportunity to:

• Learn more about female offenders and state-of-the-art programming for them;

• Meet and network with others concerned with these issues;

• Provide expertise and receive feedback from others on better strategies for working with women and girls as well as on the needs of staff;

• Advocate for better programming for women and girls; and

• Contribute to a long-neglected area of corrections.

Benefits of belonging to the association include:

• A newsletter;

• A Web site (www.apfonews.org);

• Semiannual meetings for information exchange;

• Representation on ACA committees and in the Delegate Assembly;

• Training opportunities at ACA and other association conferences;

• Co-sponsorship of various activities with other correctional organizations; and

• Co-sponsorship every two years of the only nationwide conference dedicated to programming for adult and juvenile female offenders.
 

For further information, contact Joann B. Morton, DPA, president, at joannmort@aol.com.

To join APFO, contact Warden Judy C. Anderson at: P.O. Box 5293, Columbia, SC 29250-5293.

You can have a voice and play an Important part in improving programs for female offenders. Join today!

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