Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) is an American women's California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison located in Chowchilla, California. It is across the road from Valley State Prison. CCWF is the second largest female correctional facility in the United States, and houses the only State of California death row for women.

Facilities

CCWF covers 640 acres. As of Fiscal Year 2006/2007, CCWF had a total of 1,205 staff and an annual operating budget of US$138 million. As of April 30, 2020, CCWF was incarcerating people at 131.7% of its design capacity, with 2,640 occupants. CCWF holds prisoners at all security levels: Level I through Level IV are all housed together inside a 32-room housing unit. There are 256 inmates of all levels housed together with two Correctional Officers. On the Reception Yard there are 276 inmates per housing unit of unclassified inmates supervised by two officers. The prison provides inmate academic education, vocational training, counseling and specialized programs for the purpose of successful reintegration into society. The Center for Restorative Justice (CRJW) Family Express program, provides weekly transportation for family members from major California cities to visit prisoners at the facility.

History

The Madera County board of supervisors gave the prison its current name in 1989 "after months of discussion and disagreement". CCWF opened in October 1990, having cost $141 million to construct. In 1996, the City of Chowchilla was given permission to perform a "non-contiguous annexation" of CCWF. Starting in April 2007, CCWF received some inmates from California Rehabilitation Center after closure of the women's wing at that prison. The population at CCWF "swelled by 8 percent". There have been controversies surrounding healthcare and health standards at the CCWF over the years. Including but not limited to the following events:

Employees

As of 2007, of the prison guards, 31% were women. 19% of sergeants were women, and less than 1% of lieutenants are women.

Notable inmates

Death row

After Governor Pete Wilson decreed in December 1991 that CCWF shall hold all female death row inmates in California, Maureen McDermott became the first death row inmate at CCWF. She was the first woman sentenced to death in a period of several decades, and at one period, she was the only person in the unit. Initially a set of nine cells in the 504 building, a two-story building for difficult to manage and maximum security prisoners, served as the women's death row. The death row inmates' names (with years of sentencing) are:

Current and former inmates

Deceased