The development of improved strategies for classifying female offenders is addressed. Sections of this report include:
- Issues in classifying women offenders -- the literature review;
- National assessment of current female offender classification practices;
- Focus groups with corrections professionals and women offenders;
- Directions for technical assistance (TA);
- TA -- Hawaii Department of Public Safety;
- TA -- Nebraska Department of Correctional Services;
- TA -- Colorado Department of Corrections;
- And lessons learned -- female offenders can be classified using instruments currently utilized with some adjustments, measures of offender needs offer substantial contributions to the validity of a custody classification system, precise definitions and accurate measurement are important considerations, the cooperative agreement reduced over-classification but did not nullify it, and over-classification is not only found in the classification system.