CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - Wyoming violates the civil rights of women by denying them access to a corrections boot camp that provides young male offenders an alternative to incarceration, according to a lawsuit.
Taylor Blanchard is suing on behalf of herself and other women who would be eligible for the program if it were not for their gender.
Corrections Department spokesman Mark Horan declined comment Wednesday, saying the agency generally does not comment on active litigation.
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The lawsuit filed in federal court contends that by failing to operate a boot camp for women, the Wyoming Corrections Department has effectively barred women from participating in the Youthful Offender Program.
The program offers offenders under the age of 25 a chance to reform themselves through work and physical activity and offers services like job training and anger management skills. Successful completion of the program makes individuals eligible for early release.
Last May, District Court Judge Marvin Tyler recommended boot camp for Blanchard, who had violated probation terms in a drug case.
John LaBuda, the Pinedale attorney who served as Blanchard’s public defender, told the judge that because the law authorizing the Youthful Offender Program did not have a gender-based requirement, denying her the opportunity to participate would violate the state constitution.
“As far as we can tell, Taylor’s the first woman to ever get a boot camp recommendation,” John Robinson, Blanchard’s attorney in the lawsuit, told the Casper Star-Tribune (https://bit.ly/2uzqyiZ).
However, the lawsuit says that the Corrections Department refused to allow Blanchard to attend the state-run boot camp in Newcastle and also declined her request to attend a boot camp that accepted women in another state. As a result, she was being forced to serve a six- to 10-year prison sentence, it said.
Robinson said denying her access to a boot camp is a violation of Blanchard’s civil rights and those of all women who may be recommended for the program in the future.
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Information from: Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, https://www.trib.com
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