Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women ( LCIW ) is a prison for women located in St. Gabriel , Louisiana . It is the only female correctional facility of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections . Elayn Hunt Correctional Center is immediately west of LCIW . LCIW includes the state 's female death row . the prison is temporarily closed due to flooding that occurred in August 2016 , and its prisoners are housed in other prisons . In 1961 the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women opened on the grounds of a former prison farm camp . Female inmates were moved from the Louisiana State Penitentiary ( Angola ) to LCIW . A 200 bed dormitory intended to alleviate an overcrowding of female prisoners was scheduled to open in the northern hemisphere spring of 1995 . In 1995 the state received federal approval for its plan to double-bunk inmates . That way the state could transfer state-sentenced female prisoners who were held in parish jails to the women 's prison . The television special '' 900 Women : Inside St. Gabriel 's Prison '' is about the women inside the facility
flooding that occurred in August 2016
2016 Louisiana floods
Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women