The Director of the state prison system says the number of women prisonerscontinues to increase at a substantial rate with the number of women behindbars doubling in the next seven to eight years. There are currently 700women in Iowa’s prisons.Kip Kautzky says they will be some new prison beds available soon, but hesays they are planning to reduce pressure on the system by moving prisonersout faster into community-based corrections facilities . He says these wouldbe non-violent criminals such as those who write bad checks.The state has sent 100 women prisoners to a facility in Virginia and Kautzkysays that has gone well and will continue.The overcrowding problem is not as bad for male prisoners as several hundrednew prison beds are being built or have been built in the last couple ofyears. He says the male popluation is not growing as rapidly.He says they will also try to speed up the release of “low risk” menprisoners.Kautzky made a report on the prison population to today’s corrections boardmeeting.