It examines the attitudes and responses of Illinois prison officials toward female convicts, explores the conditions of daily prison life that confronted women, and analyzes the changing composition of the female prison population between 1835 and 1896. The condition and treatment of female convicts in Illinois typified national trends. Between 1831 and 1859, only 59 women, compared to over 3,000 men, were sentenced to prison. It was not until 1896 that Illinois established a separate women's prison at Joliet. For most of the 19th century, society's highly restricted definition of proper womanhood shaped and limited penal responses to women's law breaking. Female prisoners remained social outcasts and pariahs, incarcerated alongside males in separate annexes, wings, or units either within or attached to their State's male penitentiaries. The descriptions of the women's quarters contained in most States' annual reports portray wretched conditions, overcrowding, lack of supervision, neglect, enforced idleness, and occasional hints of sexual exploitation or abuse. Prison officials rarely acknowledged the need of women prisoners and instead complained continuously about the great difficulties they experienced in managing and disciplining their female charges. Female prisoners were typically blamed for any and all disruptions that their presence created within the masculine world of the penitentiary. Moreover, most prison administrators of the 19th century viewed female convicts as even more difficult to manage than their male peers and even more disruptive of penal discipline. 77 notes