The status of assessment of women in correctional institutions remains problematic. It reflects many design flaws, weak validation, calibrations based on male samples, and use of gender-neutral factors while other potentially important factors are ignored. Improving assessment and classification for women offenders might proceed on several fronts. The first is technical design and the elimination of design flaws. The second is improved organizational implementation. The latter problem draws attention to an implementation gap that should be minimized. Suggestions are offered to advance methods and policy for assessing female offenders in correctional institutions. Current institutional assessments reflect various design flaws that are particularly damaging to the effective and fair assessment of women. Along with inadequate resources and ineffective implementation, current institutional assessments have undermined some basic correctional goals. Institutional classifications embody the policies of the institutions in which they are implemented. However, most offender classification systems were designed to meet a set of purposes and policies of primary relevance to male prisoners. The author suggests that validated theories of female offenders’ criminality to guide selection of gender-specific assessment factors are urgently needed and that the need to improve classification systems for females remains a critical issue. Figure and references