Federal taxpayers have spent almost $250 million on a new federal prison for women in Aliceville, Ala., that should never have been built. The prison is almost completed and, within a year or so, is scheduled to house around 1,500 secure prisoners as well as 250 minimum-security inmates — or about one of every eight women in federal prison.

But for many of the prisoners, the rural isolation of this expensive facility will hurt their chances of returning permanently to their families and communities after doing their time. Though it is the newest federal prison for women, Aliceville does not reflect the latest thinking about criminal justice policy for incarceration of women.

Experts have long argued that prisoners should be located within a reasonable distance of their families so they can keep connections with their children. Encouraging those connections benefits the criminal justice system by reducing the odds that a prisoner will end up back in prison after she is released. The location of the Aliceville prison works against these goals.

While women make up only 6.5 percent of the inmates in federal prison, the war on drugs and reduced community services for the mentally ill have led to faster growth in the population of female inmates compared with males in the past decade. The 14,100 women in federal facilities are mostly in for nonviolent crimes, like drug and property offenses. In 2009, more than half had minor children, according to a report by the National Women’s Law Center.