...Life Behind Bars: Women in Prison Abstract When we think of women in prison as of lately, we think of Orange is the New Black, a television show centered on a woman whom after ten years of living a relatively quiet and normal life, is sentenced to prison for transporting a suitcase full of drug money for her former girlfriend. What we fail to see is the real prison facilities that women are sentenced to for nonviolent drug and property offenses. There are two sides of women behind bars, the female offender and the female correctional officer. First, the vast majority of female prisoners are likely coerced into committing crimes for their partners and as a result have ended up behind bars. Many female offenders are incarcerated as a result of the too strict laws and policies adopted at the height of the “war on drugs.” Majority of women incarcerated in prisons and jails come from poverty ridden surroundings, where there is a lack of support from family; have experienced physical and/or sexual abuse, some having happened while as young children; and suffer from physical and mental health problems as well as substance abuse issues. The majority of women serving time who have suffered from abuse, poverty, lack of educational and vocational skills are mothers, with a vast majority of them being the sole support and caregivers for their children. Second, the female correctional officer is sometimes viewed as infiltrating a male dominated field...
Words: 1608 - Pages: 7
...permission to use the TV remote. For some reason prison shows always interested me, of course not factual ones, just dramas. My personal favorite being Shawshank Redemption. Granted, from time to time I have watched “real” stories on the incarcerated, such as “Pregnant in Prison”, “Women Behind Bars” and various shows about serial killers in prison. I especially took the latter shows to heart, and these were “reality” so I believed this is how prison was. Stark grey walls, people in some color, most often orange, jumpsuits, walking around hand cuffed, steel bars everywhere. Prisoners sit in their cells all day every day, doing nothing but check books out of libraries so they can cut the pages out to smuggle contraband. While they are not doing this they are beating each other up, giving one another tattoos and trying to escape. I carried these ideas with me for years. However at this point, my opinion on the people behind bars was rather indifferent. I understood that they committed a crime and were “doing their time” however; they didn’t affect me so I didn’t put much thought into what I thought about them as people. It wasn’t until years later that I created my opinion on the actual people behind bars. I formulated this judgment...
Words: 1416 - Pages: 6
...Institution of Marriage In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, I will discuss how women were oppressed by the institution of marriage in the nineteenth century while making comparative references to “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin. Women were treated as second class citizens during the 1800’s, which under rule of their husband weren’t allowed to be a person of their own, but live in the shadow of their husband. The narrator in “The yellow Wallpaper” is diagnosed with a nervous disorder by her husband John and her brother, whom are both doctors, and given a resting cure. Living up to the ideals of nineteenth century women, the narrator is expected to be passive, forbidden to exercise her mind and ideas, and prohibited to write. She keeps a secret diary where she writes her thoughts and opinions, since she is unable to speak her mind. She is sent to live in a colonial mansion, and is to be taken care of by a nanny in the upstairs room which used to be a child’s nursery with bars on the windows and a bed that is nailed down. There is also strange colored stripped-off yellow wallpaper surrounding the room. Oppressed women were misjudged, dominated and patronized by their husbands. John patronizes and belittles his wife by talking to her as if she were a child and not his equal. The narrator soon becomes obsessed with the peeling yellow wallpaper. She states, “This wallpaper has a kind of sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly...
Words: 739 - Pages: 3
...because her unconscious would have been in her control but now she has started to imagine a woman bind the bars on the wallpaper. The narrator notices that the pattern gets different in day time than the night. It is the night when her shadow becomes more powerful because night is the time for the unconscious...
Words: 1000 - Pages: 4
...The history of prisons in 1800 Harold Flower CHS/230 December 8, 2011 Vashell Anderson The history of prisons in 1800 Prisons before the 1800’s did not have women prisons. In those days the prison were mixed with men, children and women all in the same prison. The prisons in the 1800’s that held women prisoners were treated just like the men in those prison the women also had to do hard labor which consisted of sewing, laundry, cleaning and cooking. All the women were to act like lady’s but also had to be treated like men in those prisons the women talked about how they were over worked and that they wasn’t fed enough in the prisons of the 1800’s. After the 1800’s the prisons started to change this was depending where and what prison you was in at that time there was no toilets in most cases the toilet was a bucket and it might not have been emptied too often. There were prisoners that didn’t do much at all but sat around and waited to die also at that time the cafeterias were not established so the food was forced through the cell bars and you had to eat what they fed you and it wasn’t much and it tasted really bad. You was lucky to be fed every day in today’s prison you do get three meals a day, schooling, and do jobs that are inside the prison also there are some prisoners allowed to work outside the prison walls, there is clean running water with bathrooms and showers, and the best part is that the prisoners have bunks instead of laying on the ground. In the 1800’s...
Words: 508 - Pages: 3
...Running head: WOMEN IN PRISON Women in Prison James Graziadei TESST College – Towson Criminal Justice CJ242 11/17/2014 Felicea R. Thomas, M.S. Abstract Discussing who is responsible for a child when the main caregiver is the sole guardian and incarcerated. The generational gap that can cause issues in the development of a child. Who and how money can be an issue and cause problems. Is it okay to have a pregnant woman be put behind bars for the crime she committed? And is it okay for mothers to keep their babies imprisoned with them, while serving time. Women in Prison Approximately 7 in 10 women under correctional sanction have minor children, more than 1,300.000 children (Leonard A. Sipes, 2012). Imprisonment rate are skyrocketing for females in today’s world. There has been nearly a 600% increase in female offenders in the past 30 years. Black females had an imprisonment rate nearly three times that of white females (Leonard A, 2012).With this in thought many women obtain sub-standard care while pregnant in prison. According to a 2006 report by the Department of Justice, only 44% percent of pregnant women received a medical examination upon arrival and, of those women, only 35% received any type of pregnancy care including child care, prenatal exercise instructions, special diets, medications or special testing. Many women are also forced to give birth while wearing shackles, due to them being a flight risk. With women being the primary caretaker of their...
Words: 1041 - Pages: 5
...Monique Hidalgo, an incarcerated mother who got taken the right away to breastfeed while in prison, fought for her fundamental rights for the personal care she wanted for her child. This thirty-three-year-old woman believed that all women should be handed the right to breastfeed their child if they wish to, even if they were behind bars. She was taken the right away because those are the prison rules, but she did not accept the fact that she could not provide the sufficient needs for her baby. The criminal justice stated that most needs are obligated to men, since there used to be a low percentage of incarcerated women. However, the percentage of women being incarcerated has been increasing for a couple of years...
Words: 318 - Pages: 2
...affect the women in many different ways. Some of these things may seem innocent to her but are a little bizarre to us. The theme of this short story is self-expression. This poor woman is dealing with depression and is being forced to hide her fears and anxiety from everyone so it looks like she is winning the battle. The setting of this short story is mostly takes place in her bedroom. Her husband John is a physician and he said she is sick and needs to stay in her room and rest. So she can’t go outside or interactive with anyone or even her newborn baby. In the beginning of the short story she says “[The house] is quite alone standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village. It makes me think of English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people." Meaning that the house looks like a quiet place surrounded by no other houses just like her, she was stuck in a quiet room with just herself. Also she said “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity- but that would be asking too much of fate!” now after reading this I went back to the part where she said haunted house, I immediately thought about the “women” behind the wallpaper in her bedroom. The symbols that are important in this short story is the wallpaper and the journal. The wallpaper is the one thing that drove the women mad. The...
Words: 1190 - Pages: 5
...Name Instructors Name Course 1 December 2009 Breaking the Cycle: Calming the Cries through Alternatives An emergency is at hand. The lights are flashing red and blue, the cries ring out, and women are ripped from their homes at alarming rates, leaving children motherless. The statistics are staggering; the Institute on Women & Criminal Justice reports that the past three decades has seen an explosion in female incarceration rates, growing 832% from 1977 to 2007 with an astounding 4% of women in state prisons and 3% of women in federal prisons pregnant at the time of admittance (Women’s Prison Association 4). Lives are at stake. Every court decision, every judgment cast, effects more than just the individual involved. The future is dependent on how society treats the present. In order to combat the crisis, it is vital to understand its origins and its impact; from this understanding, alternatives that consider the health and well being of all involved can be formulated and delivered. The United States has less than 5% of the world’s population, but boasts the overwhelming figure of almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners (Liptak 1). With nearly 2.3 million bars, one in 100 American adults is locked up. “Criminologists and legal experts here and abroad point to a tangle of factors to explain America's extraordinary incarceration rate: higher levels of violent crime, harsher sentencing laws, a legacy of racial turmoil, a special fervor in combating illegal drugs, the...
Words: 2202 - Pages: 9
...inspired by her own personal experiences. These events transpired in a time where women had no voice and lived in the shadows of men. In this story, with the help of her husband John and his resting treatments, the narrator’s battle with depression creeps through the walls. A recurrent theme of oppression and the subordination of women is seen as the story plays out through Charlotte’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” In Charlotte’s story there were numerous literary devices weaved like a design, as the narrator divulged her daily convictions within her journal. Gillman’s techniques used to portray the subordination of women were clearly seen. The first literary device shown in this story was Irony. She expressed this sarcasm verbally and made a lot of statements in regards to how John, her husband treated her. It was evident in the first paragraph of the story when she stated that “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.” (pg 394) So, with that being said, in response to the narrator’s...
Words: 714 - Pages: 3
...Cariñosa This flirtatious dance called Cariñosa is known throughout the Philippines. Cariñosa ('kah-reehn-YOH-sah') means affectionate, lovable, or amiable. With a fan or handkerchief, the dancers go through hide-and-seek movements and other flirting acts expressing tender feelings for one another. There are many versions of this dance, but the hide-and-seek movements are common in all. The first ever published notation of the Cariñosa dance steps was from the book Philippine Folk Dances and Games by Francisca Reyes-Tolentino (later became an Aquino). Mrs Tolentino's master's thesis which has the same title was revised and was later published in 1927. However, the most common of the many Cariñosa found in the country is the one from the book "Philippine Folk Dances v1" by Francisca Reyes Aquino, published sometime in 1940. The version integrated all the common dance figures among the many versions throughout the land. Three versions of this courtship-festival dance were found in Panay Island, the "Home of the Carinosa". Three different dance researchers discovered three equally beautiful Cariñosa dances. Petronila Suarez had her Carinosa Binggawan, Jose Balcena's informant; an old dancing virtuoso name Casimiro earned him the identity of Balcena's cariñosa version: Tatay Meroy Cariñosa. Tatay Meroy was an old bachelor from Roxas City who because of old age became aggressive in his courting of a future partner. This version dramatizes Tatay Mero's pursuit of his partner...
Words: 2452 - Pages: 10
...Cristine Asias ARTH 121A 10/20/12 An Artistic View to Cirque du Soleil’s Amaluna Visual art is a very popular art form in the world. It can be seen almost anywhere. One of the most popular forms of visual art is stage shows such as those that one would see on Broadway or at Cirque du Soleil. Cirque du Soleil shows have been recognized around the world for their beauty, intricacy, spellbinding acts, international talent, and ability to leave an audience with a great lasting impression. Cirque du Soleil’s latest production entitled “Amaluna (which premiered on April 19th, 2012)” is very unique compared to many of the Cirque shows. The show was inspired by a play by Williams Shakespeare entitled “The Tempest.” The show was directed by a world-renowned individual named Diane Paulus, who created many productions such as “The Magic Flute” and “Hair” (Paulus). Recently, I’ve conducted an interview with my friend Melanie Sinclair (an acrobat for the show) to find out what the show is all about. Also, I will be describing three of the sixteen acts in the show that I find fascinating. In order to fully understand the show, one must know the story and the concepts in Amaluna. Amaluna is a wonderful love story that starts off on an island with a girl named Miranda. According to Melanie, Miranda is about to have a coming-of-age ceremony for her entrance into womanhood. Her mother, Prospera, is the queen of the island and directs Miranda’s ceremony. Little did Miranda know, her mother was...
Words: 1645 - Pages: 7
...Plan to Improve Correctional Facilities Patricia Saylor Dexter Levin Corrections November 10, 2013 In general, rehabilitation programs have been effective in reducing recidivism among prison convicts since they are mostly focused on treating the criminal causing behavior of prisoners by eliminating completely the factors or circumstances that drive them to commit criminal acts. Criminologists such as Martinson who conducted research on the effectiveness of rehabilitative programs such as educational, community based and transcendental programs noted that rehabilitative programs had a higher efficacy when they were oriented towards providing treatment to prison convicts so as to reduce recidivism. Martinson noted that both the educational and transcendental rehabilitative programs were designed to provide prisoners with life skills that they could use to manage their criminal causing behavior as well as equip them with technical skills that would improve the quality of their lives (Prison conditions, 2013). Rehabilitative programs that are focused on the principles of effective intervention are able to target the known factors of recidivism thereby necessitating change and also enabling the incorporation of cognitive or behavioral treatments to reinforce the behavior of the criminal offender by eliminating criminal thinking patterns. Principles of effective intervention ensure that rehabilitative programs are able to take into account the various characteristics of offenders...
Words: 1738 - Pages: 7
...Charlotte Perkins Gilman story "The Yellow Wallpaper," was published in 1892, two years before Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour." These two stories deal with the position of women in the late 1800’s. This era is especially interesting because women were still treated as second-class citizens. I will try to make their themes apparent by examining a brief summary of their stories, relate them to their authors’ personal life stories, and show their similarities. In Chopin’s "Story of an Hour", we are told that Louise has a bad heart condition. A friend of the family has discovered that there was a bad accident at her husband’s job and he is on the deceased list. Louise’s sister carefully tells her this shocking news; however, instead of falling apart, Louise finds herself feeling as if she has a new lease on life because she will finally be able to live for herself. Suddenly, her husband walks in the door, and shocked, Louise drops dead of a heart attack. The physician says it was from "a joy that kills" (Bedford 11-13). In "The Yellow Wallpaper", the main character is attempting to heal from a nervous disorder. Her husband who is a physician does not allow her to do anything: no housekeeping, no writing, and no visiting with family or friends. Her husband also insists that she has to stay in a room upstairs where everything, including the wallpaper make her eventually go insane. (Wallpaper) Both Chopin and Gilman wrote these stories based on real events in their lives. Kate...
Words: 1177 - Pages: 5
...Human Trafficking is believed to be the third-largest international criminal activity in the world, coming closely behind the illegal drug market and arms trafficking. Human Trafficking is organized criminal activity in which human beings are treated as possessions to be controlled and exploited according to Merriam Webster Dictionary. Victims of human trafficking have been to be forced into prostitution, involuntary labor, and organ harvesting. World wide the state department estimates that annually 600,000 to 800,00 people are trafficked across international borders, with 80% of those people being female and half of them being children. Within the U.S. it is estimated that between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked each year. The first story written by a victim of human trafficking that I read was about a women from the Philippines named Alma. In her story she recounted that in 1970s and 1980s, she used to work for a bar frequented by American serviceman. One day while working a serviceman offered the manager at the bar a “bar-fine” or payment to have sex with her. She at first refused but the manger then threatened her job, giving her no choice. She later was involved in more human trafficking situations in order to...
Words: 488 - Pages: 2
