...The prison systems today has been successful in deterring me from committing crimes due to how horrible they are. The thought of committing a crime long ago is even more terrifying. This week’s chapter readings really opened my eyes to how bad women were treated in prison back then. There were numerous issues which women had to and still does endure that were discussed in the chapters, most of which were very disturbing. Due to all the issues discussed serving interesting information, it was difficult to only choose two. Two important issues discussed in chapter six are pregnancy and parenting for women who are incarcerated and access to physical and mental services and care. Research questions pertaining to pregnancy and parenting would...
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...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...
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...Women are underrepresented in our correctional system even though they comprise a very small percentage in our correctional system. In the last decade we have seen a higher number of women being sentenced to prison. Women commit crime and are incarcerated under different circumstances and reasons than men. Their criminal behavior can be attributed to drug abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse and poverty. Women who are admitted into prison facilities are disadvantaged from the very beginning; prisons are calculated and planned for our male counterparts because in history men have made up the proportion of our high prison populace. It is hard to meet the needs of women prisoners when the facilities are not custom-made for them. Prisons for women should be geared with programming to help these women deal with obstacles they are facing in their daily lives. But because there are fewer women in prison, the health services that are given to them are typically nominal as compared to males. One of the biggest problems for women in prison is that they are disproportionately affected by human immunodeficiency virus commonly known as HIV. There is a tangible need to address the problem with HIV positive incarcerated women. (Reyes, 2001) Female prisoners make up about five percent of our overall prison population but as time has passed their numbers have increased at a rapid pace. In countries where substance abuse is high and drug laws have become harsher, we can see a correlation between...
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...for screening women within the prison system to see if they had been victims of domestic violence. The author Barbara L Zust, PhD, RN, associate professor of nursing, wanted the readers to understand how many women are incarcerated for illegal activity they were forced by their abuser to commit with the alternative of them being killed. She presented how the judicial system blamed them for not leaving and the criminal justice system has ultimately wrongfully punished them in many cases by not allowing them to even present evidence at the trial of abuse. She states how statistics are not collected on a consistent basis throughout prisons, but in 2005 a random survey was given by the Bureau of Justice finding that 50% of the women in prison had been raped or abused by their partner prior to being convicted. Anecdotal data provided by prison health care providers indicated an even higher percentage of 90-95% of women being victims of domestic violence. The author also informs the readers that the United States is the only country in the world that has male guards overseeing the women prisoners. The lack of recognition of the abuse of these women, results in lack of programs to help them. Many of the victims then begin experiencing severe PTSD due to pat downs, searches, and use of restraints by the male prison guards. The author in trying to become more aware of the needs of these women has conducted a telephone survey which is still underway to women prisons nationwide with...
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...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...
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...The next solution is to send all the women to a program instead of serving time in prison. The author argues that woman should go to a program instead of going to prison. To avoid prison and go to a alternative program. “ New year state assembly passed the domestic violence judge could consider the role of domestic abuse in a case during sentencing and bypass mandatory minimum set by the state the could opt to give survivors shorter sentencing or let them avoid prison altogether by sentencing them to alternative program”. Basically they are saying that they shouldn't go to jail they should send them better to a program rather than serve time in prison for a self-defense crime. This quote is important because they shouldn't serve time for a...
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...Women’s Prison By Nick Capstone Research Design May 7, 2007 Introduction This study aims to examine the outcomes of an intensive, innovative educational program for under-educated women in prison. Traditional education programs in prisons are somewhat lacking. Usually, prisons only offer lackluster GED programs. When vocational programs are offered, they are often for out-of-date professions or extremely gendered (Brewster and Sharp 2002). This program would seek to improve the educational and release outcome of women using intensive instruction and low student-teacher ratios. The need for information on the backgrounds, lives and needs of incarcerated women is evident. Though they currently only make up 7.0% of prisoners held in state and federal facilities, women’s incarceration rates are increasing more quickly than men’s. From 1995-2005 the number of women incarcerated increased 57%, compared to 34% for men (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2005). Approximately 4 out of 5 women in prison have minor dependent children, and the majority of them have sole custody (Belknap 2007). Relationships with their children are often strained by incarceration. The focus of the study will be on the changes women experience within the prison environment, rather than their post-release outcomes. Some of the changes that these women experience within the prison system may affect their likelihood of receiving parole and their behaviors once outside of prison. ...
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...Introduction There are over 90,000 women in prison in the U.S. today. (WEAP) Between 1980 and 1993, the growth rate for the female prison population increased approximately 313%, compared to 182% for men in the same period. At the end of 1993 women accounted for 5.8% of the total prison population and 9.3% of the jail population nationwide. (NWLC) Although the proportion of prisoners who are women is relatively small, women make up the fastest growing subset of the entire prison population. For this reason, and because male supremacy and sexist justice are so intimately related to this problem, a separate consideration of women in prison is needed. Male privilege and domination, and the protection of that privilege have long been and continue to be central to the criminal prosecution system. In this essay I will consider three main subjects in this regard: Social and economical causes of female violence, what’s the reaction of society and justice system to it, how prison works in this society and what’s its effect on female prisoners? Social and Economical Causes of Female Violence First I will consider social and economical causes of female violence. Who are the women in prison? The profile that emerges in study after study is that of young, single mother with few job skills, a high school dropout whom lives below the poverty level are the most typical women in prison. Seventy-five percent are between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four, are mothers of dependent children...
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...SENSITIZATION OF PRISONS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO WOMEN Prisons are less sensitive to the psychological needs of women. There is a growing need for gender sensitization of the prison system. This paper essentially deals with the dilemmas faced by women prisoners in India due to the lack of gender sensitization in Indian jails. Any major program related to well-being of prisoners is focused on men, ignoring the women inmates in prisons all over the nation. The main areas of problems include the lack of provisions for inmates who have infants to take care of, social stigma during and after the prison term, and economic pressures mainly flowing from the traditional economic dependence of women on their male counterparts.. Therefore, this paper argues that there is a need for amendments at a series of levels, from Jail Manuals and prison rules to the technicalities of the prison system in the country apart from the, due care that is required to ensure that the medical, psychiatric, economic and social needs of women inmates are met. Women form a small portion of the total prison population in India. As per the World Female Imprisonment List, more than half a million women and girls are detained in penal institutions all over the world. As far as the Indian scenario is concerned, the statistics of the National Human Rights Commission till 2004 revealed that there are about 13, 355 women and girls in penal institutions all over the country, forming 4 per cent of the total prison population...
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...The Unique Needs of Female Prisoners When we think of a female offender who in imprisoned in the Northern Ireland Prison Service the one that springs to most people’s minds is Hazel Stewart as she was all over the news when her crime took place and they even made a television series about her called ‘The Secret’ where James ‘Jimmy’ Nesbitt played Colin Howell who was Hazels companion in the murders of Trevor Buchanan, 32, and Lesley Howell, 31. But this is a high profile case and not representative of the norm. Most people never get to see the inside of a prison and a lot of people don’t ever want to see inside a prison but in some cases people have no choice either that they have made a mistake in life...
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...The Prison Population Info 122 Amanda Wahmhoff Ins: Tiffany Gabbard February 12, 2013 The prison population is an ever changing number. Both men and women are sentenced to prison for various reasons and for different amounts of time. There is how ever a difference in the number of the different races that are sentenced for prison terms. As well as the usual problems there are also other problems that women have to deal with. We will talk about these problems and what they mean. When we talk about prison population most people think about males and the problems that they face. Most people do not think about the women in this kind of environment. Women face the same problems that the men face but there is one added problem with the whole thing; a woman gets raped and can end up with child. The biggest problem with this is that it is the guards that are doing it. Women in a prison in Tallahassee have had problems with being raped by the guards. “Women prisoners and guards alike have been complaining about sexual abuse by male guards at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI)...
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...institution or at Valley State Prison, the nation's second-largest women's prison, which recently opened across the street. The compounds occupy the tiny farm town of Chowchilla, where almond and alfalfa groves surround the 50,000-volt electrified fence. To the crop dusters above, the flat gray-and-peach buildings must look like a giant corrections butterfly, shielding up to 8,000 women in the 1,340-acre spread of its cinder-block wings. The predominant types of offenses women tend to commit -- petty theft, check forgery, drug possession -- are nonviolent and low-level, yet women's rates of incarceration have steadily gone up, surpassing men's for the past 14 years. The increases are largely due to changes in sentencing and drug laws, and all the trouble that rides the particular poverty track most of these women are on. Many receive state-prison terms for crimes that previously earned probation. Between 1986 and 1991, the number of women in state prisons for drug offenses increased 433 percent (compared with 283 percent for men). Nationally, at the beginning of this year, there were 69,028 women in state prisons -- more than 9,600 in California alone. What this means is that the days of minivans with matrons escorting serious offenders to reformatory-style prisons are receding as more tractor-trailers pull into view. In the world of corrections, an inmate is an inmate is an inmate. In the nation's imagination, too, all inmates are the same. Yet prison administrators, corrections...
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...MALE AND FEMALE PRISON DIFFERENCES 1 MALE AND FEMALE PRISON DIFFERENCES Carlette Hawthorne New England College Professor Kathy McDonnell-Corrections MALE AND FEMALE PRISON DIFFERENCES 2 Abstract This paper will point out some of the differences between the men and women prisons. This paper will also give examples of how gender plays a huge role in the prison systems, regarding programs that are offered to both women and men in the prison system. MALE AND FEMALE PRISON DIFFERENCES 3 A prison is a supervised facility for adults that have committed a crime. These facilities house both women and men. The housing structure for men and women are different. The women prisons do not have the heavy armed guards, watch towers or the high barbed wire fence (Schmalleger & Smylka, 2013,p 351), that we all are so use to seeing, when we ride past the men prisons. With the rise in women being jailed, for the crimes that they commit, it is only a matter of time, before the structure will change. “Between” 1980-1999 the incarceration rate for women out -weighed the men. During that time the incarceration rate for men was 303 percent, and for the women it was 576 percent (Austin, Bruce, et al. 2001). Although the incarceration rate has increased for women, the men still out-weigh the women, when it comes to men and women being in prison (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2013). The prisons, like other correctional facilities are designed to reform and rehabilitate their...
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...Are women more law-abiding then men? Why or why not? By Tayla Batten In most societies of the past and present, women are perceived as being inferior and passive. Women are biologically seen to be emotional, docile, nurturing and quite dependent on the male partner, while men are seen to be aggressive, arrogant, dominant and independent. (Lombroso, 1998) Cesare Lombroso, one of the earliest theorists of female criminality based his theory purely on a strict biological point of view. Lombroso stated “females are less inclined to commit crimes because women are more conservative, they are less exposed to society since their duties are mainly in the household, which gives them less of an opportunity to commit crimes, and because their brains are less developed than males, which causes them to act more primitive.” (Lombroso, 1998) When a female commits a violent and brutal crime, it come’s as a shock to society because women are not expected to be criminals, and therefore they are labeled ‘mad not bad’ according to Lee Bryant, author of ‘Feminism and Crime’. Lee Bryant argues, “The perception that women may be ‘mad’ because they ‘dared to go against their natural biological givens such as ‘passivity’ and a ‘weakness of compliance’ ‘appears to originate from the view that women who conform as pure, obedient daughters, wives and mothers benefit society and men”. (Bryant, 2000) Lombroso’s theory looks at that characteristics of the offender and determines that the female offender...
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...Corrections Women’s prisons before the 1800’s were just as bad as the men’s prisons. The women were often treated like servants and were abused just as the men prisoners were. The only exception to the abuse was pregnant women, but after the women gave birth, they were abused. The prisons were also monitored and watched over by male wards and the women prisoners were mixed in with the male prisoners. By being mixed with the male prisoners the women not only suffered from verbal abuse from the other prisoners and the wardens in the prison, they suffered from sexual abuse. Women prisons have changed since then. They have been separated from men’s prisons and are monitored by women wardens. These prisons were also changed from the traditional prison look to a look that comforts the women in the prisons. The three basic arguments that supported the separation of juvenile prisoners were “the penitentiary regimen was too hard on tender youth, juveniles would learn bad habits from older criminals and be embittered by the experience of confinement and adolescents could be reformed if they were diverted early enough into institutions designed specifically for people their age” (Foster, 2006). If there were no distinction between adult and juvenile prisons there would be children who would possibly get punished as adults and there could be adults who would receive lighter sentences due to the leniency towards juveniles. The purpose of prison labor was to have the prisoners...
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