Connie Hanes Gender-Neutral Prison Policies

For the past centuries, women have been fighting for their rights, from their right to vote to equal rights in the workplace. Women resistance is the act of opposing those in power, so women can have a voice in the world. Women in prison are often overlooked. In the 1970s, the women prisoners’ rights movement began, and it is still going on today. The number of incarcerated females is rapidly growing compared to men. According to Victoria Law, a prison rights activist, she stated that the percentage of female prisoners increased 108%. This struggle is significant because women in prison are being silenced; they are the most vulnerable people in our country (Siegal, 1998). Women prisoners have the highest rate of suicide because they are

In her defense, going in the prison has its own ethical concerns, and her status as female researcher does not fit into the prison environment –where she can experience emotional and perhaps physical danger. Ultimately, she implemented the sociological approach by disclosing narratives to get as close to first-hand experience as possible, while maintain research

A women doing life is a book that talks openly about women in prison. The author of the book who is also an inmate is known as Erin George. She explains vividly about women life in prison and what she was going through as an inmate. The book also gives other stories about other female inmates. The book presents a realistic of what women goes through on daily basis in prison. The issues addressed are both physical and psychological challenges. She talks on behalf of those women facing challenges on daily basis in prison. The books explain life events that tragic and heartbreaking those changes later to be uplifting and humorous. She gives a story of how she is able to cope and manage in hard situations. The women’s humanity inside the

(Ferst & Erickson-Owens, 2008) Many of these women were lacking education, had been unemployed or underemployed and were lacking adequate health insurance prior to being incarcerated. (Siefert & Pimlott, 2001) In general, most women enter the prison system with a plethora of physical and emotional obstacles; in addition, the health concerns of pregnancy and childbirth increase the challenges presented to institution medical staff to provide the necessary medical and emotional support that this woman will need. The prison health care system has improved considerably over recent years, especially in the area of women’s health and mental health services, often times due to intervention by health, women and civil rights advocacy groups. (Birth, 2000)

After reading A Woman Doing Life : Notes from a Prison for Women, I learned a lot more than I thought I knew about the life of women in jails or prisons. Erin George , the main character , gives readers an ethnographic insight on the struggles women face in prison. The hardships women face in prison consist of, and are limited to harsh shakedowns, poor medical treatment, and changes within the prison system that intentionally dehumanizes women inmates. Erin George before prison was a middle class women who seem to live a decent life, she is a mother of 3 and had a great support system within her family. She was happily married until she was convicted of murdering her husband which landed her six-hundred-three years in prison.

Male prisoners also continue to make up the majority of the prison population. However, women prisoner rates have been on the rise and have exceeded that of male growth rates since 1995. In fact, due to the increase of the women prison population, various issues have arisen which require women to be treated differently from men. Such issues correctional facility’s face because of this increase include program delivery, housing conditions, medical care, staffing, and security (American Corrections, 2016). These problems are in part due to the different social and economic differences women are faced with in prison and while preparing for their release back to society.

Within the chapter “How Gender Structures the prison system” the issue of sexual assault behind prison walls is brought to light. Female prisoners were being sexually violated and humiliated. Davis states throughout this passage that woman experience sexualy assault, before and after they enter the prison system. Personally, after reading this chapter and reading external sources, I feel that women became the targets for sexual abuse by an authority figure. Whomever commits these heinous acts are using their role of authority as a coverup to inflict pain on these individuals. In the prison writings of Kate Richards O’Hare, we see her share a view similar to Davis. O’Hare states, “I found that under the guise of punishment for crime, and in

Prison rape in jail can ultimately bring hierarchy between the weaker and the stronger. Although many would believe rape offenders in men’s prisons are mainly homosexuals, studies have shown that homosexuals are more likely to be sexually abused than perpetrators. In prison it is actually known that men become rapists to overpower their victims. Patriarchal systems of power, male incentive to overpower the weaker, exist both outside and inside of jail. In any community, women are seen as weak; therefore, men tend to overpower women. Most prisoners have this same mentality; therefore since there are no women to overpower they decide to suppress the weaker or smaller sized inmates. Victims are also effeminized and given tasks to perform such as cleaning dishes and cooking food. Physiologists believe that prison rape is not caused by the lack of women, but “mainly as a means by which people who have been stripped of control over the most basic aspects of their lives- when to eat a meal, take a shower, or watch TV- can reclaim some sense of power.”(Brook) According to Wilbert Rideau, a Louisiana prisoner wrote “the

For countless years now, women have been struggling for equal rights in society. I chose to write my essay on the topic of women in prison because they need support but often overlooked by society. These women go through many obstacles like mental health, sexual harassment, and inequality. The number of females in prison is currently rising every day, in spite of the fact that men still the leading numbers in jail. Women are in prison due to different causes many are incarcerated for nonviolent crimes. Simply because they need to survive in a society that is very sexist and racist. It's hard to find a stable job that's why some females support their families by becoming a prostitute, steal or sell drugs. Once incarcerated, women not only have limited access to job coaching programs, education and several other services they are also sexually abused. Basically, inside prison females go through the same discrimination and abuse they go through outside.

The women are under house arrest while they await trial for the “crimes” they have committed. These crimes include theft, drug possession and prostitution; crimes that are done to survive. Although these crimes are dishonorable in our society, they are also crimes that the underprivileged have to take part in in order to survive. These women have so much potential, but yet little access to resources or support. Although the lifestyle of these women compared to mine is different, I want to acknowledge these differences and use my privilege to help alleviate their oppression. It is important to not use my privilege to define “other people’s experience” and “tell them what it’s like to be them regardless of what they say it’s like” (109). I will never know the feeling of being beaten by a man, of having to prostitute my body in order to eat, of having to steal in order to feed my children or feed my addiction. I will never know, therefore all I can do is listen to these women and provide support. It is important that the negative connotations given to these women by institutions and society are changed. The negative stereotypes and oppression must be altered, because as long as society tells these women “what they are” rather than “who they are” and the potential they carry, they will forever be stuck in an oppressed

Assessing the consequences of our country’s soaring imprison rates has less to do with the question of guilt versus innocence than it does with the question of who among us truly deserves to go to prison and face the restrictive and sometimes brutally repressive conditions found there. We are adding more than one thousand prisoners to our prison and jail systems every single week. The number of women in prisons and jails has reached a sad new milestone. As women become entangled with the war on drugs, the number in prison has increased if not double the rate of incarceration for men. The impact of their incarceration devastates thousands of children, who lose their primary caregiver when Mom goes to prison.

When we do research on daily prison life, we come across two typical but less than ideal situations: either social imaginaries cloud our judgment or information provided by the prisons themselves hide certain weak or bad aspects that they do not want to make public. We can also find information on TV, but most of the time it either exaggerates or minimizes the facts. In order to obtain more reliable information, we have to have access to people who are working or have worked in this institution, and such will be the sources of this essay. We will be describing and giving examples of prison violence according to three types of violence: sexual, physical and psychological violence.

Yolanda Valentin a 21-year-old prisoner, born as Daniel Valentine, looks and sounds much like a woman if it wasn’t for her sex assignment. After being placed in a cell with two male inmates, Valentin was repeatedly abused. She informed correctional officers of the continued, brutal sexual violence her cellmate was putting her through. The prison system did not respond to her. After all, from their point of view Valentin should have opted for solitary confinement to protect herself from the general population of male inmates. In solitary she would have sat quietly, by herself, for 24 hours in a cell made explicitly for violent prisoners. Valentin, a transsexual inmate in transition, asks herself constantly: “A lot of times I wake up, and I look around at my surroundings, and I see all these men. I think, ‘What am I doing here?’”(Baus).

Kerman states that “...women in prison. [who are at risk of being sent to] solitary confinement [may be] reluctant to speak up about rape or other abuses, for fear of possible retribution.” The environment created by the guard reflects on our social and political views of criminals deemed unfit for society. As prisons continue to punish the victims of assaults by isolating them for their “own protection” they set an example for other that it is okay to mistreat a group of people based on your opinion because you have the power to do so. Additionally, The effects of solitary confinement live with someone long past their prison sentence. The mental illness that comes with solitary confinement is what makes their form of punishment so controversial and ineffective. Juan Mendez a human rights professor points out that “Social isolation is one of the harmful elements of solitary confinement and its main objective. It reduces meaningful social contact to an absolute minimum,”... individuals … experience serious health problems regardless of specific conditions of time, place, and pre-existing personal factors. Solitary confinement strips you of any human contact in

For centuries the general public have perceived that the deep horrors of the prison system only existed within the majority of incarcerated male inmates. However now due to recent investigations researchers are finding that this is not the case. For a lengthened period of time the female prison system have been given low attention in comparison to male inmates