Female Incarceration Research Paper

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

For numerous years, prison officials applied the same type of treatment for men and women. In the last decade with the increasing number of women incarcerated, research shows that women have different physical and emotional needs. For example, women are more attached to their children that they are leaving behind, and some have histories of physical and mental abuse. The creation of two programs, Key Crest and Forever Free were created to help with women specific issues. Recent studies done by National Institute of Justice studies found that participants in these two programs stayed drug and arrest free for over three years. Participants were tested and interviewed once a year for three years. The studies also showed that the programs provided aftercare and treatment in areas that were not addressed in previous years. Even though both varied in their approach, they both recognized the many ways there were to treat the needs of women and how they differ from men. The studies also show that gender specific programs do help inmates reenter into society.

After reading about the population of females in correction facilities, I came across the issue of incarcerating mothers. “Approximately 7 in 10 women under correctional sanction have minor children” (women offenders pg.7). Before reading this chapter, I have never put any importance to the challenge of sending mothers to prison. For the most part, I believe that judges and juries should consider the “motherhood” as a mitigating circumstance during a sentence. However, the age of the child and the crime should also play a role in the type of sentence given to a woman.

Prison populations have been on the raise since the early 1970s. Today we incarcerate over 2 million men, women and juveniles in the various correctional facilities around the country. These facilities can range from local jails or detention facilities to the new so called "Supermax" prisons. Conditions can also vary across the spectrum for these different correctional institutions. Each type of inmate has his or her own challenges when faced with incarceration. Many factors play into determining "the experience" they have. Age and sex are one of the things that determine what type of institution you are committed to. Adult male prisoners are committed to adult male prisons.

The rate of women being incarcerated in prisons has dramatically risen over the last decade. While these women are being locked up for crimes ranging from drug possession to murder, they often come into the prison system with children or pregnant. Nationwide, nearly 2 million children have parents in prison. The number of those with incarcerated mothers is growing rapidly. A recent report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that the number of minors with mothers in prison increased by more than 100 percent in the last 15 years [ (Schwartzapfel, 2008) ]. While some women must give up their children before or after they enter prison, a handful of women get to keep their children. These women serve their sentences at one of nine

Some of the challenges in the perinatal care in the correctional setting include lack of prenatal care prior to incarceration, drug or alcohol dependency, psychosocial problems or lack of outside family support, victim or transgressor of past abuse or violence and the psychological challenges of being incarcerated. For many women, the reality of being in the prison system can be devastating; the separation from family, which often includes their own children, and friends can cause depression, anxiety and fear. Personal physical safety is also a concern, as prison is often described as having its own “culture”, structure and hierarchy,

In the early centuries, it was rare to hear about a woman who committed murder, or was incarcerated. However, times have changed, and it has become somewhat of a norm in the twenty first century. According to Kravitz (2010), he states that according to a study conducted by The Institute on Women and Criminal Justice, the number of women in prisons in 2006 is 105,000.

According to Burnette and Newman (2005), female offenders that have severed antisocial behavior in childhood are more likely to exhibit these symptoms into adulthood. Some female offenders are still less cumulative than male offenders (Salisbury & Voorhis, 2009). In addition, recidivism in female offenders will be discussed three pathways. Moreover, the recidivism measure what usually not seen are males, greater incidence with females rather than males, and seen equally with separate personal and social results. Also, some female offenders ma have went through a great amount of abuse and trauma in their lives. Cauffman (2008) state some female offenders have mental illness issues, and treatment

The population rate in prisons have increased substantially over the past few decades but the most surprising aspect of this statistic is that there are more women that are incarcerated than ever before. Crimes that were mostly committed by the male gender have taken a surprising turn on it. It seems that rate of females prisoners have risen significantly over just the past decade.

The figure above compares the U.S incarceration rate with the rates of countries such as Canada, Australia, and European countries. The Western European democracies possess a rate of incarceration that taken together is only one-seventh the rate of the United States. Moreover, the rate imprisonment of Russia is only two-thirds of the U.S. rate. For instance, there is a reason why the rate of incarceration is significantly high compared to the rest of the world, profit. The bigger the number of people incarcerated, the bigger the pool of workers in correctional institutions.

On average, women make up about 7 percent of the total federal and state incarcerated population in the United States. This has increased since the 1980s due to stricter and more severe laws that focus on recreational drug use, a lack of community programs, and fewer treatment centers available for outpatients (Zaitow and Thomas, eds., 2003). According to the National Women's Law Centers, women prisoners report a higher than statistically normal history of domestic violence in their immediate past, and the fastest growing prison population with a disproportionate number of non-Whites forming over 60 percent of the population. In fact, over 30 percent of women in prison are serving sentences for murder involving a spouse or partner. The incarceration of women presents far different cultural and sociological issues than those of men issues with children, family, sexual politics and more (NWLC, 2012).

Sometimes you can feel like you’re imprisoned by your period. Whether you have cramps, fatigue, or a heavy flow that restricts your activities, it can sometimes feel like you’re in a crimson prison and “Aunt Flo” is your prison guard. But, how much worse would this feeling be if you got your period while you were in an actual prison?

Female inmates must overcome social, physical, and emotional challenges that impede their ability to integrate back to society. Health and mental programs should be available to any female inmate, because they need good living conditions in jail. Providing these programs it will help the inmates to fit back into society, by providing physical and mental support. It will open doors and opportunities to everyone, it will enable individuals to achieve better things in life. people who have the authority to make the programs to be around the globe should do it. These programs should be available to everyone, because it will not only benefit the female inmates, but it will also benefit us as a society.

According to the article, I think it would be safe to say that most of the women offenders are of younger ages around 20’s - 35’s. More than likely to be single and not likely to be married. The article said “Nearly half of women in both State prisons and local jails have never been

Incarceration has become a norm in our society. Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that prison population exceeded a record-breaking 2 million last year. Considering higher rates of incarceration, we can easily deduce that more parents are incarcerated now than ever before. The children of these parents are undoubtedly affected. Sadly, these children are often considered a collective group with a particular set of needs-- that is, basic needs like food, clothing and shelter (Johnson and Waldfogel, 2002). However, each child of an incarcerated parent has emotional and psychological needs specific to his/her situation that must be met. Meeting these needs will help ensure positive growth and development.