Getting sentenced to serve time in prison is an experience no one would like to have. Having to spend either weeks, months, years or an entire lifetime locked away from society, having other people decide your life, is not a life anyone goes out looking for. However, due to circumstances, a lot of people find themselves in these types of positions. These people are leaving behind their families, friends, and work to serve time for an action or crime they supposedly committed. Few members of society, unfortunately, do not think of these prisoners as anything other than delinquents getting what they had coming, when truly they are members of society just like everyone else who have simply made some past mistakes. What people even more rarely fail to notice is the emotional and psychological effect incarceration leaves on a person, and the hardships these people face while incarcerated. This fact has proven to be an important matter that needs to be looked at in a closer level, specifically in female inmates.
People tend to create stereotypes of their ‘average’ inmate. Most people, when asked about to think of inmates, would involve a younger male figure. People under the age of 35 do indeed account for 58% of the jail population in provincial correction institutes (StatsCanada, 2015). In the year of 2013 and 2014, males accounted for 85% of admissions in Canadian provincial corrections; leaving females to make up 15% of admissions, and making up 6% federally in sentenced
For over centuries, the only form of punishment and discouragement for humans is through the prison system. Because of this, these humans or inmates, are sentenced to spend a significant part of their life in a confined, small room. With that being said, the prison life can leave a remarkable toll on the inmates life in many different categories. The first and arguably most important comes in the form of mental health. Living in prison with have a great impact on the psychological part of your life. For example, The prison life is a very much different way of life than what us “normal” humans are accustomed to living in our society. Once that inmate takes their first step inside their new society, their whole mindset on how to live and communicate changes. The inmate’s psychological beliefs about what is right and wrong are in questioned as well as everything else they learned in the outside world. In a way, prison is a never ending mind game you are playing against yourself with no chance of wining. Other than the mental aspect of prison, family plays a very important role in an inmate’s sentence. Family can be the “make it or break it” deal for a lot of inmates. It is often said that “when a person gets sentenced to prison, the whole family serves the sentence.” Well, for many inmates that is the exact case. While that prisoner serves their time behind bars, their family is on the outside waiting in anticipation for their loved ones to be released. In a way, the families
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.
Whenever you imagine prison, you think up ideas and violent images that you have seen in the movies or on TV. Outdated clichés consisting of men eating stale bread and drinking dirty water are only a small fraction of the number of horrible, yet “just” occurrences which are stereotypical of everyday life in prison. Perhaps it could be a combination of your upbringing, horrific ideas about the punishment which our nation inflicts on those who violate its’ more serious laws that keeps people frightened just enough to lead a law-abiding life. Despite it’s success in keeping dangerous offenders off the streets, the American prison system fails in fulfilling its original design of restoring criminals to being productive members of society, it is also extremely expensive and wastes our precious tax dollars.
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.
Every civilization in history has had rules, and citizens who break them. To this day governments struggle to figure out the best way to deal with their criminals in ways that help both society and those that commit the crimes. Imprisonment has historically been the popular solution. However, there are many instances in which people are sent to prison that would be better served for community service, rehab, or some other form of punishment. Prison affects more than just the prisoner; the families, friends, employers, and communities of the incarcerated also pay a price. Prison as a punishment has its pros and cons; although it may be necessary for some, it can be harmful for those who would be better suited for alternative means
An offender who is older has an opportunity to spend more time in the prison system, and take advantage of the programs they offer in order to better themselves and are less likely to recidivate. “Participating in a prison industry program and in substance abuse and educational programs were mitigating factors against rearrest” (Weiss et al., 2010, p.260). By getting the women involved in the prison during their sentence it will create hope and make them want to change. Upon their release they need some source of rehabilitation, counseling, help finding employment, or any other assistance they request for or that is a necessity so they do not revert back to crime.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were 1,526,800 American adults that were incarcerated in 2015 (Carson). The United States incarceration rates are catching the attention of the American people, as well as major news outlets. Not only is the incarceration rate being recognized, but the privatization of the prison system is receiving recognition. Those arguing in favor of lesser and more lenient sentencing have the unique challenge of convincing people to empathize with inmates. Most Americans have difficulty empathizing with the situations that inmates face leading up to and after their incarceration due to loss of freedom being an unordinary situation for an American.
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.
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.
Prison life can be harsh, and time spent in a isolation is even worse. A majority of those in prison spend countless hours in idleness. It would be much better if they used that time to reeducate themselves for a productive life on the outside. Some of the prisoners have serious emotional and mental problems that are never addressed and it is illogical to not attempt to correct these problems before they are released.
Many people commit crimes due to their pasts and home life. For example, a young adult with a troubled life by the name of Trevor. Trevor has had many run-ins with the police in his small British Columbia town and the other citizens were convinced that he would go to jail at one point because of this. Soon enough, Trevor was caught smashing the window of a camera store. He was planning to steal and then sell the cameras in the big city. Now, had Trevor been a teenager and not an adult, things may have gone differently. The arrest, the sentencing, and what happens afterwards would differ between the ages. During the time when someone is caught, it can go two ways depending on the age. But in both cases, he would be taken into custody and have a chance to tell the police what he was doing and why, with a lawyer if he wanted. But before that, Trevor would have his rights read to him. As Trevor is an adult, he would have to submit his fingerprints and
The idea of sentencing a criminal for a period of time in a prison isn't working, so prisons should focus more on changing their rehabilitation programs. Life in prison should be like the outside world as much as possible, given the fact of imprisonment. Prisoners would be less prepared if the prison environment is artificial and abnormal compared to the outside world they will have to encounter later on. A prisoner also needs to keep family ties. Research in
The Women in prison Thematic review of 1996 by the HM chief inspector of prisons, a number of issues and findings were appropriately raised. Some issues consisted of the prison population, management, staff selection; structure for safety, needs based reception and the opportunity to contact families. This evaluation report will highlight the stated areas and explore other key components of the thematic review. An essential part of the review addresses recommendations made to improve specific areas.
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