Incarcerated Women In Prison

Furthermore, one of the greatest problems for incarcerated women is sexual and physical abuse from correctional officers. Men are responsible for the majority of the abuse

The number of women incarcerated is growing at a rapid pace. This calls for a reevaluation of our correction institutions to deal with women’s involvement in crime. Increasing numbers of arrests for property crime and public order offenses are outpacing that of men. The “War on Drugs” has a big influence on why our prisons have become overcrowded in the last 25 years. Women are impacted more than ever because they are being convicted equally for drug and other offenses. Female criminal behavior has always been identified as minor compared to Male’s criminal behavior. Over the years women have made up only small part of the offender populations. There is still only a small

Women offenders are different from male offenders in many ways. Whether it be from the way women develop differently in the psychological aspect, or the services that are available specifically for them. Female offenders are more likely to be convicted of a drug or drug related crime, they are more likely to have a past with significant substance abuse, have a childhood or recent adult life that was abusive both physically and sexually, and female offenders are more likely to participate in group therapy because they are trying to gain the connectedness and sense of belong that they crave for in their life. Although there is significant proof showing that female offenders have problems that need treatment while incarcerated before going

Punctuated by centuries of discrimination, oppression, and the outright mishandling of justice, the rights of women in prisons has been historically mauled by an unprecedented legal negligence. Without the equality and prioritization that was granted to their male counterparts, it took decades of malpractice before women had any form of safety or security in prisons at all.

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.

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.

It has already been established that the prison population for female offenders is growing, but the complexity of the population is changing as well. Special populations make up the group of female offenders, specifically including middle-aged inmates, physically ill inmates, and of course mentally ill inmates (Lewis, 200). The pathology of these women vary, many struggle or previously struggled with substance abuse, psychosis,

Women usually have the same type of story, on the reason they decided to get involved in drugs. Some women have the drugs introduced to them by their family or friends (Mallicoat, 2012). Others began this habit to cope with violence or abuse in their early childhood (Mallicoat, 2012). About half of the women who are incarcerated are in prison for some sort of drug offense; either for selling or for drug use. Introducing prevention programs, life skills training, mental health training, and other basic needs can help reduce the percentage of women going back to their habit and staying away from incarceration (Mcvay et. al, 2004). By just putting women in prison, instead of actually looking into the reason they are using drugs are not helping them and might even increase the risk of them returning to prison or the risk of further criminal activity. Treating drug use as a medical problem, with programs for drug addiction, can help the women from getting incarcerated. Viewing women as victims in scenarios like drug use being a medical problem or prostitution can ultimately help reduce the percentage of incarcerated women.

In a country where there are more jails than colleges and a total incarceration population of 2.3 million and eighteen percent being female, it is no surprise that there are roughly 2,000 babies born to female inmates annually. At any given time, between eight and ten percent of the females incarcerated in the United States are pregnant. Currently, only ten states allow a mother to remain with her child after giving birth. For the other mothers, they are to give the baby to a reliable family member within 48 hours otherwise it will be placed in foster care. The current number of women in prison is at an all time high, and while the number for pregnant incarcerated females continues to grow, there is still limited medical treatment for mothers

The number of women in prison has substantially increased over the last several decades, with a 60 percent rise worldwide. This phenomena is especially apparent in the United States of America, with some states recording rises up to 400 percent over the last thirty years. Despite women only representing 7 percent of the prison population, their incarceration has a major impact on society. With the majority of women in prison being mothers, over one million U.S children are said to be directly affected by these statistics. It is widely recognized that incarcerated mothers and their children represent a high-risk group. Many incarcerated women have or still are experiencing a number of difficulties that may directly or indirectly impact their

Due to the vast amount of women who encounter mental health and substance abuse related problems, it is something that should be considered and looked at more seriously. Mignon (2016) indicated that failing to address these issues of neglecting mental health and substance abuse afflictions of imprisoned women will result in the problems continuing following their release and could have disadvantageous effects on their lives such as joblessness, homelessness, and the potential for loss of custody of children. Priority in health for women in prisons are usually dependent on their sentencing, as in if a woman is given a life sentence, her health needs aren’t necessarily a priority in comparison to women with shorter and lesser sentences. Mignon (2016) discovered that substance abuse is a serious issue for women in correctional facilities, and that even though trauma and addition are intertwined, they are usually treated as separate complications. Mignon (2016) also mentioned that poor health and mental health services should be of special concern when it comes to elderly women in prison.

Male and female prisons differ in some ways, but one thing that is the same is that the inmates suffer from depression, stress, and anxiety each day for the rest of their lives. It is hard to imagine what they face through everyday incarcerated or not. When prisoners are in jail, they have to deal with drama believe it or not. They might form groups determined by race and talk negative things about each other or think one race is better than another. Women prisons do this more often than men prisons. An example from the show Orange is the New Black of prison drama is when a prisoner stole a hand mirror from another prisoner. It is stupid things like that. They have to deal with the crappy food, crappy roommates if they can have one, and not being able to have the freedom. They have strict rules on when they can have visitors and when they can take a phone call. If you committed a crime that is super bad, then you do not get these privileges. When there time is up, they have to worry about where to go, finding a job, family, and more. Some of them come out of there and have no family to help them seek shelter and help them financially. Some just have to live on the streets for a bit until they have some money. It is very difficult to find a stable job with committing a crime on your record. They probably could get hired on at a fast food restaurant or at a factory, but they won’t make much to be

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 reason is that females were considered to be good candidates for rehabilitation. The suggestion is that female offenders were viewed as less dangerous than male offenders. Overtime, gender has led to women being protected and punished. The earlier notion of women-centeredness of women’s prisons no longer exists. There is more emphasis on a criminal being a criminal. At the same time, males still suffer harsher penalties compared to females within the criminal justice system.

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