Incarcerated Women In Prison

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.

Approximately 80% of incarcerated women are mothers (Mapson, 2013). On average, the adult female offender is between the ages of 25 and 29. Historically, incarcerated women live with their children prior to incarceration and are the sole financial support for those children. When a mother is incarcerated over 80% live with relatives (mostly maternal grandparents) and about 20% live in foster care. Due to mothers being placed far from populated centers, more than half of mothers will not see their children while they are imprisoned. Women rarely see their children due to the child being in foster care or with family members that do not have the financial resources to travel for visits.

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.

In the past thirty years, the incarceration of women has risen exponentially. Poverty, lack of access to education, abuse, addiction, mental health and parenting issues all impact women’s criminality and health before, during and after they are incarcerated (Hannaher, K., 2007). By 2010 there were nearly 206,000 women currently serving time in the criminal justice system. As the years go by, the numbers are constantly increasing (Women Behind Bars, 2015). The number of pregnant women incarcerated has also been on the rise. Most incarcerated women do not receive proper prenatal care before entering the criminal justice system. Because these women are from mostly poverty neighborhoods, they are more likely to endure domestic violence, poor

We know much more about incarcerated mothers than we know about incarcerated fathers. For example, over 70% of female inmates are mothers of dependent children under the age of eighteen. Almost 90% of incarcerated females are single parents and heads of households. According to some estimates, a quarter of a million children are separated from their parents each year by jail and prison (Glick & Neto, 1977; McGowan & Blumenthal, 1978; McPeek & Tse, 1988; U.S. Department of Justice, 1992). We do not have this kind of information about incarcerated fathers. The lack of statistics concerning fathers in prison may suggest that they are a forgotten group.

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.

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,

Joby Gardner, in an April 2010 study of incarcerated young men published in Youth and Society, stated that working – class Brown and Black young men face very difficult transitions, as they are overrepresented in the justice system, in poverty statistics, in foster care, special education; and, among victims of violence . In spite of the scarcity of documented research or other information concerning mothers of incarcerated children, perhaps the design for a plan of support for mothers should draw on information and research presented in examining the challenges mothers and children experience from the incarceration of mothers or fathers. Any design to support and meet the needs of a mother who is experiencing the incarceration of a child should definitely seek to meet the needs of not only the mother, but also the incarcerated child as well as the other siblings; and, the father if he is present.

Women are becoming a growing epidemic in the prison system even since the early nineteenth century. There has always been a lack of urgency and care for women that are pregnant behind bars. Women were still to do hard labor regardless of their certain circumstance. Pregnant women receive no consideration, lack of medical assistance, and are still in shackles are watched under by the prison guards while spending the little time that they have with their children after birth. There should be a change in the way the system treats pregnant women because they are not just hurting the mother but the child as well and they basically are the reason why most of the babies die because of the lack of care and medication. Although they have committed a crime pregnant women they should still have rights as parents. Such as not being shackled during childbirth which means they are still being punished in this joyous moment in their lives. Many if not all prisons are putting these women in shackles if not keeping them in handcuffs as they are in labor and delivering the baby which is completely unfair. Even if that were the case I’m sure they are guarded by at least three or four men. In California, state law formally provides that “at no time shall a woman who is in labor be shackled by the wrists, ankles, or both including during transport to a hospital, during delivery, and while in recovery after giving birth . . . .” (Ocen) These women are already experiencing pain and are not able to

After looking at a variety of different issues surrounding criminalized women I would like to focus on barriers that women face when leaving the confines of jail. Specifically, looking at the challenges they face by looking at community re-integration. I then will to look at some ways media covering marginalized women are progressing stigmas that only serve to hurt women. Finally I will look at the systematic ways in which current neo-liberal policies of governance continually repress the most marginalized of women. Currently there are far too many marginalized women who are getting lost in the system of reintegration; I hope to highlight current struggles that criminalized women deal with and address those issues on the government’s current

There are 1,461,625 women in state and federal prisons, and women account for 6.7% of all incarcerated people in America. Of that percentage, an overwhelming are minorities, and an even greater number of those women are poor. In short, there are a whole lot of women in jail that find themselves there by their own circumstances.

As the years have passed our society has increased in violence, prostitution, and drug trafficking, it used to be known that men where the ones who were doing almost any crime out there, some of them it was the only thing they knew how to do, they didn’t rely on a trade to support for their family’s so dealing was the way. At times this did bring in a good amount of income for their families, enough so that the females did not have to work. But what happened when the provider was sent to jail? The women would often pic up there habits because that’s all they also knew how to do. Now in a more modern society, women also run prostitution rings, and drug trafficking, and even deal drugs. So now by this point jails now had to deal with accommodating women in their cells.

It has come to the attention of society that either men or women have chosen not to work at an all female prison. What is the reason for this speculation? There so many disadvantage that men and women faces on a daily basis working at an all female facility. In the case of a male working at an all female prison they are face with greater problem then there female counterpart.

As indicated by Davis , ladies constitute the single biggest developing populace in detainment facilities today (Davis pg 65 ) She expressed a few purposes behind this expansion . Two reasons refered to is the loss of AFDC (Aid For Dependant Children ) and the expanding development of new detainment facilities According to criminologist Elliot Currie , by the year 2010 , there will be a bigger number of ladies in jail than there were guys and females in 1977 (Davis , pg 73

Gender stratification has always remained a problem in our society. It is only women who suffer from the discrimination, they have been fighting for their rights for decades. Women in prisons has now become an upcoming issue they are one of the fastest growing segments of prison environment around the globe. The prisons are built to punish people for the crime they committed and make them a good person before they get back to the society rather than harming them when they come in and making it difficult for them to cope with their life. Women get locked up in prisons for various crimes they commit. The rate of women being imprisoned is increasing day-by-day nevertheless men take the highest number of prisoners. Most of the women offenders get incarcerated for non-violent crimes (Find). Once they get incarcerated their access to education, work and other services gets taken away. Moreover, if they are single mothers their kids often suffer from being away from their mothers. In this essay, the problems faced by women prisoners would be discussed how they suffer as female prisoners and the kind of treatment they get for being women. The lack of medical care inside the prison environment for women would be critically analysed in the essay. Furthermore, how these problems affect the outer world will be discussed, how the offenders as well as their family members, victims and the community get impacted.