Race, Class And Gender

For new inmate, the bus ride to prison, the processing at the prison reception center, and the belittling shouts from the inmates are all part of the early stage of what is known as prisonization (Clear, Cole, Petrosino, Reisig, 2015). It is the process whereby newly institutionalized individual are introduced to and come to accept prison lifestyles and criminal values; the learning of convict values, attitudes, roles, and even language (prison argot) (Schamelleger, 2001). The new inmates gradually learn the set of rules of conduct that reflect the

The values of the prison culture result from the deprivations of prison, inmates adapt to the prison culture upon being incarcerated in order for survival. As inmates are processed they begin to lose a part of their identity and the social norms in society are different in jails and prison. Inmates feel the need to integrate with inmates with the same beliefs and interests in order to feel a sense of safety and security. In female prisons, inmates create their own “families” in which they rely on each other for support. “For both genders, there is a hierarchy in prison whereby inmates who have committed crimes against children, such as rape, are at the bottom stratum of the prison structure.

Prisons hide prisoners from society. “If an inmate population is shut in, the free community is shut out, and the vision of men held in custody is, in part, prevented from arising to prick the conscience of those who abide by the social rules” (Sykes, 1958, 8). The prison is an instrument of the state. However, the prison reacts and acts based on other groups in the free community. Some believe imprisonment

Although we would like to believe the world is not as racially charged in 2013 as it was in the 1960s, a look in our penal system would show that minorities are still arrested and incarcerated at a higher rate than whites. The United States has experienced a rise in its prison population over the last 40 years and our incarceration rate is nearly 5 times higher than any other country. Even though 13% of the US population are African American males, they make up 38% of the prison population. Contributing factors to these numbers are mandatory minimum sentences, high crime and poverty areas, and lack of rehabilitative resources within our system (p.77-78).

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   Outdated clichés consisting of men eating stale bread and drinking dirty water are only a small fraction of the number of horrible, yet “just” occurrences which are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.

Davis reveals that race and gender has played a huge role in our nation 's history. What is very interesting is the fact that she takes these topics and goes with it in two totally different directions. She does elaborate the importance of how race and gender plays a massive role in her belief of prisons as sites of massive inequality but she casts a much broader light on other things. The function and pure nature of the prison system is also shaped in a questionable way. This also shines light towards our society that relies so heavily on incarceration. The discussion is then shifted away from questions about crime and punishment and toward concerns for social justice and human rights. The racial aspects of her findings will largely be familiar to anyone who has thought seriously about prisons before the excess

Rose Ricciardelli has written a book entitled Surviving Incarceration, which explores and reveals the various dynamics inside Canadian prisons. Essentially, it is a research done by the author, who incorporates a male sub-sample of Canadian federal prisons, while collecting data via 1-on-1 interviews with these inmates. Ricciardelli states early in the book that she will be focusing on prisoners and their experiences with federal prison; not on discussing why prisons exist or whether they are punitive or rehabilitative. Thus, although the title is misleading since Ricciardelli does not actually write about ‘surviving prison,’ she makes it clear early on for what readers can expect. Also, the author will look at the effectiveness of policy and legislation changes. With this in mind, one can assume that the title was simply for marketing purposes. Additionally, although Ricciardelli has set the focus on the Canadian prison system, she does not disclose further information or a history in this regard. For instance, throughout the readings, Ricciardelli does not provide statistics that would be curious to know in the minds of readers. This can include the statistical difference between federal and

According to the prisons inspectorate, the ‘health’ of a prison should be measured according to safety, respect, purposeful activity and resettlement (HMCIP, 2013). Choose one of these factors, and using academic research to support your argument, discuss to what extent this represents a critical element of imprisonment in contemporary society.

All of the articles that are discussed throughout this essay stated very similar observations when it came to the demographics of the prison population. They stated that the people who are mostly incarcerated are people of color, predominantly African-American and then Hispanic men. Jennifer Wynn stated that when she visited Rikers Island and was waiting in the waiting room, she was the only white person there (Wynn, 2012). She later found that ninety percent of the inmates were black or Hispanic (Wynn, 2012) and that ninety three percent were male (Wynn, 2012). Although not as large as black men, there has also been an increase of minority women imprisonment. This racial disproportion was not always this way. During World War II, whites consisted of seventy percent of inmates and only thirty percent were identified as “others” (Martense, 2012). This has been reversed now being that seventy percent of the prison population are black and Hispanic and thirty percent being white (Martensen, 2012). According to Martensen, the reason for this is due to the ‘War on Drugs’ which indirectly targets racial minorities. When it was implemented, there was not a drug crisis, however, drug offenses has lead to a major increase in the federal inmate population and state prisoners between 1985 and 2000 (Martensen, 2012). Most of these people come from disadvantaged communities with a lack of opportunities which can lead to criminal behaviors. People who have more power are in the

An intersectional approach is an approach which seeks to demonstrate how race, class, gender and sexuality make certain experiences different. Intersectionality is the overlapping of social categories such as race, class, gender and sexuality that leads to further discrimination against a certain individual or group. To take an intersectional approach to understand race, class, gender and sexuality, is to consider hardships not as a similar element for all individuals without regards to race, but instead consider where in a specific hardship different races, genders, classes and sexualities are affected different. According to Crenshaw, “many of the experiences Black women face are not subsumed within the traditional boundaries of race or gender discrimination as these boundaries are currently understood, and that the intersection of racism and sexism factors into Black women’s lives in ways that cannot be captured wholly by looking at the woman race or gender dimensions of those experiences separately” (Crenshaw, 357). Crenshaw explains that the personal experiences of women of color cannot be fully understood by looking at race or gender discrimination as two separate factors, but in fact can be understood if both aspects are looked at together. When race and gender are examined separately, this causes for women of color to be “erased”. Crenshaw says, “ And so, when the practices expound identity as “woman” or “person of color” as an either/or proposition, they relegate

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.

In prison, women are considered to be less violent than male inmate. This difference is not taken into account upon constructing prisons for female offenders. In fact, construction is based on the correctional model about men being violent. Each gender interacts within prisons differently as well. For instance, males form gangs within prisons. They act territorially and fight to maintain power. In addition, men are more likely to congregate by race. On the other hand, females look to form small families that are not racially specific. Women will fight due to jealousy. However, they are more likely to vent their hostility upon themselves through self mutilation. The way the prison is set up also creates a difference. Prisons for males dived prisoners via classification based on the dangerousness of the crime. In contrast women’s prisons generally allow incarcerated women to mix freely (Stuart von Wormer & Bartollas, 2011).

A sociologist named Erving Goffman acknowledged specific challenges for inmates adapting to life in prison (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015). The inmates, armed with their upbringing, and forced to deal with institutional rules can convert, withdraw, colonize, or rebel once incarcerated (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015). The type of person they were before incarceration and while incarcerated can play a huge role in whether or not they succeed or fail in adapting to prison life (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015).

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

Imprisonment, or the forcible confinement of a person, has been a long standing practice and tradition in the world’s history (Roberts). Dating as far back as 400 B.C., prisons have held a variety of meanings and served a wide array of functions, but in its fundamental use, prisons are intended to supplement the rise of a state as a form of social organization (Roberts). The most common use of prisons is as a supplement to a state’s justice system, in which individuals found guilty and convicted of crimes are sent for a set period of incarceration (Roberts). Outside of punishing civil crimes, prisons have been used by numerous regimes as tools of