The Incarceration Rate For Women

Several studies found that female prisons offered fewer vocational and education program opportunities when compared to those offered in male institutions. In general, women across the country lack training needed to obtain jobs that pay a living wage. One aspect of this inadequacy is that, like the training offered in the reformatories of the early 1990s, many vocational programs for female inmates emphasize traditional roles for women and work.[] The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees that people who are similarly situated are treated equally.[1] In order to be “‘similarly situated,’ groups need not be identical in makeup, they need only share commonalities that merit similar treatment.[2] I will be discussing

In looking at the history of women imprisonment and crime, except for the alarmingly increasing rates, not much else has changed. Since 1980 the number of women in prison has increased at nearly double the rate for men and there are now nearly seven times as many women in prison as in 1980. However, the increasing rate of crimes and incarceration of females is still not considered a serious problem. Despite this alarming increase rate of imprisonment, the public outcry continues to be deafeningly

After visiting www.womenandprison.org a website created by incarcerated women, I learn the ins and outs of what are some of the leading factors for women and prisons now. Most of the women interviewed have a brutal past with drug addiction, prostitution or abuse. These are the main reasons women today still are being incarcerated. However gender experience in prison expressed by women is very painful. Unlike men women suffer from the state of mind where they are home sick. Those who tend to have made families back home it begins to be tougher for women to be separate from her child. Also it is said to be all mind games a lot of women loose a sense of social control where they are no longer accepting to the reasoning which has brought them to

With women being arrested at a higher rate than men, we have to look at how women are being treated in jails. “My research in local correctional facilities showed that women are often put into facilities where both males and females are held, but where females are isolated in one particular part of the jails”

There has been a lack of interest in female convicts as a subject of historical discussion. The history of female convicts has traditionally been incorporated into the framework of male convicts with grave reference to the male convict experience. The convict women who were transported to Australia on ships Elizabeth 5th and Henry Wellesley in 1836 faced extreme difficulty in achieving freedom and reputability. It is the view of many historians that “women were incorporated into a pattern initially designed to accommodate men”. This essay will investigate the origins and characteristics of a sample of 10 female convicts arriving to Sydney in1836. The essay aims to establish an alternative impression of the female convicts that were deemed damned whores, skill-less and prostitutes. In agreement with the 4 of the 5 studied historians, I hold the view that the women were the victims of a “repressive patriarchal society” and the appellation of female convicts as ‘damned whores’ is totally inadequate. I believe they were not members of a professional criminal class; they were humans with basic human needs, doing anything they could to survive.

Women are twice as likely as men to avoid incarceration if convicted of a crime. Whether or not this is fair, though, is highly debated. Some politicians argue that women’s prisons be abolished all together, while Men’s Rights Activists push for equal sentencing for comparable crimes. It has been proven that judges tend to give women less time in prison, or no incarceration at all, and the reasons for this support the imbalance in sentencing. Though many view women’s tendency to receive lighter punishments as unfair, it is justified that women receive this treatment because of legal rules that surround the subject, the statistics that show women commit less serious and violent crimes, and how women being incarcerated impacts those around them.

It appears from current trends that the rates of crime committed on part of female violators is trending higher as compared to that of male counterparts that comprise the population starting in the year 2000 with female prison population rising to 2.2% verses that of male prison incarceration numbers being only 1.6% in comparison (Sipes, 2012). However it should be noted that the total number of actual prisoners of males is estimated to be 1.5 million with only 113,000 being women or just 14% of the total prison

Despite changing times, the Indigenous population still experience inequality through the education and criminal justice system, specifically Indigenous women. This is highlighted throughout the report through various statistical data including tables and graphs. Further discussion on the link between these statistics to current unit concepts will be addressed in this report to expose the barriers that Indigenous Australian women face within the criminal justice system. The statistical overview on the education system will focus on the Indigenous population as a whole.

Incarceration has been a pending issue amongst western civilization’s history for some time and today continues to raise a wide range of important questions. Incarceration of individuals have become a tremendous tax payer concern along with the incarceration of the drug war, convictions of street gangs, and the rest of the individuals who have broken the law and harmed other innocent individuals. However, the question is always a concern of men incarceration and hardly addressed of women being incarcerated. Not to say that what men can do women can do better, but studies have shown a drastic increase in women becoming incarcerated throughout a range of years. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures research on Children Of Incarcerated Parents by Steve Christian, a study by national survey had reported in August 2008, that during that time, the number of children with a mother in prison increased by 131 percent, from 63,900 to 147,400 (Christian, 2009). Society has always drawn its focus on convicts constantly trying to pin a wrong on an individual’s plate of life, but has never become curious to ask why an individual has become incarcerated and whom it has affected. The drastic increase of women becoming incarcerated have come from numerous of backgrounds in which their choices have led to affect their children as well as their children’s development and in addition affected their own development.

When a nation leads the world in the population incarcerated, women incarcerated and recidivism rate a question of what policies are causing these high statistics. Commonalities such as lack of supportive programing, conditions and over sentencing seem to appear in all these statistics. Although the controversial American prison system is often overlooked it is a grave social issue that no longer focuses on the rehabilitation of inmates.

Aboriginal women face disproportionate challenges throughout their incarceration which impacts their successful community reintegration. Over the last ten years, inmate assaults involving Aboriginal women have exponentially grown, almost doubling, while use of force incidents have more than tripled. Rates of self-injury involving incarcerated Aboriginal women are seventeen times higher than that of non-Aboriginal women. To agree with Baldry, Carlton, and Cunneen, using Indigenous women as a focus point is beneficial because their "experiences embody and exemplify the intersections between colonial and neocolonial oppression and the multiple sites of gender and disadvantage and inequality that stem from patriarchal domination." Cunneen highlights that Indigenous women actually live in "many prisons"; the prison of misunderstanding; the prison of misogyny; and the prison of disempowerment. Patricia Monture insists that one way women can resist oppression and facilitate social change is by telling their own stories. The Task Force for Federally Sentenced Women developed a report called Creating Choices, which attempted to relocate the power to make choices in womens' lives out of the hands of prison officials and back to the women themselves because, according to the findings of the Task Force, it is only when people are treated with respect and when they are empowered can they take responsibility for their actions and make meaningful decisions. Monture-Okanee reflects on the irony of the final report

Throughout the years, the question of whether those who commit the same crime should receive the same sentence or not has created controversy because of the mandatory sentencing laws, though, in reality, no two crimes are exactly alike and neither are the circumstances of the people involved. For women, in particular, the issue of mandatory sentencing has increased the population of women in prison. In the March 3, 2017 issue of the Congressional Quarterly Researcher titled “Women in Prison: Should they be treated differently than men?” the author, Sarah Glazer, had an anecdote given by Ramona Brant that discussed the involvement of women in a crime where they were not selling drugs, is usually due to a relationship, which they received the

Australian prison populations are increasing, putting enormous financial burdens on the government. In the meantime, there is recognition that imprisonment does not achieve some of the stated objectives that are important, and, also harmful - to offenders, their families and in the long run, to the community. Historically, imprisonment (criminal sanctions) are used to serve four main purposes, “(1) deterring the offender and others like him, (2) protecting the public (community) by restraining the offender, (3) rehabilitating the offender, and (4) punishing the offender” (Birney, 2012). The statement that we need to build more jails and keep offenders in longer if we want to reduce crime is

Women in the prison face many problems, some resulting from their lives prior to imprisonment, and others resulting from their imprisonment itself. Women in prison have experienced victimization, unstable family life, school and work failure, and substance abuse and mental health problems. Social factors that marginalize their participation in mainstream society and contribute to the rising number

It is important to discuss the key drivers of growth behind our prison population. While the crime rate has not increased, our prison population has (Kilgore, 2015). Tougher on crime policies have been a contributing factor to the increase in the prison population (Department of Justice, 2011). Abolishment of alternative sentences, including intensive corrections orders (ICO), suspended sentences and home detention orders (HDO), have been a contributing factor to the increased prison population (Kilgore, 2016). Prior to the abolishment of suspended sentences from the period 2009 to 2012, the Victorian prison population increased by 11% (Glass, 2014). The following period 2012-2014, it increased to 25% (Glass, 2014).The parole reforms recommended by Ian Callinan have seen 95% of applications being denied (Glass, 2014). Reforms to the bail legislation have seen an increase of accused