The Increase Of Women During The Prison System

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

women has increased significantly, increasing at a rate double to the rate of male incarceration since 1980 (Covington & Bloom, 2006). Braithwaite, Treadwell and Arriola note that incarcerated women have historically been a forgotten population, and despite the rapid growth of the population, their needs have continued to be ignored (2005). In addition to the stigma that comes with being or having been incarcerated,

Since the mid 80’s, the number of women incarcerated has tripled.The majority of women incarcerated are unskilled, impoverished and disproportionately women of color. As a result, African American children are nine times more likely to have a parent in prison than a White child.

Women have been fighting for equal rights for decades. And, as of a result of this, have gained many equal rights. But are those rights just supposed to disappear when a woman gets incarcerated, and at what price does it cost that woman, to get her rights back, or does she ever get them back? The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and with each year the percentage of women that make up that rate, are growing. According to Statistics on Women Offenders- 2015. (1997), “Since 2010, the female jail population has been the fastest growing correctional population, increasing by an average annual rate of 3.4 percent”. It also states that, in 2013, women made up 17% of the jail population, and 25% of probation population in the U.S. Not only have these numbers been steadily rising, but of those incarcerated, approximately 77% are likely to reoffend (p.1). This has risen quite a concern in society today. Why is there such a high chance that incarcerated women will likely reoffend? At a micro level, is it the fault of the woman? Or, a larger issue at the macro level, with society, laws, policies, and loss of the most basic rights that every citizen should be entitled to? According to Pinto, Rahman, & Williams. (2014), incarcerated women need help meeting individual needs when they are released, such as, reducing drug or alcohol use, finding a job, health issues, as well as help in dealing with the impact of

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.

After reading A Woman Doing Life : Notes from a Prison for Women, I learned a lot more than I thought I knew about the life of women in jails or prisons. Erin George , the main character , gives readers an ethnographic insight on the struggles women face in prison. The hardships women face in prison consist of, and are limited to harsh shakedowns, poor medical treatment, and changes within the prison system that intentionally dehumanizes women inmates. Erin George before prison was a middle class women who seem to live a decent life, she is a mother of 3 and had a great support system within her family. She was happily married until she was convicted of murdering her husband which landed her six-hundred-three years in prison.

How did prison conditions for women vary by state in the 1800s? How were they similar? How did they differ from the conditions experienced by male prisoners? Women’s condition in the late eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries were awful. For example, in New York Newgate prison women were disconnected from mainstream of prison life, and they were later disconnected in penitentiaries. The women had no female prison officer to attend to their domestic, and medical arrangement. Newgate’s women were expected to wash and sew. Male prisoners were selected to shoemaking, and other manufactures. At Bellevue penitentiary women were exposed to unhealthy conditions. There was poor quality and quantity of the food, the absence of proper sanitary, and security precautions. In Auburn the women were held on third- floor attic above the penitentiary’s kitchen.

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.

O’Brien is an associate Professor and writer at the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She argues that the U.S should not incarcerate women anymore and close all women’s prisons. She claims that there are far more men in prisons than women. Only seven percent of the prison population are women. O’Brien questions if

Australia has witnessed a gradual and undeniable increase in imprisonment rates for women in the last twenty years. Representing the plight of criminalized and imprisoned women is not a straightforward task. These women do not share a single lived experience, nor do they reflect a neat and simplistic narrative of individual redemption. Drawing public attention to the predicament of criminalization and imprisonment in women allows us to understand the of rising incarceration rates and what reasons may account for this growth in female incarceration rates and how it affects policy makers in their attempts to address challenges.

The research of this paper explores the history of mass incarceration and how it identifies with female inmates and the inadequate medical attention and treatment they incur worldwide within the prison system. The numbers of female incarceration has risen significantly within the past 7 years and is currently still rising. Due such a massive increase in female incarceration, health care services have not been able to provide and address the appropriate needs for this growing population of women. As a result, the healthcare of women mentally and physiologically has become a Public health concern in the prison system. Throughout history, from the establishment of the female incarceration, it has been discovered, various influences are some

Women’s population in the prison system is growing vastly, and continues to grow. Julie Ajinkya (March 8, 2013). Rethinking How to Address the Growing Female Prison Population. Retrieved from www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news. According to the center for progress from the years 2000 through 2009 the number of women incarcerated in state or federal prisons rose by 21.6 percent in comparison to 15.6 percent increase for men. Majority of the women in the prison system struggle with, mental illness, histories of physical and sexual abuse, drug addiction, poverty and a lack of education. These are all contributing factors as to why these women end up incarcerated. This also means that our society still chooses to punish these criminals rather than heal and rehabilitate these offenders. The offenders get pushed away in to the criminal justice system instead of receiving the services they need that could help them live healthy, secure, and productive lives. In the book George, E. (2010). “A Woman Doing Life; Notes from a Prison for Women” R. Johnson (Ed.). New York, NY Oxford University it explains a story of a women’s perspective inside prison looking out. She explains her highs and lows in the prison and the relationships she has with the corrections facility and its employees.

In the history of the American penitentiary, women are, for the most part, invisible. The early history of women’s prisons as well as theories about female criminality did not factor into the discussion. In comparison, there is a large amount of scholarship and literature on male prisons and prisoners of that same time. This paper is an attempt to fill that gap. With Women, Prison, & Crime, Women in Prison and Their Sister’s Keepers by Jocelyn Byrne, Cyndi Banks and Estelle Freedman, respectively, this paper attempts to outline the history of women’s prisons and the main theories about female prisoners from 1840-1930. In analyzing these two concepts in conjunction with the status of women in society at those particular times, a pattern

The main point that I learned this week was during the discussion area where we discussed how women in prison are treated differently than men around the world. This became a sad, but extremely interesting topic while researching material. The main point that I learned here was that prisons not only here in the United States, but also around the world do not offer equal treatment or programs geared for women (Sobel, 1982, p. 109). In addition to the lack of specialized programs geared for women prisoners they are mixed in prison populations consisting of other males. Finally, throughout the discussions the various opinions given by my fellow classmates and my instructor gave me new insight on this issue.

Meanwhile, “the number of incarcerated adult women has jumped by a shocking 757% since 1977, at nearly twice the rate of male prisoners” (Harrison & Beck, 2006). “The number of women in prisons and jails has reached a milestone,” explains Kara Gotsch, director of advocacy for the Sentencing project in Washington, DC. One of the main reasons why women are being locked up at an alarming rate is a result of a policy of mass incarceration. “Mass incarceration is a rate of incarceration so high that it affects not only the individual offender, but also whole social groups.” (American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 2011) Pursuing further, another main reason of the increase of incarceration of women are the sentencing policies brought about by the “war on drugs.”