Women In Prison History

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

As evidenced by prior research, more studies must be done on this unique population in order to determine the best intervention for treating incarcerating women with mental illness and decreasing rates of recidivism. This issue is relevant to the values, ethics and responsibilities of the social work profession because this oppressed and vulnerable population is in need of advocacy and gender-specific mental health treatment.

The system unable to adapt for such a small number in comparison to men, incarcerated women are expected to fit into an institution developed by men for men, resulting in worse conditions, less familial contact due to fewer facilities, and more rules as if the women were children, all direct reflections institutionalized sexism and HM both in and out of the corrections arena. Additionally, due to the Madonna-like factor, women who are convicted have a farther fall from grace within society and do not have the luxury of the “good old boy” connections for defense and protection. While gender roles and expectations are assigned by society, believing women should be equal to men demands the acknowledgement that women can offend like men (Pearson, 1998) and therefore should be incarcerated not ‘like men’ but in an equalized manner. Perhaps, rather than revamping institutions developed to house and rehabilitate women, we first investigate the standards currently in play for the policing, convicting and sentencing of men as the foundation of creating a nonsexist criminal justice

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

In the first female prison in Indiana state women suffered from sexual abuse from the guards working there, in fact that happened in several different prisons. In a text I read it was said “The Indiana state prison actually ran a prostitution service for male guards, using female prisoners.” (Kurshan) demonstrating how sickening a women’s prison was. This is because women were seen as weak or fragile with guards holding all power. Women obeyed the guards in fear of receiving more punishments. Guards are seen as the most powerful in these facilities and most women fear them. Guards can sometimes overstep their boundaries by watching women shower, changing clothes, so women don’t

The prison world is predominately male dominated. As the years go by, female incarceration levels have been rapidly increasing. The prisons in early days didn’t have to worry about dealing with two different types of inmates as there were not that many females incarcerated. While male and female inmates do have some similarities, they also have some distinct differences. The way they conduct themselves in prison are different; as are they way they interact with other inmates. Males typically are in prison for more violent crimes than women, making the maximum security prisons mainly male. Throughout this paper, these differences and a few similarities are discussed.

Women are an increasingly visible segment of the prison population confined in not just Amderican prsions but also prisons worldwide. Their numbers are increasing at such a rate that far outstrips even the remarkable rate of growth among incarcerated men. In a interview with the Independent, Carol Hedderman, professor of criminology at the University of Leicester, said “looking at the growing number of women in jail could eventually help lower the prison population overall” (Branagh, 2010). In response to the growing number of female imprisonment in this assignment I will analyise the key weaknesses in the criminal justice system stating why women end up in prisons, and when they do what disadavatages to they face by being in the system. There are a number of factors that I will discus such as the dispersal of prisons and how they result to isolation the women inmates face, how the system deals with mothers with new born or children on a whole. Also how gender inequality plays a key role in the prisons and finally I will disucss other methods of punishements for women which control the over crowded women population and can help improve the criminal justice process.

Programs in prisons that are tailored to women’s unparalleled needs would benefit society in the grand scheme of things. On an individual level it could break the cycle of abuse, victimization, and self-loathing. It is essential that the double damage done to female offenders be repaired because they deserve an unbiased chance at a good life. After all, they could represent your mother, aunt, sister, niece, wife and girlfriend. In her book, A woman doing life: Notes from a prison for women, Erin George did a fine job in depicting the life of women during the time they were incarcerated. She also included a light reflection of what life was like before prison and what life could be like after prison. This book included vivid passages of how

The research topic will focus on the needs that incarcerated women face when serving time.

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

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 prisoners will serve their sentences at this five-year-old institution or at Valley State Prison, the nation's second-largest women's prison, which recently opened across the street. The compounds occupy the tiny farm town of Chowchilla, where almond and alfalfa groves surround the 50,000-volt electrified fence. To the crop dusters above, the flat gray-and-peach buildings must look like a giant corrections butterfly, shielding up to 8,000 women in the 1,340-acre spread of its cinder-block wings.

An interesting article written by Alison Knezevich for The Baltimore Sun entitled “After Jail Scandal, Spotlight on Growing Role of Women Officers” tells of accounts and experiences some women have had working in corrections. The article specifically discusses the experiences of two women, Ashley Riley and Shantel Lyons, had as a corrections officer at the Baltimore City Detention Center supermax prison. The article discusses different aspects of the prison from the dark dingy environment, corruption, manipulation, gangs, and relationships all the way to pay and

In the case of Communist Germany, there are multiple prisons that hold female political prisoners. In the short film, Kaputt/Broken, The Women's Prison at Hoheneck,

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