Women's Prison Case

IN a twenty year period there was little evidence to suggest cocorrectional prisons are effective in benefiting female prisoners (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015). In fact, males have exploited most females before entering prison, and these females continue being exploited in current coed facilities (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015). Surprisingly, even though single sex prisons have poor results, there is no support to change this format (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015).

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,

Male prisoners also continue to make up the majority of the prison population. However, women prisoner rates have been on the rise and have exceeded that of male growth rates since 1995. In fact, due to the increase of the women prison population, various issues have arisen which require women to be treated differently from men. Such issues correctional facility’s face because of this increase include program delivery, housing conditions, medical care, staffing, and security (American Corrections, 2016). These problems are in part due to the different social and economic differences women are faced with in prison and while preparing for their release back to society.

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.

Multiple sources confirm that the population of female prisoners is rapidly increasing in the United States. The population now far exceeds one million prisoners (Bloom & Covington, 2008) (Lewis, 2000). It is pertinent to recognize the group of female offenders with mental illness; they are a group that is seldom considered when pondering societal groups relating to communication. Through substantial research, several issues that ail this community have been distinguished and can be connected to communication, as this work will reveal. Some of these issues include the reality of self-harm, histories of sexual and physical abuse, and aggressive behavior. Through the review of literature related to female prisoners with mental health

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.

Businesses like CCA (Corrections Corp of America) are not like traditional prisons, they’re private prisons designed to make a profit off our imprisoned citizens and not only do they profit from full beds, but cut corners. Consequentially they are subjected to high turnover and incompetent and inexperienced staff.

From 1980 to 2008, the number of people incarcerated in America quadrupled-from roughly 500,000 to 2.3 million people.For decades, the United States had a relatively stable prison population. That changed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Some factors included a rise in crime from the 1960s to 1980s; rising concerns over crack cocaine and other drugs, resulting in huge increases in drug penalties; a move to mandatory minimum sentences; and the implementation of other tough-on-crime policies, such as "three-strikes" laws and policies to ensure prisoners served at least 85 percent of their sentences. What's more, the movement toward broad, punitive crime control and prison policies wasn't based on any scientific rationale, says Haney, who studies

The number of women in prison has substantially increased over the last several decades, with a 60 percent rise worldwide. This phenomena is especially apparent in the United States of America, with some states recording rises up to 400 percent over the last thirty years. Despite women only representing 7 percent of the prison population, their incarceration has a major impact on society. With the majority of women in prison being mothers, over one million U.S children are said to be directly affected by these statistics. It is widely recognized that incarcerated mothers and their children represent a high-risk group. Many incarcerated women have or still are experiencing a number of difficulties that may directly or indirectly impact their

We see the impact Folsom State Prison is making on female offenders in the following video...

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.

From 1950 to 1990, political prisoners in East Germany endured forced labor at the Hoheneck Prison in East Germany. Their story is told in the short film Kaputt.

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

A $8.3 billion dollar program to establish facilities to provide 53,000 new prison and prison beds were approved as an attempt to resolve the state's overcrowded prisons (Stewart, 2006).