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 not being heard and have to cope with their problems on their own. No one thought of these women and their issues until the prison rebellions and riots that occurred in the 1980s. These women are facing many problems such as medical neglect, sexual and physical abuse, and lastly and most importantly the loss of parental rights.
The first issue that women in prison face is medical negligence. This is a fairly common problem women suffer while incarcerated. Prisoner when they first came about was only for men, so it is considered through various ways a patriarchal institution. A lot of men are stubborn and do not like going to the doctor.Women have more medical need such as reproductive issues that occur due to pregnancies and infections. Many prisons do not have regular gynecological exams; these examinations are specialty services and take time to get approved. For example, a woman at Taycheedah correctional institution in Wisconsin suffered from endometriosis. She was not allowed to see a gyneco...
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...years to protect these women rights. They are standing up for people who do not have the voice or courage to talk. These activists are finding the problems and passing information to others (Chandler and Kingery, 2000). A lot of these issues are coming to light because of the media; many movies and news coverage are created to tell how their prisoners are mistreated. Books on actual women were written to clarify and particularize the issues they faced (Kavenik, 2009). I feel that the best solution to stop this problem is to get more people involved. Many of these women are nonviolent offenders, which mean they were sent to jail because of drug related and fraudulent crimes. There should be other alternatives that incarceration for mothers, so they can be involved in their children lives. These women do not deserve such treatment these women are still human beings.
By alluding to popular activists in today’s society and the use of inspirational photos, the article shows support to women’s rights and inspiration for other women to fight for their rights. Quoting Madeleine Albright with “there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other,” it helps integrate the idea that, no matter how hard a few people work to change something, it takes a larger group to highlight the
The next big show that everyone seems to be talking about nowadays is “Orange is the new black.” A show that is centered on what citizens think a day in the life in a women’s prison is. But in all reality a women’s prison isn’t something to joke around about. Prison is defined as a correctional facility designed for confinement that is primarily ran by the state. Women serve their sentences in women’s prisons where men serve theirs in men’s prisons. According to Ashley Dugger an online introduction to criminal justice professor there is about 4,500 prisons in the United States alone. Of those 4,500 only 170 of them are solely women’s prisons.
A pivotal point in female corrections was the implementation of the Arbour Report (Griffiths & Murdoch, 2014). This report recommended that an all male emergency response team should not be the first response, also, male correctional staff cannot be present while a strip search in being conducted (Griffiths & Murdoch, 2014). This report shaped corrections and it makes the female offenders accounted for since their rights were infringed.
With matted hair and a battered body, the creature looked at the heartless man outside the cage. Through the dark shadows you could only see a pair of eyes, but those eyes said it all. The stream of tears being fought off, the glazed look of sheer suffering and despair screamed from the center of her soul, but no one cared. In this day in age I am ashamed to think that this is someone's reality, that this is an accurate description of a human being inside a Canadian women's prison . Exposing the truth behind these walls reveals a chauvinistic, corrupt process that serves no greater purpose. The most detrimental aspect of all is society's refusal to admit the seriousness of the situation and take responsibility for what has happened.
writers are ‘doubly marginal’, being female and a writer in prison whereas at the same time black women suffer threefold- as a woman, prisoner, and African American”(Willingham 57). Although both of these women are prisoners, one of them is viewed as prison writer and another women is viewed just as prisoner. Beside they being treated just by their race, even in an African American society, the perception of looking imprisoned men and women are different, African American women are subjected for gender difference. Willingham mentions the thought of a African American woman, “African American men are almost made martyrs and heroes when they come out of prison but when African American women go back to their communities, the are not only unfit people, they are also marked with the title of unfit mother, and it’s hard to trust us”
The numbers of women in jails or prisons have increased greatly over the years. Female prisoner population has more than doubled since 1990. Right now there are over 150,000 women in U.S. prisons and jails. (Sokoloff, Violent Female Offenders in NYS: Myths and Facts, Crime and Justice in NY, A. Karmon, 2000-2001) With this being said 75% of these women are mothers most of them have children under the age of 18 and 25% of them have given birth in prison or to the year prior to there arrest. 9% of women in jail are pregnant and that would be about 12,500 women are currently pregnant. Are there adequate facilities for these women? Consult: http://www.aetn.org/mip/jtml/statistics.html
Throughout the history of the United States and including the western world. Corrections have served the country by convicting and sentencing offenders depending on the seriousness of the crime. Along with that today, offenders are either placed in probation, incarcerated or taken to community-based corrections. Even though, corrections have always tried to find ways to deter crime by correcting criminals, the poor economy in our country has been the cause for struggles in the correctional system. Some of the causes of economic issues are the cut of budget, over crowing, lack of programs for people with mental illnesses, and lack of innovation.
The U.S is only 5% of the world’s population and houses a quarter of its prison inmates; well over 2 million people. In the past decade the war on drugs has filled many state and federal prisons with a numerous amount of inmates. Building new prisons is not the answer to tackling the prison overcrowding dilemma. The U.S doesn’t have the money due to economic strains, and it will not solve this issue head on as needed. “California may be forced to release up to 33,000 prisoners by 2013” (Shapiro & Wizner, 2011, p.1.). Some women and men do not belong in prison, and should be given other opportunities to sought help. Prison overcrowding is a growing concern in the U.S today. There are many different alternatives to end prison overcrowding versus releasing them into the community. For example by launching a parole support group or treatment or rehabilitation programs for inmates as well as ex-offenders, house arrest or probation are other routes to explore.
Not only is prison ineffective in preventing reoffending in women and is expensive, it can be extremely damaging to the female’s well-being and their families. The effect that a custodial sentence has on women is arguably far worse than for men. Women are often not prepared or equipped for their life following their prison sentence; due to the fact that women are more likely to be lone parents before prison (Social Exclusion Unit, 2002), are more likely to leave prison homeless and unemployed (Wedderburn, 2000), and are more likely to lose access of their children whilst serving their sentence (Corston, 2007). Statistics from 2010 showed that around 17,000 children become separated from their mother by imprisonment (Wilks-Wiffen, 2011). This can be absolutely devastating to not only the female offender, but to their innocent children too. Moreover, due to the small number of women’s prisons, the average distance that women are sent away from their homes is around 60 miles (Women in Prison, 2013). Therefore, even if the women are lucky enough to keep in contact with their children, it can be tremendously hard to organise visitation and uphold
One of the greatest stressors of women in prison is being apart from their children, Women inmates are more likely than fathers who are in prison to worry about the child’s living arrangements while they are serving their time. Women are usually the primary caregivers to their children before they enter the system, making the strain of separation difficult. Being able to communicate with each other, the mother and child are able to learn how to cope while b...
Women in Prison. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Justice Statistics Varnam, Steve. Our prisons are a crime (reforming the prison system). Editorial. Christianity Today 21 June 1993
Erin G., 2010, A Woman Doing Life: Notes from a Prison for Women: The Southwest Journal of Criminal Justice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Pp. vi, 202, Vol. 8(2)175.
In the previous years the number of incarcerated women have increased drastically. According to the authors the recent change in arrest patterns could be because of the constructionist approach which focuses on shifts in law enforcement practices or other mechanisms of crime control to explain changes in arrest patterns.” (Schwartz, Steffensmeir & Feldmeyer, Pg.9) According to Beth Richie, “ women constitute a small fraction of the total population but the number of women incarceration rates are growing more significantly then their male counterparts… Women constituted for 16% of all people detained in correctional facilities.” (Beth Richie, Pg.2) Compared to why men are put in prison majority of women are put in prison because of drug offenses,
The “Tough on Crime” and “War on Drugs” policies of the 1970s – 1980s have caused an over populated prison system where incarceration is policy and assistance for prevention was placed on the back burner. As of 2005, a little fewer than 2,000 prisoners are being released every day. These individuals have not gone through treatment or been properly assisted in reentering society. This has caused individuals to reenter the prison system after only a year of being release and this problem will not go away, but will get worst if current thinking does not change. This change must be bigger than putting in place some under funded programs that do not provide support. As the current cost of incarceration is around $30,000 a year per inmate, change to the system/procedure must prevent recidivism and the current problem of over-crowed prisons.
Prisons exist in this country as a means to administer retributive justice for those that break the laws in our society or to state it simply prisons punish criminals that are to receive a sentence of incarceration for more than one year. There are two main sub-cultures within the walls of prison the sub-culture of the Department of Corrections (which consists of the corrections officer, administrators, and all of the staff that work at the prison and go home at the end of their day) and the actual prisoners themselves. As you can imagine these two sub-cultures are dualistic in nature and this makes for a very stressful environment for both sides of the fence. While in prison, the inmates experience the same conditions as described in the previous