Aside from children, women stand as a special population of interest for organizations engaged in social work because of their being identified as a vulnerable group. One particular subpopulation of this group, which are women who are in prison, can quire understandably raise concerns because they can be left overlooked accidentally or even purposefully because of the stigma associated with criminal liability. In relation to this, the following sections will be providing a discussion on the history and context of sexual abuse of women in prison as well as the background and outcomes of a chosen project. The concluding portion of the paper will be providing a summary of the significant points made in the initial sections of the paper along
This would involve the three advocates mentioned previously as resource persons, and by the time of the report’s release in 1996, the awareness which had been raised paved the way for several advancements to their cause. One change was how the U.S. Department of Justice would join LaBelle in citing sexual violations by the Michigan Department of Corrections that would make use of the HRW report that had been based on the concept of human rights. Another measure was with the processes of the Department of Corrections being subjected to greater review by Congress in Washington, D.C. By 1998, the trio of advocates had once again become involved in the creation of another report with United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Radhika Coomaraswamy. Prisons in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota and New York were audited by Coomaraswamy, with the report being released in early 1999 in the U.N. Commission on Human Rights meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. Another international human rights group which is based in London called Amnesty International decided to join this movement for women inmates by highlighting the issue in their annual campaign in 1998 that yielded its own three
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.
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
are presented as rational actors who intentionally commit crimes while women are viewed as mentally unfit victims who are vulnerable to risky men and poor relationship choices. The author reports that many prison
Feminist Criminology, 7(2), 146-162. Kinder-Matthews, J. & Co., Ltd. (1994) The 'Standard' of the 'St Working with female sexual abusers. (pp. 57-67). The 'Secondary' of the Miccio & Fonseca, L.C. a.
In fact, one of the most leading violence in the prison setting is sexual victimization. It involves different behaviors from sexually abusive contact to nonconsensual sexual assault. These assaults present bigger issues within the prison such as being exposed to sexually transmitted diseases like HIV, causing the inmate to retaliate, depression and suicidal gestures. (Wolf, N, 2006) In 2011, a random sample of not less than 10% of all federal, state prisons, county prisons, and municipal prisons in America was drawn. At the end of the annual sample, 8,763 allegations of sexual victimization were reported by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. (Roberts, N., 2014) As stated, this only included 10% percent of the prison excluding the other 90 % of prisons in America. In 2009, 7,855 allegations were filed and in 2010, 8,404 with 51 percent involving nonconsensual sex acts or abusive contact amongst inmates. The other 49% involved prison staff that resulted in sexual misconduct and sexual harassment. In 2012, the Department of Justice estimated that about 1 in 10 inmates were sexually assaulted by officers with high expectation that it would only continue to increase. (Roberts, N.,
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.
The state of women in the United States criminal justice system, an apparently fair organization of integrity and justice, is a perfect example of a seemingly equal situation, which turns out to be anything but. While the policies imposed in the criminal justice system have an effect on all Americans, they affect men and women in extremely dissimilar manners. By looking at the United States' history of females in the criminal justice system, the social manipulation of these females and the everlasting affects that incarceration have on all women, both in and out of prison, this essay will explore the use of the criminal justice system as simply another form of control from which there is no hope of escape. This system of control then leads to the examination of the everlasting, yet never successful, female struggle to balance the private sphere of domesticity with the public sphere of society and the criminal justice system's attempt to keep women within the boundaries of the private.
Anderson, E. A. (1976). The "Chivalrous" Treatment of the Female Offender in the Arms of the Criminal Justice System: A Review of the Literature. Social Problems, 23(3), 350-357
Within society, more men than women are imprisoned. However, women’s incarceration rates have significantly increased since the 1980s. International Centre for Prison Studies found that more than 200,000 US women are confined in the prison population in 2013. Despite the figure, most women were serving sentences for nonviolent offenses. Women were usually incarcerated primarily for property crimes, drug offenses and victims of domestic violence. Statistic found that only one-third of imprisoned women were sentenced for violent crimes. While 56 percent of imprisoned women were sentenced for non-violence crimes. This essay will critically discuss the different experiences of female prisoners. This essay will also highlight the issues faced by
16. All Party Parliamentary Group on Women in the Penal System (2012) keeping girls out of the penal system,
Outside of prison, women are susceptible to emotional and physical pain because of problems such as domestic violence or drugs. This prison also gave women the education they needed when they were eventually released. Some women had not even heard of the dangers of diseases like HIV before. Andrew Novinska pointed out in his article from 2002, women “have been viewed within our culture as less mentally healthy than men” (p. 105). The women in the 2002 study recognized that their own world is not safe, even being in prison.
According to Dumond (2003), “ rape among weak and susceptible prison inmates is currently one of the most psychologically tormenting crimes committed in prison which usually goes unnoticed, unattended and are usually not prosecuted.” Unfortunately, the issue of rape among inmates still continues and is currently facing a counter attack by legislation. Furthermore, Dumond (2003) indicates, “the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 was enacted to provide relief and hopefully reduce and eliminate the incidence of rape in prison.”
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
Imagine growing up in a country where you have lost your basic human rights and are subjected to violence everywhere you go. Now imagine growing up in a household like that. One would think that someone growing up in that environment would be very critical of human rights, correct? Hillary Clinton, a U.S. politician, is very worried about the state of living most women are dealing with around the world. As a young woman, Clinton has spoken out about the state of women’s rights in their households; furthermore, after meeting with women all around the world, she has become even more critical about the safety of women in their own households. During the United Nations Fourth World Conference in Beijing, Clinton spoke out for women’s rights for
Throughout the years, victimization in our society has been explicated to dramatic amounts. This has almost become a social norm in the 21st century. However, the victimization in prisons is rarely known. The organization of the Human Rights Watch is an international and non-governmental organization that conducts information of human rights. Furthermore Humans Rights Watch states, Prisoners struggle to maintain their self respect and emotional equilibrium in facilities that are typically tense, overcrowded, fraught with the potential for violence, cut off from families and communities, and devoid of opportunities for meaningful education, work, or other productive activities(Humans Right Watch).