Women In Prison Essay

Prisons serve the same reason for women and men, they are also tools of social control. The imprisonment of women in the U.S. has always been a different experience then what men go through. The proportion of women in prison has always differed from that of men by a large amount. Women have traditionally been sent to prison for different reasons, and once in prison they endure different conditions of incarceration. Women incarcerated tend to need different needs for physical and mental health issues. When a mother is incarcerated it tends to play an impact on the children also. Over time the prison system has created different gender responsive programs to help with the different needs of female offenders. After being released from prison

Elizabeth Fry worked with the Newgate prison in London. Thanks to Fry and many other women reformers in America aided to the significant changes in the incarceration of women, which lead to the development of separate institutions for women. The Indiana Women’s Prison was known for being the first stand-alone and maximum-security prison for women in the United States. When it first opened in 1873 the facility housed about 16 women, then by the year 1940, 23 other states opened up facility specifically for women. During the 20th century two types of prisons were being used to house women offenders; reformatories and custodial institutions. Reformatory was a new concept in incarceration, these institutions were used to rehabilitate women, while custodial institutions were designed after male institutions, and these types were used to house women offenders who committed felony acts and property-related crimes. From being housed in an attic to be placed in a facility under the control of men to final gaining their own facility women that are incarcerated have had a tough

There have been several different court cases that have challenged the practices that are conducted in the women’s prison. These cases include Barefield v. Leach, Glover v. Johnson, Todaro v. Ward, Cooper v. Morin, and Carnterino v. Wilson. Barefield v. Leach occurred in 1974 was important for women because it set the standard through which the courts could measure whether women received a lower standard of treatment compared to men. Todaro v. Ward followed in 1977 this case declared that the failure to provide access to health care for incarcerated women was a violation of the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Glover v. Johnson was next in 1979 it held that the state must provide the same opportunities for education, rehabilitation, and vocational training for females as provided for male offenders. Finally the last major court case that challenged the practices in a women’s prison is Cooper v. Morin which occurred in 1980. This particular case held that the equal protection clause prevents prison administrators from justifying the disparate treatment of women on the grounds that provided such services for women is inconvenient. At the end of the day theses court case stated that “males and females must be treated equally unless there is a substantial reason which requires a distinction to be made”. (Canterino v.