What are the needs of incarcerated women? Can you think of policies and programs to help them?

Women, Crime, and Justice: Balancing the Scales

Chapter 3: Women convicted of crime and their punishments

Purpose of Chapter 3

• Explore the purposes of sanctions for men and women: • Differences in sentencing for women • Intersection of race and sexual orientation in criminal sentencing.

• Historical overview of corrections for women offenders: • Current statistics of women who are incarcerated • Explore the life of incarcerated women, including those on death row.

• Discuss gender-responsive programming needs for incarcerated women.

• Women serving sentences in the community: • Conflicts experienced when trying to successfully reenter society.

• Review legal issues specific to women: • Struggles to reunite with their children • Restorative justice practices.

• Correctional programming for women.

Women in Institutional Custody: 
 History of Corrections for Women Offenders

• Prior to the mid-1800s, the use of prisons and jails in England and the United States for sentencing women was rare, but increased after the mid-1800s. • During this time period, women were severely neglected and frequently abused, both physically and sexually,

and it was not uncommon for women to become pregnant while incarcerated.

• 1825: Elizabeth Fry wrote about the plight of incarcerated women and inspired reform in the United States and England.

• Reformatory movement.

• Breakthroughs for incarcerated women in the United States: • 1828: A separate building for women is erected at the Sing Sing prison in New York. • 1873: The Indiana Women’s Prison is the first female-only institution.

• Over the next 100 years, prisons opened for women develop into two distinct categories: • Reformatory: Held women, predominately Caucasian, who had committed public order offenses • Custodial: Held women, predominately African-American, who had committed felony violent and property

crimes.

Bureau of Justice: 
 Statistics on Incarcerated Women

• There are currently over 2 million incarcerated in jails and prisons and approximately 1.6 million individuals incarcerated in state and federal prisons alone.

• Both male and female offenders are more likely to be incarcerated between the ages of 25 and 34. • Males: A higher percentage of African-American and Hispanic-American inmates than Caucasian inmates • Females: A higher percentage of Hispanic-American and Caucasian inmates than African-American inmates.

• Females in state prisons are more likely to be incarcerated for nonviolent offenses (e.g., property crimes or drug offenses). • In the federal system, males and females are more likely to be incarcerated for drug offenses as well as weapons

and immigration offenses.

• Incarcerated persons have approximately 1.7 million minor children representing about 2.3% of the total US population. • 147,000 minor children belong to incarcerated mothers. • Since 1991, the number of children under age 18 with a mother in prison has more than doubled.

Women’s Prisons

• Since the 1970s, a greater emphasis has been placed on housing offenders in prison rather than offering rehabilitation. • Prisons today tend to operate under the custodial interrogation model.

• Prisons for women follow the common classification of minimum, medium, and maximum. • Minimum and medium: Considered “campus” style where inmates are housed in a traditional cellblock or

together in cottages, which house anywhere from 35 to 50 women. • Maximum: Inmates are typically held and receive services all within the same building.

• In prison, women must adjust to formal and informal culture. • Failure to follow the inmate code could result in violence.

• Cliques are created based on sexual preferences, religious, ethnicity, personal interests, and the offense the women are incarcerated for.

• Unlike male gangs found in prison, female gangs tend to be less violent, but if violence occurs, it is due to personal issues with another inmate, not to exhibit an allegiance to their gang.

• Female cliques formed in female correctional institutions have been referred to as pseudo-families. • Membership in a female clique is consensual, adopt rules such as the mother figure or sister figure, provide

protection from other inmates, and can provide emotional support.

Co-Correctional Facilities

• Co-correctional facilities refer to institutions that house women and men together in one facility, but do not mirror earlier co-correctional facilities in the nineteenth century.

• The shift from sex-segregated prison to co-correctional facilities began in 1971 when the first co- correctional facility for federal inmates opened in Fort Worth.

• 2011: there were 46 adult state co-correctional facilities and 9 adult federal co-correctional facilities in operation.

• Perceived benefits: • – Potential solution to alleviate problems such as prison overcrowding, provide more comprehensive

services to women prisoners, and viable solution to level the playing field • – Cost effective • – Creation of co-correctional facilities was supported by feminists.

• Research has been limited, but is currently not optimistic about their success in assisting women and not all co-correctional facilities are segregated.

Conditions Specific to 
 Imprisoned Women

• A small handful of women enter prison pregnant and subsequently give birth while incarcerated.

• In 2004, an average of 7% of women who entered state and federal prisons in that year were pregnant.

• Many states require that women be shackled while giving birth, while others, such as California, have implemented bans on this practice.

• Bedford Hills, New York, and Washington State provide opportunities for women inmates to experience humane childbirth and early motherhood.

• In many cases, incarcerated women are forced to give up their babies immediately or within 48 hours and continue serving.

• Only 15 correctional facilities in the United States allow incarcerated mothers to keep their child with them in prison for up to two years.

• Both male and female inmates bring a multitude of health problems into the prison setting, requiring specific and aggressive treatment (e.g., HIV, STD’s, tuberculosis, and hepatitis):

• Inmates found to be HIV positive are not able to obtain access to cutting-edge drugs to help them.

• While in prison, specialized health care and access to routine yearly female health screenings is often limited.

Programming Needs of Women

• Gender-responsive programming refers to programming that meets the specific needs of women.

• Adequate rehabilitation programming for women has often fallen short. • Counseling programs offered to women inmates were often designed and tested only on male inmates. • Women are more likely to suffer from depression and low self-esteem, and are much more likely than men to have

suffered prior sexual abuse. • Many incarcerated women have addiction as well as physical and mental health problems. • Estimates of the proportion of women in prison with mental illness range from 19% to 60%.

• For women, suffering from drug and alcohol abuse often stems from early childhood victimization. • Failure to address substance abuse problems while women are incarcerated, a more significant predictor compared

to their counterparts, has been linked to recidivism upon release.

• Relatively few incarcerated women have access to specialized programs designed to enhance their parenting skills and bonds with their children.

• Job training: Programming in women’s prisons has been gender stereotypic and focuses on what can be characterized as predominately “women’s jobs.”

Transgender Inmates • The US Bureau of Prisons (BOP) examines the case of each transgender inmate entering their facilities and

decides where to assign the inmate.

• BOP also reassess placement of the transgender inmate bi-annually to determine if the inmate has experienced any safety issues as a result of their status.

• BOP requires that transgender inmates have separate shower facilities, but not separate housing units.

• Inmates are assigned to prison based on their biological sex, regardless of whether they were in the midst of a sex change (i.e., they had begun hormone therapies).

• However, if the inmate had undergone a full sex change, then the inmate is assigned to a prison based on their new sex.

• Compared to non-transgender inmates, both male and female transgender inmates were more likely to report being sexually assaulted.

• Transgender inmates are rarely supported medically in regards to sustaining their gender identity.

• The decision to grant the continuation of hormone therapy for a transgender inmate is left up to the Medical Director of the facility.

Women and the Death Penalty • Historically, women are rarely sentenced to death for committing a homicide and are also less likely than

men to be sentenced to death.

• According to the Bureau of Justice, out of 3,082 prisoners sentenced to death in 2011, only 62 were female.

• Apart from a gender bias, there are also racial disparities of those women actually sentenced to death. Currently, there are 40 Caucasians and 14 African-Americans on death row.

• Female offenders who are sentenced to capital punishment are more likely to have committed murders intra-racially.

• Female offenders on death row are also more likely to murder significant others such as family members or close intimates compared to their male counterparts. • – Some researchers have stated that the murdering of close intimates by females is sometimes due to battered

women syndrome.

• Researchers have reported that approximately half of women on death row committed the crime with another person, typically a male, and the co-defendant received a sentence other than death.

Community Corrections and Reentry

• Ex-offenders’ ability to reintegrate successfully is hindered by numerous obstacles:

• Obtaining employment

• Acquiring housing • Being admitted to higher education • Obtaining treatment for mental health issues, and drug and alcohol addiction • Obtaining adequate health care and finding support for serious social and medical problems.

• Securing housing is an especially stressful endeavor for female ex-offenders due to the fact they are not only trying to obtain housing for themselves, but also for their children. • Most subsidized housing programs do not allow children. • Ex-offenders may find that the only place they can find housing is in impoverished neighborhoods,

decreasing the opportunity to find employment. • Status as a convicted drug offender often results in denial of federally assisted housing, impacting

thousands of female ex-offenders.

• After long-term imprisonment, many ex-offenders find they lack the skills to search for employment, do not have pro-social contacts, and many employers are reluctant to hire them.

Legal Issues and Reunification

• In 1996, a new welfare program was established by the federal government: • Ex-offenders with drug-related felony convictions are now banned, for a lifetime, from receiving any

form of welfare benefits, including food stamps.

• This has greatly impacted female offenders, especially women of color, since they are more likely to be incarcerated for drug convictions.

• In 2002, it was reported the new law had impacted approximately 92,000 women. Over time, the number is expected to increase.

• When released from prison, females are often very motivated to regain custody of their child(ren), but legally regaining custody can be an uphill battle. • The Adoption and Safe Families Act in 1997.

• Upon release, mothers face a host of stressors in the role as a parent: • For example, being reunited with children they may have lost custody of, fear of losing custody, concern

for the emotional welfare of their child, and finding housing for the family.

Correctional Programming for Women

• Altering the “in-prison experience” will assist women with struggles faced while incarcerated and upon reentry into society (Petersilia, 2003): • The following few months post-release from prison is the critical time period that ex-offenders are most

at risk for relapse and recidivism (Visher, Yahner, and La Vigne, 2010).

• To lower rates of drug relapse and criminal recidivism, therapeutic community programs need to be offered within prison and in the community upon release.

• Reentry programs need to be designed with women specifically in mind: • Coming to terms with prior abuse (sexual, physical, and/or mental) is critical both within prison and the

community for all races and ethnicities.

• Restorative justice: • Victim–offender mediation or reconciliation programming.

• One-size-fits-all approach to reforming ex-offenders is not likely to provide the opportunity for all offenders to succeed, but rather just a select few: • Treatment programs must be sensitive to cultural, class, and sex differences.

Summary • Gender disparity is still an issue in sentencing today.

• Gender disparity in sentencing was first identified by scholars in the 1970s. • Considered to be more influential than other extra-legal factors, such as race/ethnicity. • Women are less likely to be sentenced to prison and are more likely to receive shorter sentences

than men. • Women who are incarcerated are often disproportionately women of color. • Both chivalry thesis and Focal Concerns Theory offer perspectives on this subject.

• Female offenders face numerous challenges both in prison and upon release.

• Rehabilitation programming must address the needs specific to women.

• Mental and physical health of women who are in prison, especially those pregnant, need to be taken seriously.

• Laws that inhibit the ability of women to successfully reintegrate into society need to be changed.