Gender is one dimension of social status that determines how an identical behaviour is differently labeled. The justice system reinforces patriarchal authority and therefore systems of inequality. Just Mercy brings attention to the phenomena that sees the majority of women incarcerated for nonviolent, low level drug crimes, or property crimes. Women like Marsha Colbey are put on death row after unpredictable circumstances and lack of means to access resources. In the case of Marsha, she was convicted to life imprisonment after her son was stillborn due to a miscarriage. Her poverty and past of drug abuse framed her as a bad mother and labeled her as a murderer despite her efforts to revive the child.
Women are in prison for minor offences and have been sentenced for extended amounts of time. Current sentencing laws are based
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Gender pathways to law breaking are dominated by females who had suffered from physical and/or sexual abuse, labeled as troublesome (juveniles), neglected, powerless to have agency. As a response to the grim upbringing many women run away and become involved in illegal drugs distribution, prostitution, and are consequently arrested and prosecuted “for their own protection” (Meda Chelsey-Lind, 2008). Most of the women who are in prison lived with children at the time of the arrest and therefore leaving them more vulnerable and susceptible for the rest of their lives. Gender inequality in the justice system is so much more than just about the way women are given a different punishment than men, it is about the reality of women’s lives and the contexts in which women live. Gender bias in the justice system include the generalization of how men and women are supposedly behaving, one strong and powerful, and the other submissive and weak. Sentencing decision and eventual custody of children is judged by double