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It would be impossible to understand women’s imprisonment without looking back to its history. During the sixteenth century English jails were in awful conditions, there was no segregation of inmates. Men, women, children, the mentally ill, physically sick, the serious offenders and the petty offenders were all housed in the same place (Moynahan and Stuart, Pg. 4). Slavery and the Colonial Penal System were a period when America was being colonized; an era when not only the rules of religious and secular beliefs rule, but also of the rules of slavery. Blacks were being sold to slavery.
Issues of Social and Economic Justice Throughout my experience in the Panhandle Promise Project, I had the opportunity to closely examine the injustice many of the clients experience based on their race, economic status, or in the criminal justice system. Since the starting of America’s war on drugs longer sentencing for drug offences that in violent crimes, there has been an increase of the number of minorities who are currently in prison (Wormer, Kaplan, and Juby (2012). For the children having a parent incarcerated affects them in several different ways, such as having a higher risk of being place in foster care (Andersen and Wildeman, 2014) , poor school performance (Eddy et al., 2014), food insecurity (Turney, 2014c), antisocial behavioral problems (Jarjoura et al., 2011f). For women who have been release from prison new barriers limit the assistance they will received, the ineligibility for food stamps (Travis, 2002), and in some cases the loss of their children custody (Welsh, 2014b).
In this article Nagel discusses an era of “the new Jim Crow” where racism ad sexism is appernt in the United States jail system. Nagel uses statistics to show how the prison population is growing to be black women and more gilrs than there are men. Nagel disccuses ways inpoliticans look at racial discrepancy ehrn sentencing. Her end argument is that it is time to transform our jail and justice system so that a black and female life can be considered a human life in the United States. This academic journal article will help support my argument that most of the politicians use the fact that these immigrants or people of color are dangerous and need to be kept off the streets as a political campaign to keep the white minority “safe”.
Women have been treated as if they were “non-existent” throughout prisons, but that is changing as more women enter
The article “Jail Is Sinking Families into Poverty, and Women Pay the Most” discusses the situation of Carla Gonzales, who is a part of a study of 300 families who are dealing with the crippling debt associated with their loved ones’ criminal convictions and incarcerations, and her family after the incarceration of her brother. Many of these families, especially the women, go into extreme debt trying to pay for lawyer fees, court fees, costs of prison visitations, and basic necessities (commissary items and phone calls) for the individual incarcerated. This debt also affects inmates after they are released as they often rely on their families, who are themselves sometimes evicted or denied housing, to find work and housing. Alicia Walters,
Angela Davis demonstrates the ongoing violent abuse as she quotes a report on sexual maltreatment in women’s prisons, “We found that male correctional employees have vaginally, anally, and orally raped female prisoners and sexually assaulted and abused them” (Davis 78). However disturbing this blunt sexual contact that male officers take with the vulnerable prisoners may be, the officers adopt even more severe tactics to harass and abuse the women as they often utilize “mandatory pat-frisks or room searches to grope women 's breasts, buttocks, and vaginal areas...” (Davis 79). To add insult to injury, women are virtually incapable of escaping from their abuser(s). Prison employees upkeep their inappropriate behavior as it is believed they will “rarely be held accountable, administratively or criminally” (Davis 78).
Studies have shown that women have reported histories of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, more than men which contribute to their mental instability. In 2005, 73.1 percent of women in state prisons had a mental health problem (Daniel, 2007). 80 percent of incarcerated women meet the criteria for at least one lifetime psychiatric disorder (Daniel, 2007). Substance abuse, dependence, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression appear to be the most common mental health problems for female inmates (Daniel, 2007). Incarcerated women have also shown a strong link between childhood abuse and adult mental health problems.
Deliver a Speech on Incarceration 1 What percentage of U.S. adults are currently incarcerated? What is their demographic make-up (age, sex, race, class)? A percentage of 0.5% of the United States population is incarcerated.
There has been a rise in the amount of female inmate. With this, there should be more funding looking into helping women while they are in prison, however, this is not the case. For example, women’s health needs are not being met. To add, some women within the prison system are struggling with mental health issues, but they are just given pills that keep them dosed up (Tichavsky, 2016). These people need to be receiving proper therapy sessions, and medication that can help them better handle these issues.
When categorizing female prisoners the numbers of points given decreases when compared to males due to the previous problem of “overclassification”. 3. List some of the special problems faced by the female inmates? a. Some issues faced by the female inmates are health care, vocational training and work opportunities, drug and alcohol abuse, potential sexual abuse from staff, or simply having problems relating to their children. 4.
Women of color are the most targeted, prosecuted, and imprisoned women in the country and rapidly increasing their population within the prison systems. According to Nicholas Freudenberg, 11 out of every 1000 women will end up incarcerated in their lifetime, the average age being 35, while only five of them are white, 15 are Latinas, and 36 are black. These two groups alone make up 70 percent of women in prison, an astonishing rate compared to the low percentage comprise of within the entire female population in the country (1895). Most of their offenses are non-violent, but drug related, and often these women come from oppressive and violent backgrounds, where many of their struggles occurred directly within the home and from their own family.
Along with African-American/Blacks, the Hispanic population is underrepresented at both the state and federal levels while the Caucasian/White population are underrepresented (Walker, Spohn, & DeLone, 2018). This essay will discuss multiple different races and ethinicities to regard their population make up within the prison system. Although race and ethnicity relate to one another they are different. According to Walker et al. (2018), race is defined as the, “major biological divisions of mankind,” for
Private Prisons Many people in America have no idea that there are different types of prison systems. The two different types of prisons include state-ran and private. State-ran prisons are prisons owned and operated by the local, state, or federal government; however, private prisons are prisons in which individuals are incarcerated by a third-party organization that is under contract with a government agency. Private prisons are funded by the government and have the unique ability to do whatever they want.
According to the text, more than one million women in the United States “are under some form of criminal justice supervision” (1). Females behind prison walls have outweighed men over the years since 1985. In regards to gender difference, 73% of women have returned to prisons on technical violations versus men. Additionally, capital punishment towards women is an example of how women are viewed in the justice system has changed over time. For example, “a total 167 death sentences have been imposed upon females offenders from 1973 through late-2010.”
A study shows that 10% of inmates are victims of sexual abuse while incarcerated, half are committed by their guard. Prisoner abuse is justifiable because the prisoners are already getting punished for what they did. Also because it is not morally right to take advantage of your power or authority. Finally because the abuse could affect the prisoner mentally and/or physically. Therefore I am strongly against prisoner abuse.
