Female Offenders Research Paper
I have chosen to do my final project writing assignment on female offenders. Today, females are the fastest growing offenders of the prison population. Some of the attributing factors to this increase in female prison population is an increase in violent behavior by females, increased substance abuse and an increased awareness by law enforcement toward female offenders. Female offenders may have many differences from male offenders in their risks and needs while in the system however they share similar demographic characteristics as incarcerated males. Female and male offenders are both primarily from a lower social and economic status, they lack in education, have poor employment history and are comprised of mostly minorities. Some more important characteristics of female offenders are they were most likely involved in a previous relationship with their victims and or committed crimes with or at the demand of males. Females face many challenges in prison, deprivation of liberty, lack of autonomy, concerns for personal security and loss of heterosexual relationships. These are just the basic stressors that female inmates feel, but it has been
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discovered that there is an even added set of stressors that female inmates go through. Incarcerated women feel that there are no outlets to express their emotions, which they were so use to expressing regularly on the outside. Women feel a greater sense of identity loss then other prison populations because they sate that they cannot deal with the treatment of being stripped searched, their mail being read, and family visits being supervised as easy as other prison populations because they feel they are raised with a sense of duty to keep such things as their bodies, love life, and family concealed from others. These challenges, along with the fear of their mental and physical health falling apart, add to the decreasing ability to think positively about themselves. Another and yet probably the biggest challenge and stressor faced by female offenders is the separation from their children. This is the most detrimental when it comes to incarcerated women’s mental health. The high cost of phone calls and visiting the women in prison leads to usually only receiving mail from children, this limited contact creates strain, leading to depression in incarcerated women. This may lead the women to have further detachment from family, which in turn causes children of prisoners to have problems in school, disciplinary problems and can even cause depression in those children. It is common that the incarcerated women population does not know how to deal with all of these stressors, especially upon arrival to prison. Depending on the female offenders length in sentencing usually determines how long it will take to, or if she will ever learn to cope with these stressors. From book 2, chapter 20, “Owen (1998) proposed that most women serving ten years or more go through an adjustment phase where they rebel prior to settling down to do their time.” It is also thought that most women in prison serving life terms tend to live day to day, not focusing on the length of their term. Those women prefer isolation rather than create trouble for staff or use drugs, which is quite different from the norms one would think of for males serving life in prison. Like their male counter parts, women in prison also go by a set of unwritten codes and rules while incarcerated. For some women this is a way to cope with the stressors of prison because these rules are centered around interpersonal relations and about how they should be treating other female inmates and staff. Other incarcerated women seek educational resources, training and programs to help pass time while taking their mind off of prison life and better preparing themselves for the outside world at the same time.
Some female offenders believe having relationships with other incarcerated women help them adjust to prison by giving them a sense of emotional trust and the feeling of a close relationship that they were used to having. Another great avenue that can help women adjust to prison life is through religion and spirituality. This may help them deal with such issues as guilt and help them forgive themselves for crimes they have committed, and also allows them to gain social relationships with other inmates and religious volunteers. One more way incarcerated women may find it easier to adjust to prison life would be through a prison job or service project, this can give them a sense of purpose while incarcerated, while at the same time it can take them away from the general population, giving them some escape from the stressors of prison.
Although female and male offenders may seem to have suffered from many of the same types of issues like abuse, mental health issues and substance abuse issues, female offenders however experienced these in different forms and ways than their male counterparts. Therefore incarcerated women require different forms and approaches to treat these issues in order to overcome and grow beyond them. This is the biggest problem for female offenders because most prisons have yet to facilitate special treatments for them and they have to go through treatments that were originally designed for male offenders. There are however a few prisons that are currently addressing the issue of the female offender, and many that know of it but do not have the means to fulfill their needs at the moment.
Some prisons have recognized the issue of pregnant or incarcerated female parents and are developing new programs and strategies to deal with this problem. For example, in California there is a program called Family Foundation which provides pregnant or female offenders that are parents with help for relationships, life skills, psychosocial and substance abuse needs through a one-year parole program making reentry to the community more successful. There are even fewer prisons with inmate cells set up to allow pregnant women to have their children in prison and care for them while they are in prison. I believe if a woman is convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison, she should serve her prison sentence whether she is pregnant or not, thus creating a need to have these special types of cells for pregnant women inmates. In the future if we see a noticeable increase of pregnant women being sent to prison then I think we should build a central prison facility designed strictly for this issue and continue to send pregnant women to prison.
In a Smart Justice survey conducted by Sinead Hanks, there was an overwhelming amount of the public who felt that women should not be sent to prison instead they should be deterred to alternative programs and drug treatment facilities.
Over three-quarters of the 1,006 survey respondents supported drug and alcohol treatment (77%) and almost three quarters supported compulsory work in the community (72%) and counseling (74%). Over two in three (67%) said prison was not likely to reduce offending and three in four (73%) did not think mothers of young children should be sent to prison. Another great point made to support this issue is the fact that it is way cheaper to treat a woman for her underlying issues rather than to imprison her and have the government care for her children while she is in
prison.
My personal views on female offenders are much like the public views on them. I chose this topic because I believe there are a lot of issues with sending females to prison, especially when children are involved. Also, there are many issues with the treatment incarcerated women are being given to help with the underlying issues they’re suffering from. First of all, no matter if a female offender is pregnant or if she has kids, if she commits a really bad crime that can afford her life in prison, then I think that there is no doubt she belongs in prison. On the other hand, if a female commits a crime related to abuse or drug use / substance abuse, then she should be sent through a series of alternative programs and drug treatment / substance abuse facilities before being sent to prison.
Incarcerated females should also be recognized nationwide in every prison that their needs are different and that they require special treatment than incarcerated males. This treatment should be made mandatory in every prison. Yes some prisons may have more available resources to meet such demands, but for the sake of bettering this country, all prisons should be able to have these resources. Furthermore, I believe every prison should be rehabilitating its inmates at the best of its abilities because these inmates are going directly back into the communities of our nation. If we do all we can to rehabilitate female offenders while incarcerated and even follow up with more rehabilitation programs once female offenders are released from prison, then we will end up with lower recidivism rates, less children in foster care, and safer communities.
Citations
1. Information about the survey conducted by Sinead Hanks was found at: http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/smart%20justice%20-%20public%20say%20stop%20locking%20up%20so%20many%20women.pdf
2. All other information in this paper was from book 1 and book 2.
discovered that there is an even added set of stressors that female inmates go through. Incarcerated women feel that there are no outlets to express their emotions, which they were so use to expressing regularly on the outside. Women feel a greater sense of identity loss then other prison populations because they sate that they cannot deal with the treatment of being stripped searched, their mail being read, and family visits being supervised as easy as other prison populations because they feel they are raised with a sense of duty to keep such things as their bodies, love life, and family concealed from others. These challenges, along with the fear of their mental and physical health falling apart, add to the decreasing ability to think positively about themselves. Another and yet probably the biggest challenge and stressor faced by female offenders is the separation from their children. This is the most detrimental when it comes to incarcerated women’s mental health. The high cost of phone calls and visiting the women in prison leads to usually only receiving mail from children, this limited contact creates strain, leading to depression in incarcerated women. This may lead the women to have further detachment from family, which in turn causes children of prisoners to have problems in school, disciplinary problems and can even cause depression in those children. It is common that the incarcerated women population does not know how to deal with all of these stressors, especially upon arrival to prison. Depending on the female offenders length in sentencing usually determines how long it will take to, or if she will ever learn to cope with these stressors. From book 2, chapter 20, “Owen (1998) proposed that most women serving ten years or more go through an adjustment phase where they rebel prior to settling down to do their time.” It is also thought that most women in prison serving life terms tend to live day to day, not focusing on the length of their term. Those women prefer isolation rather than create trouble for staff or use drugs, which is quite different from the norms one would think of for males serving life in prison. Like their male counter parts, women in prison also go by a set of unwritten codes and rules while incarcerated. For some women this is a way to cope with the stressors of prison because these rules are centered around interpersonal relations and about how they should be treating other female inmates and staff. Other incarcerated women seek educational resources, training and programs to help pass time while taking their mind off of prison life and better preparing themselves for the outside world at the same time.
Some female offenders believe having relationships with other incarcerated women help them adjust to prison by giving them a sense of emotional trust and the feeling of a close relationship that they were used to having. Another great avenue that can help women adjust to prison life is through religion and spirituality. This may help them deal with such issues as guilt and help them forgive themselves for crimes they have committed, and also allows them to gain social relationships with other inmates and religious volunteers. One more way incarcerated women may find it easier to adjust to prison life would be through a prison job or service project, this can give them a sense of purpose while incarcerated, while at the same time it can take them away from the general population, giving them some escape from the stressors of prison.
Although female and male offenders may seem to have suffered from many of the same types of issues like abuse, mental health issues and substance abuse issues, female offenders however experienced these in different forms and ways than their male counterparts. Therefore incarcerated women require different forms and approaches to treat these issues in order to overcome and grow beyond them. This is the biggest problem for female offenders because most prisons have yet to facilitate special treatments for them and they have to go through treatments that were originally designed for male offenders. There are however a few prisons that are currently addressing the issue of the female offender, and many that know of it but do not have the means to fulfill their needs at the moment.
Some prisons have recognized the issue of pregnant or incarcerated female parents and are developing new programs and strategies to deal with this problem. For example, in California there is a program called Family Foundation which provides pregnant or female offenders that are parents with help for relationships, life skills, psychosocial and substance abuse needs through a one-year parole program making reentry to the community more successful. There are even fewer prisons with inmate cells set up to allow pregnant women to have their children in prison and care for them while they are in prison. I believe if a woman is convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison, she should serve her prison sentence whether she is pregnant or not, thus creating a need to have these special types of cells for pregnant women inmates. In the future if we see a noticeable increase of pregnant women being sent to prison then I think we should build a central prison facility designed strictly for this issue and continue to send pregnant women to prison.
In a Smart Justice survey conducted by Sinead Hanks, there was an overwhelming amount of the public who felt that women should not be sent to prison instead they should be deterred to alternative programs and drug treatment facilities.
Over three-quarters of the 1,006 survey respondents supported drug and alcohol treatment (77%) and almost three quarters supported compulsory work in the community (72%) and counseling (74%). Over two in three (67%) said prison was not likely to reduce offending and three in four (73%) did not think mothers of young children should be sent to prison. Another great point made to support this issue is the fact that it is way cheaper to treat a woman for her underlying issues rather than to imprison her and have the government care for her children while she is in
prison.
My personal views on female offenders are much like the public views on them. I chose this topic because I believe there are a lot of issues with sending females to prison, especially when children are involved. Also, there are many issues with the treatment incarcerated women are being given to help with the underlying issues they’re suffering from. First of all, no matter if a female offender is pregnant or if she has kids, if she commits a really bad crime that can afford her life in prison, then I think that there is no doubt she belongs in prison. On the other hand, if a female commits a crime related to abuse or drug use / substance abuse, then she should be sent through a series of alternative programs and drug treatment / substance abuse facilities before being sent to prison.
Incarcerated females should also be recognized nationwide in every prison that their needs are different and that they require special treatment than incarcerated males. This treatment should be made mandatory in every prison. Yes some prisons may have more available resources to meet such demands, but for the sake of bettering this country, all prisons should be able to have these resources. Furthermore, I believe every prison should be rehabilitating its inmates at the best of its abilities because these inmates are going directly back into the communities of our nation. If we do all we can to rehabilitate female offenders while incarcerated and even follow up with more rehabilitation programs once female offenders are released from prison, then we will end up with lower recidivism rates, less children in foster care, and safer communities.
Citations
1. Information about the survey conducted by Sinead Hanks was found at: http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/smart%20justice%20-%20public%20say%20stop%20locking%20up%20so%20many%20women.pdf
2. All other information in this paper was from book 1 and book 2.