Feminist Women In Criminal Justice

Women in the criminal justice have been treated unfair. They have become social parasites in America. There are factors that lead to the rise of women being treated unjust, this portion of this research paper will examine these factors. According to the Sentencing Project (2007), the last two decades with how women are treated in the justice system has changed. As a result, drug sentencing laws, increased police officers in troubled communities has an effect on post-conviction, and reentry. Thus, this drastic change has led more than one million women behind bars in America. About twenty-percent of these incarcerated women are confined in federal and state prisons. This is an arising issue because women now make up for 7% of the population
at the state and federal prisons (Sentencing Project, 2007). Women have been portrayed as if they have received equal rights in America. However, that is not true. People have been bemused on the ongoing issues that women face in America. According to Wormer & Bartollas (2011), the third wave group of women were exposing the disparity among women in America. The Third-wave feminists, were women of color who objected to the idea of white women speaking on issues from their perspective without including minority women with such issues. Their overlying umbrella of societal issues was coined intersectionalities which expose inequality of race, sex, gender, and age. Women have experienced a great deal of oppression (Wormer & Bartollas, 2011). Even way back in the late 18th century, women were not allowed to jury duty.
This right was granted in 1957. Moreover, women were still deprived of many rights. When the prison system came to be, men were not the only ones that faced hardship. Women were violated sexually, their cells were overcrowded, and were beaten by the guards. Feminist Criminology which is a movement led by women has brought adverse attention to the rights and harsh treatment of women in America. They have advocate that women should speak about their experiences and challenges that they face in society and behind bars. This feminist movement has stated that societal factors are a major issue on how and why women are treated differently in society (Wormer & Bartollas, 2011). The notion that this is a man’s world, this is how the government rules in America and excluding the women
simultaneously. Moreover, since 1985, women in prison has increased and doubled the rate at which men are incarcerated. In fact, the rate of women being incarcerated versus men is 404% vs. 209% since 1985. Lest we are ignoring these statistics to focus on other issues - women are facing harsh sentences in the criminal justice system. For example, in 2003 women were 29% vs 19% of men likely incarcerated for a drug offense. On the other hand, Afro-American women represent 30% of all females incarcerated. Nevertheless, black women are more than likely three times incarcerated and sent to prison than white women (Sentencing Project, 2007). With this in mind, we can all see that women as whole are at a disadvantage in the criminal justice system. Sadly, as stated in the Sentencing Project (2007), 73.1% of women locked up since 2005 have a mental issue. More than half of women that are incarcerated reported that they were sexually and physically abuse prior to being incarcerated. As a result, many women are depressed and disoriented. More revealing, majority of women in prison had not completed high school. Amid these factors, majority of women in prison were on welfare and had a $600 monthly income when they were incarcerated and convicted for crimes such as drugs (Sentencing Project, 2007). However, the real issue with women incarcerated is reentry.
Women are not only incarcerated and treated harsh in our justice system, they are mothers, daughters, and human beings who are not represented equally in the justice system. Many women who are released from prison are mothers. According to Perry (2016), the understanding of parenting can be difficult for women because they have to find housing, a job, reentering into society, and struggling to remain independent without the use of drugs. It is even a challenge for women who come from low socio-economic backgrounds. Some believe as stated in Perry (2016), women are sentenced longer in prison because of their objection to live out social traditional roles. The roles that women are supposed to live are marriage and childbearing (Perry,
2016). Meanwhile, women are serving prison sentences for non-violent offenses, the number of women incarcerated in 2000 peaked at one million. According to Covington (2003), women are invisible and that society looks and care to men. This is not a demonstration of equal treatment of the Fourteenth Amendment. The fourteenth amendment guaranteed people specific rights and protections as citizens in America. Furthermore, racial inequality is a factor when sentencing female offenders. Afro- American women are affected by this disparity often. As can be seen, the justice system is willing to imprison women. Hence, when women are reentered back into society they struggle. Women are already felons; thus it is much harder for them to adjust in a society that frown upon people who are felons. Recidivism is almost a guaranteed entry because women compared to men do not have community resources to assist them in the reentry process (Covington, 2003). Unfortunately, this will continue until there is reform in the criminal justice system for men, women, and juveniles in America.

Gregory Trompe
Recommendations
1. We need to create viable initiatives for women while they are in prison to assure that they will be able to adapt when they are released. We should implement technology and software programs to expose and train incarcerated women how to work and fix technical systems. This would be great because many of them cannot find job and do not have an education to be hired at certain jobs. In addition, we should incorporate guaranteed internships for certain programs that they can have access to upon release from the penal system.
2. Provide opportunities for families to be directly involved with the women while they are incarcerated. Create programs that will allow them to reform so they can get their kids again when they are released. Allow them to have abstract therapy and counseling that focuses on their fears, weaknesses, and dark areas of their lives.
3. Upon release to community supervision offenders should attend and participate in women ministry and peer-mentoring program. This program will be non-profit, pay offenders a bi-weekly stipend of $800. The program will be funded by the state corrections agency. As a peer-mentor, the women will have to drug test weekly, attend seminars on social and academic development. All of the women will be required to participate in mentoring juvenile girls ranging from 12-21 for 5 days a week with a minimum of 8 hours.