Pseudo families in women's prisons

First Peer’s Post:

Alvin

How has fragmentation of corrections among federal, state, and local governments affected the quality of services for female officers?

Despite the opening of the corrections field generally women beginning in the 1970s, it was during the opening years of the twenty-first century that women made the most substantial gains. Yet female corrections professionals still face numerous challenges. Females tend to leave the corrections field at a higher rate than males. It is difficult to determine how much of these higher turnover results from entry into a field that was historically male-dominated, especially given what the body of research tells us about stress for corrections professionals, particularly those new to the field.

Women have traditionally adapted to such environments in a few different ways. One is “going along to get along,” in which females play along with sexual humor in particular. Another is to become “more male” by shedding traditionally “female” attributes such as empathy. But now some disturbing statistics raise the question of how the historical power imbalance between males and females may be affecting the behavior of some female corrections professionals.

The entire corrections community bears the responsibility for identifying and resolving the root cause these issues.

If they commit similar crimes, should women receive the same sentences as men do?

Yes, depending on the severity of the crime. While the percentage of males incarcerated for offences always exceed that of women, women were more likely to be sentenced to jail for robbery and assault than were men; men were more likely than women to be incarcerated for property crime. This suggest that women may be sanctioned more harshly when their behavior violates sex-role stereotypes. Finally, comparisons of sentence lengths indicate that prison terms of males and female do not differ.

If men and women are being treated differently by prosecutors and judges, what should be done about it? That question should be left to policymakers, but the solution is not necessarily to lock up a lot more women, but perhaps to reconsider the decision-making criteria that are applied to men. About one in every fifty American men is currently behind bars, and we could think about gender disparity as perhaps being a key dimension of that problem.

How might the unequal treatment of male and female offenders be rationalized?

The criminal justice system’s greater leniency and chivalry toward females may explain a portion of the lower offender rates of women in comparison to men. Likewise, the justice system’s tendency to be relatively less lenient and chivalrous toward females today may help explain recent increases in levels of female arrests. Although there appear to be relatively small differences between adult women and men in likelihood of arrest or conviction, women defendants do appear to have a lower probability of being jailed or imprisoned. This difference appears to be related to a variety of factors: pregnancy, responsibilities for small children, the greater likelihood to demonstrate remorse, as well as perceptions that women are less dangerous and more amenable to rehabilitation.

Imagine that you are the administrator of women's correctional center. What problems would you expect to encounter?

I would be expected to encounter the following: Women in the contemporary prison face many problems; some resulting from their lives prior to imprisonment, others resulting from their imprisonment itself. Women in prison have experienced victimization, unstable family life, school and work failure, and substance abuse and mental health problems. Social factors that marginalize their participation in mainstream society and contribute to the rising number of women in prison include poverty, minority group member, single motherhood, and homelessness. While in U.S. prisons, women, like prisoners throughout the world, face specific pains and deprivations arising directly from their imprisonment.

Criminologists have argued that the prison system is ill-equipped to deal with these problems and that these issues are better managed outside the punitive environment of the prison. Without attention to these issues, women are often released from prison unprepared to manage their preexisting problems as well as those created by their imprisonment. There are several critical problems faced by women in prison; most are unmet in the prison environment.

How would you handle these problems?

I would develop a diversity of options for dealing with the gender and culturally specific problems of female offenders. Gender-specific services would incorporate physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, and sociopolitical issues. Gender-responsive supervision and program approaches would focus on issues such as cross-gender supervision, appropriate relationships between staff and offenders, parity in programming, and appropriate interventions. There is also a need for gender-responsive (and culturally relevant) classification tools, assessment instruments, treatment plans, and aftercare.

Based on the characteristics of women offenders, their pathways to crime, how they differ from male offenders, and how the system responds to them differently, the need for gender-responsive treatment and services seems clear.

What parental rights should prisoners have?

While it may seem logical that a parent who is incarcerated in either prison or jail would lose their parental rights while locked up, that’s not necessarily the case.

A prisoner may lose many different civil rights while serving time for a crime they’ve committed, but visitation and parental rights aren’t included on the list. Many times, it takes the custodial parent going to court and requesting that a judge legally terminate the incarcerated one’s visitation or parental rights for them to no longer be entitled to see their child.

Although a parent who locked up is legally entitled to continue having a say in their child’s life, a spokesperson with the Center of Children of Incarcerated Parents (CCIP) warns that this is a mere technicality on paper.

CCIP warns that prisoners often find themselves in a disadvantageous position for maintaining lines of communication between them and their kids. There are currently no existing laws requiring a non-incarcerated parent to bring their child to a jail for visitation with their other parent. While a prisoner could hire an attorney to file a lawsuit to request visits at jail, it may be cost-prohibitive to do so.

Should children be allowed to live in correctional facilities with their mothers?

Prisons aren’t intended or equipped to enable young children to thrive. But most women in prison are there for one year or less, and children have the right not to be separated from their parents (unless for their own protection).

Evidence shows the quality of a young child’s bond with their mother affects early social and emotional development. This needs to be weighed against children’s other rights and interests, and long-term outcomes for children who live in adult prisons, about with little is known.

What problems would this practice create?

Most prison nurseries in the U.S. are only open to mothers who give birth to their children while they are serving their sentence. In most states, women who give birth prior to their incarceration are not eligible, though New York is an exception. Housing an infant in a prison nursery cost approximately $24,000 per year. However, the cost can be reduced through partnerships between prisons and local nonprofits, volunteer efforts, or government grants.

An Iranian study revealed some of the risks for a child in that environment. Even though the mothers had separated units, the yard and recess are shared with other prisoners. Participants of the study reported that children were cursed at and pushed during these times. The study also found children can have a lack of resources in prisons environment such as bedding, clothing, and food.

How do the social structures of male and female correctional institutions differ?

There’s little resemblance between men prisons and women prisons. The main difference between men and women correctional institutions is security level. A prison security level dictates the type and number of safety measures used to keep the public protected from the inmates and the inmates protected from one another. For example, very few women prisons have tall stone walls, armed guard towers or razor wire barriers. Women prisons tend to resemble men’s minimum or medium security prisons. They often look like a college campus or a camp, with inmates housed dormitories or cottages rather than cellblocks.

Why do you think they differ in these ways?

Women prisons are typically less violent then men’s prisons. There are fewer violent incidences between inmates and also between inmates and their prison guards. For this reason, female inmates tend to have more freedom. They can usually walk around the prison in order to attend classes or programs, eat in the dining hall, receive visitors, exercise or attend chapel services.

Second Peer’s Post:

Dorethea

How has fragmentation of corrections among federal, state, and local governments affected the quality of services for female officers? Responses which indicated that in certain situations inmates felt the presence of women staff might create some potential problems included the 64.5% of the in mates who felt male staff controlled disturbances better than female, and that men are more effective in dealing with crisis situations. There have been several arguments over the years as to why women should not be employed as correctional officers. Reasons for the opposition include a belief that women are physically weaker than men and can’t hold their own in a fight with male inmates a fear that women could fall prey to an inmate and be raped by those sexually deprived and predatory male inmates. Lastly, an overall assumption that women are mentally weak and unable to handle the mental challenges of working in an all-male prison environment. The majority of excuses for the failure to hire women in the correctional setting could be the old school, “good old boys club” mentality from the 1970’s era. During the career in the corrections industry, there have been more issues dealing with disrespect from male supervisors than I ever while working any male inmate population. Women have been referred to as: “honey” and “sweetie” and “sexy” and “man hater” by male supervisors and coworkers, not inmates. There have been coworker’s that stated that women had no business being employed in the position, because women did not belong in law enforcement. Female correctional officers face many obstacles in their positions, many of which arise from male colleagues. The mentality of “good old boys club” has lessened over the years, but it is far from eliminated. Research supports the fact that female correctional officers are extremely effective in their positions. The reality is that women excel in both the correctional and patrol setting and bring tools and advantages to the job that their male counterparts cannot.

If they commit similar crimes, should women receive the same sentences as men do? If you are a criminal defendant, it may help a lot to be a woman. At least, that is what Prof. Sonja Starr's research on federal criminal cases suggests. Prof. Starr's recent paper, "Estimating Gender Disparities in Federal Criminal Cases," looks closely at a large dataset of federal cases, and reveals some significant findings. After controlling for the arrest offense, criminal history, and other prior characteristics, "men receive 63% longer sentences on average than women do," and "[w]omen are twice as likely to avoid incarceration if convicted. While women have made great strides in achieving gender equity in many areas of American society, gender stereotypes remain pervasive. Voters sometimes have different expectations of female political candidates. Business remains dominated by men. Women are vastly underrepresented in the so-called STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. Women often make less money than men working the same jobs. According to the White House, a woman earns an average of 78 cents for each dollar a man makes. Sometimes, however, gender stereotypes benefit women, particularly in the area of criminal justice. Scholars have found that women receive shorter sentences for sex crimes than men. A 2014 study suggests that federal courts are more lenient on female defendants in general. They are less likely to incarcerate women and tend to give women shorter sentences than men. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Criminal Justice, “From Initial Appearance to Sentencing: Do Female Defendants Experience Disparate Treatment?,” takes a broader look at gender disparities within the criminal justice system. The four researchers Natalie Goulette of the University of West Florida and John Wooldredge, James Frank and Lawrence Travis III of the University of Cincinnati explored outcomes at two key stages of the criminal justice process. They examined decisions that judges made at a defendant’s first appearance hearing and during sentencing. Previous studies had investigated gender disparities in judicial decisions connected with only one of those two events, potentially neglecting the interaction of the outcomes at each phase. The researchers analyzed 3,593 felony cases that had been referred in 2009 to the County Office of the Prosecutor of a large, urban jurisdiction in the northern United States.

How might the unequal treatment of male and female offenders be rationalized?

One might think that the one million women in the American criminal justice system would receive gender-specific services, or that prison programs would target their needs to lower recidivism rates. But for the 199,000 women in U.S. prisons and jails, and the 950,000 on probation and parole, that is simply not the case. In fact in most jurisdictions, women are offered fewer programs than men, and the services provide little recognition of the traumatic paths that led them into the criminal justice system, said Stephanie Covington, PhD, co-director of the Center for Gender and Justice in La Jolla, Calif., at an APA 2009 Annual Convention session. Just one example of the lesser services for women is a parenting program offered at 27 men's prisons and two women's prisons in a state in the eastern United States. Through the same program, men are given video equipment and tapes to record messages for their families, while women are only given audio tapes that allowed them to record bedtime stories for their children. This is more than disparity in services, it is a lack of care, Covington said. Keeping women connected to their families and communities is a key aspect of providing services to incarcerated women. To improve services for women, psychologists, parole officers and prison employees need more education on how women in the criminal justice system differ from men, she said.

The numbers speak for themselves, she said:

· In the last 10 years, the male prison population has increased 45 percent, while that of women is up 81 percent.

· 73 percent of women in state prisons and 75 percent in jails have mental health problems, compared with 55 percent and 63 percent of men, respectively.

· In state prisons, 75 percent of women met the criteria for substance abuse problems, and 68 percent had past physical or sexual abuse.

In addition, most of the women are poor, undereducated, unskilled, single mothers and disproportionately women of color, said Covington, and their paths to crime are usually marked by abuse, poverty, and addiction. "You have to acknowledge that gender makes a difference," said Covington. "Many places today are still trying to do everything gender-neutral. There is no gender neutral. In our society, gender-neutral is male."

Imagine that you are the administrator of women's correctional center. What problems would you expect to encounter? Education and career programs, sexual misconduct, mothers and their children, and Medical service. How would you handle these problems? If I were an administrator of a women’s correctional center, I would handle the program of education and career programs with it being mandatory to get your GED while you are incarcerated. Letting the women make the choice of their career program that they have an interest in. Any sexual misconduct would result in adding on more jail time and privileges being taken away for a period, if the sexual conduct is involving any officers’ charges will be brought against them. Mothers and their children will have visitation in a room that will be designed for children and their mothers to play in with toys for girls and boys and have an area for story time. A sofa and TV with a DVD player for the family to watch tv or movies. I would provide medical care for everyone even if they can not afford to pay. Provide a work program for the women that can not pay their medical fees to work the amount they owe off and have a sliding pay scale for the women would not have to pay a lot for medical fees.

What parental rights should prisoners have? The prisoners enjoy parental rights such as reunion of family. Most of the correctional systems do not give importance to the mother-child relationship and family reunification policy of the prisoners. The correctional institutions should allow the prisoner to meet their family or child in the prison, so maintain their relationship. A prisoner may lose many different civil rights while serving time for a crime they have committed, but visitation and parental rights are not included on the list. There are currently no existing laws requiring a non-incarcerated parent to bring their child to a jail for visitation with their other parent. This is not always possible or advised, such as if a parent has abused a child. But where appropriate, regular visitation can help both the child and incarcerated parent cope with the ordeal, experts say. Ensure it is done in a way that is comfortable for the child.

Should children be allowed to live in correctional facilities with their mothers? Incarcerated mothers of young children are often the primary or sole caretakers of their children. In this and other situations (including instances in which the children are too young to be separated from their mother or were born in jail), many countries allow children to temporarily reside in prison with their mothers. For instance, according to the QUNO study, 980 infants lived in prison with incarcerated parents in the EU in 2011 and 2,135 children lived with 1,774 incarcerated mothers in Indian prisons in 2008. We found that the majority of countries surveyed impose age limits for the admission of children into and length of stay in prison, but these limits vary greatly from one country to another. For instance, Cuba allows only children under the age of 1 to reside in prison. Similarly, countries such as Ethiopia, Nigeria, Japan, and South Korea permit children to reside in prison until they are 18 months old. On the other end of the spectrum are countries such as Cambodia, Fiji, Mexico, and Turkey, which allow children to remain in prison until age 6. A few countries use different or additional markers such as a breastfeeding period (including Haiti and Swaziland) and an assessment of the best interest of the child (Sweden and Switzerland) for making admission and length of stay determinations. Once the children reach the legally imposed age limit, many of the countries surveyed may place them with a relative who is able and willing to assume responsibility, and in the absence of such an option, foster care or orphanages.

What problems would this practice create? A prison nursery is a section of a prison that houses incarcerated mothers and their very young children. Prison nurseries are not common in correctional facilities in the United States, although prior to the 1950s many states had them and they are widespread throughout the rest of the world. There are many positives associated with keeping a mother with her child. A previous study conducted has found that mothers in prisons nurseries have the ability to form of a secure bond. The ability to have a secure attachment is important for a child's development. However, the Iranian study revealed some of the risks for a child in that environment. Even though the mothers had separated units, the yard and recess are shared with other prisoners. Participants of the study reported that children were cursed at and pushed during these times. The study also found children can have a lack of resources in prisons environment such as bedding, clothing, and food.

How do the social structures of male and female correctional institutions differ? Men form gangs and honor a hierarchy. Female inmates value relationships and often form pseudo families, which are units of inmates, formed in a family structure, in order to provide emotional support, economic support or protection. There are around 4,500 prisons in the United States, but only about 170 of those are women's prisons. Prisons are correctional facilities used for long-term confinement and usually run by the state. People are sent to serve time in prison after they have been convicted of a crime and given a sentence. Women serve their sentences in prisons designed specifically for women, and men serve their sentences in prisons designed for men. There's little resemblance between men's prisons and women's prisons. The main difference between men's and women's prisons is security level. A prison security level dictates the type and number of safety measures used to keep the public protected from the inmates and the inmates protected from one another. For example, very few women's prisons have tall stone walls, armed guard towers or razor wire barriers. Women's prisons tend to resemble men's minimum or medium security prisons. They often look like a college campus or a camp, with inmates housed in dormitories or cottages rather than cellblocks. Women's prisons are typically less violent than men's prisons. There are fewer violent incidences between inmates and between inmates and their prison guards. For this reason, female inmates tend to have more freedom. They can usually walk around the prison in order to attend classes or programs, eat in the dining hall, receive visitors, exercise or attend chapel services. One reason women's prison is less violent is because there are simply fewer violent offenders. Female inmates are much more likely to be serving time for drug or property offenses than their male counterparts. One study found that as many as 60% of female inmates have a substance abuse problem, while almost 75% have mental health issues. The same study showed that the women's crimes were most often a direct result of these problems. Male inmates, on the other hand, are more likely to be serving time for violent crimes than their female counterparts. A violent crime is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens to use force against the victim. Violent crimes include murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, and assault. There are also many more men than women serving time due to recidivism, which means repeated criminal behavior. For this reason, there are more male inmates serving their second prison sentence, or even more. Overall, the vast majority of U.S. prison inmates are male, though the number of female inmates is growing. One study showed that the number of female prison inmates has increased by more than 600% since 1980. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were nearly 1.5 million men in U.S. state and federal prisons in 2011. During the same time, there were around 111,000 women. In both men's and women's prisons, the inmates are mostly racial or ethnic minorities and younger than 40. Specifically examining the characteristics of the female prison population, studies found that the majority had experienced physical or sexual abuse. Most are poor, unskilled, and undereducated. Many are single mothers.

Why do you think they differ in these ways? Difference between social structure of male and female correctional institutions are as follows: In male prisons, the inmates' group connections trigger violence and anger. This is a threat to safety and security of all prison inmates. In female prisons, the inmates' connections are not violent when compared to male.