Assignment
Flo20thebest
Stohr4e_PPT_10.pptxChapter 10: Women and Corrections
Introduction: Women and Corrections (1 of 13)
Historically, fewer women and girls incarcerated as compared to men
Still true vast majority of those under correctional supervision in the United States are male
Institutions geared toward boys and men
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
2
10.1: State the history of women in corrections.
Introduction: Women and Corrections
Historically, fewer women and girls incarcerated as compared to men, with notable exceptions for particular crimes like prostitution or juvenile status offenses.
Although the percentage of women and girls in those populations has increased in recent years, it is still true that the vast majority of those under correctional supervision in the United States are male.
This means institutions and programming have been, and still are, typically geared toward boys and men.
2
Introduction: Women and Corrections (2 of 13)
Young (1994): history of institution building in the United States and found
Males more likely to have juvenile prisons constructed for them
Women and girls accused or convicted served in male facilities
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
3
10.1: State the history of women in corrections.
Young (1994) researched the history of institution building in the United States and found:
In the southern United States following the Civil War, males—particularly White males— were much more likely to have juvenile prisons constructed specifically for them than were females.
Women and girls accused or convicted served in male facilities.
Initially, in bridewells or poorhouses.
Later, in separate wings of jails and prisons or distinct facilities/houses of refuge.
3
Introduction: Women and Corrections (3 of 13)
The History of Women in Prisons
First American correctional facility: New York Newgate Prison
When Newgate Prison closed, other prisons did not want to take women
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
4
10.1: State the history of women in corrections.
The History of Women in Prisons
The first American correctional facility to hold felons only was the New York Newgate Prison in Greenwich Village, New York City.
Generally, not acknowledged as the first American prison.
Opened in 1797.
Women housed in a group setting without a matron.
Female inmates helped protect each other from potential abusers or violators.
Newgate female inmates washed and sewed for entire prison.
When Newgate Prison closed and the inmates were scheduled for transfer to the congregate but silent and strict-discipline prisons of Auburn and Sing Sing, neither prison wanted to take the women, stating that they were difficult to manage (Rafter, 2009).
While the matter was debated, the female inmates from New York City were held at the city’s Bellevue Penitentiary, which had much poorer conditions.
Silent requirement of the male prisoners was impossible to enforce with congregate housing and no matron in charge.
4
Introduction: Women and Corrections (4 of 13)
The History of Women in Prisons
New York women outside of New York City were sent to Auburn Prison in 1825
Mount Pleasant Prison: First prison constructed for women in the United States.
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
5
10.1: State the history of women in corrections.
The History of Women in Prisons
The New York women outside of New York City were sent to the new Auburn Prison in 1825 (Rafter, 2009).
Housed in a cramped, unventilated attic above the kitchen.
No matron until one was hired in 1832.
Mount Pleasant Prison: First prison constructed for women in the United States. Built in 1839 close to the Sing Sing (New York) prison for men, it was in part administered by Sing Sing but had its own buildings, staff, and administrator.
Impetus for construction was an altercation in which the lash was used to discipline an inmate who was 5 months pregnant.
The inmate had gotten pregnant while in prison, and she died soon after the lashing.
It was an Auburn-like building with Auburn- and Sing Sing–like sensibilities.
5
Introduction: Women and Corrections (5 of 13)
The History of Women in Prisons
Ohio’s development of mirrored New York’s
Tennessee prisons began in Nashville 1831
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
6
10.1: State the history of women in corrections.
The History of Women in Prisons
Ohio’s development of prison facilities for women mirrored New York’s (Rafter, 2009).
At first women there were held in less secure facilities along with the men.
1834: Ohio built an Auburn-like prison called the Ohio Penitentiary.
1837: the state began housing the women in separate quarters from the men.
Standards were inferior even to New York’s, so disease and corruption were rampant.
Women’s annex was crowded, unmaintained, and void of discipline; female inmates were also subject to sexual attacks by male staff.
Tennessee prisons began with one in Nashville, constructed in 1831.
More progressive attitude toward standards and care.
Due to small female populations, they were invariably housed with the men and worked alongside them doing hard physical labor.
No matrons looking out for their interests, no separate accommodations until the 1880s, and cramped quarters with no room for work or exercise.
6
Introduction: Women and Corrections (6 of 13)
Race in Early Prisons
Maryland State Penitentiary opened in 1811 in Baltimore
Many U.S. women incarcerated for property crimes during the 19th century
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
7
10.1: State the history of women in corrections.
Race in Early Prisons
Maryland State Penitentiary opened in 1811 in Baltimore (Young, 2001).
Housed the women in a congregate fashion in the same prison with the men until 1921, although the genders were separated.
Became racially segregated by the 1830s, as the Civil War approached and tensions built in Maryland, which was on the border between the free North and the slaveholding South.
The research on incarcerated Black women indicates that they were disproportionately incarcerated in the Northeast and Midwest before the Civil War.
Few Blacks, either male or female, were incarcerated in the South before the war.
Black men and women were disproportionately incarcerated in all prisons after the Civil War, but particularly in southern prisons, where slavery-like treatment and work requirements were imposed (Oshinsky, 1996; Rafter, 2009; Young, 2001).
It is possible that a Maryland law passed in 1858 that made Black women who committed larceny subject to “sale” rather than prison resulted in less incarceration of Black women before the Civil War in that state (Young, 2001).
Regardless of race, many United States women were incarcerated for property crimes—especially larceny—during the 19th century.
Only 3%-4% were incarcerated for violent crimes.
White women did tend to be incarcerated for “offenses against morality” more than Black women, perhaps because they were more “visible” to the police in White areas of town or the police were more attentive to them (Young, 2001).
Black female inmates were required to serve a greater proportion of their sentences than were White female inmates, and they tended to be pardoned less and die while incarcerated more often than White female inmates.
7
Introduction: Women and Corrections (7 of 13)
Discipline in Women’s Prisons
Methods of discipline moved from severe to soft
Mount Pleasant Prison
Ohio prison had very severe discipline by 1870s
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
8
10.1: State the history of women in corrections.
Discipline in Women’s Prisons
As with the male prisons during the 1800s, methods of discipline moved from the severe to the soft, depending on:
Availability of supervision.
Facilities.
Number of women incarcerated.
Inclinations of keepers.
At Mount Pleasant Prison:
Lash was rarely used on women.
Gag was used with some regularity for female inmates.
Ohio prison had very severe discipline by the 1870s:
Beatings.
Solitary confinement.
By 1880, staff often used the “hummingbird” punishment: “forced the naked offender to sit, blind-folded, in a tub of water while steam pipes were made to shriek and electric current was applied to the body” (Rafter, 2009).
8
Introduction: Women and Corrections (8 of 13)
Hiring of Female Matrons
Little to no supervision
Matrons could also protect female inmates
Dorothea Dix: matrons hired for many state facilities but few county jails
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
9
10.1: State the history of women in corrections.
Hiring of Female Matrons
Little to no supervision.
Matrons could also serve to protect female inmates.
Prison reformer Dorothea Dix noted while matrons had been hired for many state facilities housing women, few county jails or other prisons employed matrons.
9
Introduction: Women and Corrections (9 of 13)
Houses of Refuge for Girls and Boys
Houses of refuge: part of Jacksonian movement to use institutions as the solution for social problems
Similar facilities for younger inmates had existed in Europe since the 17th century
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
10
10.1: State the history of women in corrections.
Houses of Refuge for Girls and Boys
Houses of refuge: Part of the Jacksonian movement (named after President Andrew Jackson) of the early 1800s to use institutions as the solution for social problems. Their stated purpose was to remove impressionable youth, mainly boys but also girls, from the contamination that association with more hardened adult prisoners might bring.
First opened in New York (1825), second in Boston (1826), third in Philadelphia (1828).
Similar facilities for younger inmates had existed in Europe since the 17th century.
Dutch houses had a more reformatory tone and were used only for delinquent children.
10
Introduction: Women and Corrections (10 of 13)
Houses of Refuge for Girls and Boys
Typically private institutions developed through charity and subscription
House kept by a guardian
New York and Philadelphia: average day
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
11
10.1: State the history of women in corrections.
Houses of Refuge for Girls and Boys
Typically private institutions developed through charity and subscription, which was permitted and encouraged by the states.
States provided “some pecuniary assistance” but no administrative aid.
House was kept by a guardian, who was responsible for the child’s care until the age of 20.
In some, children were separated at night, but congregated to work during day.
Others were wholly congregate.
No silence requirement due to the difficulty of keeping children totally quiet.
In New York and Philadelphia, the average day consisted of:
8 hours of work in carpentry or manufacture of shoes and cloth.
4 hours of schooling.
11
Introduction: Women and Corrections (11 of 13)
Houses of Refuge for Girls and Boys
Boston house: average day
Workshops operated privately
Children not always placed there as punitive action
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
12
10.1: State the history of women in corrections.
Houses of Refuge for Girls and Boys
In Boston house, average day included a few hours for play and:
5.5 hours in the workshop.
4 hours in school.
1 hour of religious study.
Workshops within houses operated privately.
Girls performed domestic duties for themselves and boys.
Discipline varied from loss of recreation, to solitary confinement, to food/water restrictions, and sometimes corporal punishment.
Children not always placed there as a punitive action, so their time there was ideally indeterminate and reform was decided based on the personal opinion of the guardians.
Children could still be called back by their legal guardians if they performed poorly outside the house of refuge.
Beaumont and Tocqueville (1833/1964) acknowledged that these absolute rights to deprive liberty might lead to abuse, but they pointed out that judges and parents did have some rights to oversee and protest the incarceration of these children in the courts.
12
Introduction: Women and Corrections (12 of 13)
Houses of Refuge for Girls and Boys
Beaumont and Tocqueville: conducted recidivism study
Dorothea Dix: favorable impression of these facilities
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
13
10.1: State the history of women in corrections.
Houses of Refuge for Girls and Boys
Beaumont and Tocqueville also conducted a recidivism study on more than 500 released children:
More than 200 had been “saved from infallible ruin.”
The other 313 children were found to be either doubtful, “bad,” or “very bad.”
Lack of control group makes interpretation of these findings difficult.
Dorothea Dix had a generally favorable impression of these facilities and liked that children were:
Employed in useful work.
Housed in clean facilities.
Kept in good health.
Often had access to schooling, training, and apprenticeships.
13
Introduction: Women and Corrections (13 of 13)
Growth in Numbers of Women and Girls
In the past, number of female inmates and supervisees proportionately smaller
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
14
10.1: State the history of women in corrections.
Growth in Numbers of Women and Girls
In the past, the number of female inmates and supervisees was proportionately smaller.
The best explanation for the historically small number of female offenders in the U.S. criminal justice system (compared with men and boys) has been the fact that they commit fewer street crimes that would garner this distinction.
Even among corporate or white-collar and environmental crimes, the more likely offender is male, if for no other reason than the fact that more men are in a position to commit such crimes than women.
Drug war has also contributed to increasing proportion of female offenders, but they remain a clear minority.
14
Current Figures on the Number of Women and Girls in Corrections (1 of 7)
Female Correctional Clients
Number has grown over past 3 decades
2000 to 2018: females went 11.4% to almost 16%
Male incarceration decreased, female incarceration has risen
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
15
10.2: Describe the current state of women in the correctional system for both those incarcerated and those employed in it.
Current Figures on the Number of Women and Girls in Corrections
Female Correctional Clients
Number of women and girls as inmates or supervisees in corrections has grown exponentially over the past 3 decades, with some notable declines recently.
From 2000 to 2018, females went from 11.4% of total jail populations to almost 16%.
The same figure in prisons went from 6.4% to almost 8%.
In the past decade, as male incarceration in jails and prisons has decreased markedly, female incarceration has risen in both.
As of 2015, girls in residential facilities had stabilized at about 15% of total population after over a decade of increase.
15
Current Figures on the Number of Women and Girls in Corrections (2 of 7)
Female Correctional Clients
Largest growth in probation population
Explanations for growth multifaceted
Research needed on disproportionate changes in incarceration rate between females and males
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
16
10.2: Describe the current state of women in the correctional system for both those incarcerated and those employed in it.
Female Correctional Clients
Largest growth has been in the probation population.
Women constituted 22% of probation and 12% of parole caseloads in 2000.
By 2016, those percentages had increased to 25% of probation and 13% of parole.
In 1985, girls constituted 19.3% of juveniles on probation, and by 2004 that percentage had grown to 27.2% and remained at 27% by 2009.
Explanations for growth are almost certainly multifaceted:
Incarceration and community supervision generally reached a peak in this country in 2007 and 2008 and has been in decline since.
Factors include age, cost concern, decreased appetite for harsh punishments, legalization/medicalization of marijuana, etc.
Explaining disproportionate changes in incarceration rate between females and males is difficult and in need of research.
16
Current Figures on the Number of Women and Girls in Corrections (3 of 7)
Female Staff
Number of female correctional officers has not increased as steeply as women and girls under correctional supervision
Significant inroads not made until Civil Rights Act of 1964 amended in 1972
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
17
10.2: Describe the current state of women in the correctional system for both those incarcerated and those employed in it.
Female Staff
The employment of female correctional officers has not increased as steeply or steadily as has the number of women and girls under correctional supervision.
Though women could historically work as matrons for female inmates, they did not make significant inroads into the correctional profession until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was amended in 1972.
Amendment allowed women to sue to gain employment in both female and male correctional institutions.
17
Current Figures on the Number of Women and Girls in Corrections (4 of 7)
Female Staff
2013: women occupied about 27% of correctional officer jobs
Staff demographic not always readily available
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
18
10.2: Describe the current state of women in the correctional system for both those incarcerated and those employed in it.
Female Staff
In 2013 women occupied about 27% of correctional officer jobs in jails and prisons.
Higher concentration of women in lower-paid private prisons (48% of officers).
Fewer women in highly-paid federal prisons (13%).
Staff demographic statistics regarding probation and parole officers for adults and children are not always readily available.
A 49% female statistic includes all staff in state-level parole agencies, not just parole officers.
Bureau of Labor Statistics (2022, p. 3) reported that in 2018 almost 57% of probation officers and correctional treatment specialists in the country were women.
18
Current Figures on the Number of Women and Girls in Corrections (5 of 7)
Feminism
Women staff and inmates would not have what they do if not for efforts of feminists
Moralists believed women and girls involved in the criminal justice system were in need of religious and social remedies
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
19
10.2: Describe the current state of women in the correctional system for both those incarcerated and those employed in it.
Feminism
Women staff and inmates would not have what they do if not for efforts of feminist scholars and practitioners agitating for their rights and needs.
Moralists (sometimes called social feminists) believed that women and girls involved in the criminal justice system were in effect morally impaired and therefore in need of religious and social remedies.
Liberal feminists rejected the common moralist dichotomy of good women who conform to their gender role (madonnas) and bad women who act in opposition to their gender role (whores).
Moralists often viewed higher class and/or White women as a closer approximation of the Madonna category—until they proved they were not just docile homemakers.
Double deviants: Women and girls who are deviant because they engage in crime and because they have violated societal gender role expectations.
Minority women and lower-class women were never expected to attain Madonna status, as they were invariably seen as more sexual beings and often worked outside the home to support their families.
19
Current Figures on the Number of Women and Girls in Corrections (6 of 7)
Feminism
Liberal feminists: believe the problem for girls and women involved in crime lies more with social structure around them
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
20
10.2: Describe the current state of women in the correctional system for both those incarcerated and those employed in it.
Feminism
Liberal feminists: People who believe that the problem for girls and women involved in crime lies more with the social structure around them (e.g., poverty and lack of sufficient schooling or training, along with patriarchal beliefs) and that the solution lies in preparing them for an alternative existence so that they do not turn to crime.
20
Current Figures on the Number of Women and Girls in Corrections (7 of 7)
Feminism
Moralists kept strong focus on sexuality and defined reform as training to become proper wives and mothers
Patriarchy: attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that value men and boys
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
21
10.2: Describe the current state of women in the correctional system for both those incarcerated and those employed in it.
Feminism
Moralists succeeded at keeping a strong focus on the sexuality of women and girls, and defining reform as training to become proper wives and mothers; a standpoint ignorant to the lower-class reality that women would need to earn a living for themselves and their families upon reentry.
Patriarchy: Involves attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that value men and boys over women and girls (Daly & Chesney-Lind, 1988). Members of patriarchal societies hold the belief that men and boys are worth more than women and girls and also believe that women and girls, as well as men and boys, should have certain restricted roles to play and that those of the former are less important than those of the latter. Education and work training that help one make a living and better pay are more important to secure for men and boys than for women and girls, who are best suited for more feminine and—by definition, in a patriarchal society—less worthy professions.
Feminist scholars have determined that many cultures even today hold such beliefs and engage in the practices that derive from them.
21
Females in Corrections: Needs, Programming, Abuse, and Adjustment (1 of 7)
Needs and Programming
Ney’s basic facts and differences between men and women in jails
Women and girls more likely to have health problems
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
22
10.3: Explain the special challenges faced by women and girls in corrections.
Females in Corrections: Needs, Programming, Abuse, and Adjustment
Needs and Programming
Ney summarized some basic facts and different between men and women in jails (and to some extent, prisons):
Women pose a lower safety risk than men.
Women’s pathways to criminal justice differ.
Women’s criminality is often related to social ties (like romantic partners).
Women in institutions often have a history of trauma, and remain especially vulnerable to correctional victimization.
Correctional policy/practice has been developed for managing men.
Female inmates may be overclassified (held in higher-security facilities than necessary).
Gender-informed risk assessments are more accurately tailored to women.
Women often respond favorably to evidence-based, gender-responsive principles.
Transition and reentry may be particularly challenging for women.
Cost of overincarceration and oversupervision of women is high.
Women and girls more likely to have health problems (mental or physical) than men and boys while incarcerated.
Similar levels of substance abuse to male counterparts.
Educational and job training deficits are similar to those of men and boys, but they may even have a greater need for gainful employment due to higher retention of child custody.
Require care and programming sensitive to high rates of past sexual abuse (up to 60%) among incarcerated women.
22
Females in Corrections: Needs, Programming, Abuse, and Adjustment (2 of 7)
Needs and Programming
Women and girls cost more to incarcerate
Some states have made renewed efforts to address the needs of women and girls
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
23
10.3: Explain the special challenges faced by women and girls in corrections.
Needs and Programming
Women and girls simply cost more to incarcerate.
Greater needs.
Fewer inmates but equal or increased staff required in women’s correctional facilities.
This cost has not demonstrably affected the quality of programming, healthcare, and reentry programs for women, though improvements to these recidivism-reducing programs would likely ultimately be a cost saving measure.
Some states have made renewed efforts to address the needs of women and girls for educational, vocational, parenting, and substance abuse issues and their histories of past victimization.
Number of these programs and their quality are far from ideal.
Involvement in this work had no effect on reducing rearrest or recommitment to federal prison (Richmond, 2014), which could be due to a program poorly suited to women’s unique needs.
Most women and girls who need programming in corrections are not able to access it, or if they are, it is sometimes of dubious worth (Morgan, 2013).
23
Females in Corrections: Needs, Programming, Abuse, and Adjustment (3 of 7)
Needs and Programming
Highly relevant programs and effective treatment modalities for female offenders
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
24
10.3: Explain the special challenges faced by women and girls in corrections.
Needs and Programming
Highly relevant programs and effective treatment modalities for female offenders:
Parenting programs are particularly relevant, but may or may not be effective.
Programs which allow very young children or infants to remain with their mothers, even if temporarily, may be of interest to the very few women who qualify for these programs (in the already-small percentage of correctional facilities that offer mother and child programs).
Women’s needs in substance abuse treatment: effective treatment focuses on the unique psychopathology of addiction in female inmates, including greater psychosocial dysfunction, less criminal thinking, and greater participation in programming than men.
Emily Wright and her colleagues (2007) found that “gender-responsive” problems related to parenting, childcare, and self-concept affect prison misconduct.
Brown (2006), in her study of native and nonnative Hawaiian women imprisoned in Hawaii, developed the alternative but parallel idea of “pathways” women traverse that can lead to crime. Pathways are more likely to lead to criminality as they are increasingly affected by violence, trauma, addiction, and discrimination.
Gynecological and obstetrical needs are required in essentially every female inmate, while psychological and psychiatric health needs are present in the vast majority of incarcerated women.
24
Females in Corrections: Needs, Programming, Abuse, and Adjustment (4 of 7)
Abuse
Abuse not necessarily end at corrections door
Salazar et al. v. City of Espanola et al. (2004)
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
25
10.3: Explain the special challenges faced by women and girls in corrections.
Abuse
Abuse does not necessarily end at the corrections door.
One of the primary reasons women and girls were removed from male facilities and/or became supervised by matrons in the 1800s and 1900s was rampant sexual abuse by male inmates and correctional staff.
Separation from male inmates has drastically reduced their abuse of female inmates.
Sexual abuse of female inmates by male staff has not been eliminated, although it is likely less common than it was before female staff were included in the workforce.
Salazar et al. v. City of Espanola et al. (2004).
Male judge would sentence female offenders he found attractive to a particular jail, whether or not their offenses merited it.
A few male correctional staff would then send the offender to “clean” his chambers, where he would coerce them with threats to participate in sexual activity.
Male correctional staff were also harassing inmates by making inappropriate comments and sexual advances, and two of them even had sex with women in the control room at night when no one else was around.
No female staff on duty at the time of the assaults and abuse.
Judge ultimately convicted of rape, and the city lost a million dollar lawsuit.
25
Females in Corrections: Needs, Programming, Abuse, and Adjustment (5 of 7)
Abuse
Other cases have been reported
Efforts to reduce sexual abuse in institutions
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
26
10.3: Explain the special challenges faced by women and girls in corrections.
Abuse
Other cases have been reported with even longer durations, larger scales, and wider varieties of victims:
Tracy Neal v. Michigan Department of Corrections: Abuse continued over two decades.
American Civil Liberties Union found male staff abusing juvenile girls in the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility with harassment, threats of rape, and exchanging sex with juveniles for cigarettes.
Given the history of sexual abuse prevalent in many incarcerated women and girls, correctional abuse is especially damaging. Even body searches by male officers may revictimize traumatized women.
Efforts to reduce sexual abuse in institutions have centered on staff training, supervision, and discipline.
Hiring of more female officers has reduced predation on relatively powerless female victims.
Lawsuits are less effective than staffing measures.
26
Females in Corrections: Needs, Programming, Abuse, and Adjustment (6 of 7)
Adjustment, Misconduct, and Pseudo-Families
Associations with adjustment in corrections
Adjustment multidimensional, encompassing
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
27
10.3: Explain the special challenges faced by women and girls in corrections.
Adjustment, Misconduct, and Pseudo-Families
Adjustment in corrections is associated with:
Sometimes problematic personal relationships.
Separation from children.
Greater propensity for mental health problems.
Fact that women in prisons tend to be charged with infractions for more minor offenses.
Adjustment is multidimensional, encompassing:
Inmate’s unique circumstances.
Environment.
Criminal thinking.
Adoption of prison subculture.
Mental illness and substance abuse disorders.
Separation from social ties.
27
Females in Corrections: Needs, Programming, Abuse, and Adjustment (7 of 7)
Adjustment, Misconduct, and Pseudo-Families
Distance from family and friends is physical, psychological, and financial
Pseudofamilies allow women to meet social needs
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
28
10.3: Explain the special challenges faced by women and girls in corrections.
Adjustment, Misconduct, and Pseudo-Families
The distance from family and friends is physical, psychological, and financial:
Typically, just one women’s prison per state in a remote location, making visitation difficult.
Financial hardship for poor families in visiting or accessing expensive pay phones.
Many women lack necessary capabilities to write a letter, and often children are unable to read or inaccessible.
Mothers lose control over their children’s housing and care, and custody may be granted to abusive family members or the overburdened foster care system.
Pseudofamilies allow women to meet social needs:
Companionship.
Support.
Love.
Sexual gratification.
Individuals were originally thought to take on traditional familial roles, but more recent research suggests these relationships may be more casual than initially reported.
Pseudofamilial behaviors stronger in those with longer sentences and greater immersion in prison culture.
28
Female Correctional Officers (1 of 2)
Overcoming Employment Obstacles
Women minority of correctional staff
Women prohibited from working in men’s and boys’ correctional institutions
Many women had to pursue legal action to access jobs
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
29
10.4: Discuss the challenges that female staff have overcome in corrections and how they did so.
Female Correctional Officers
Overcoming Employment Obstacles
Women have always constituted a minority in terms of correctional staff.
As recently as 30-40 years ago, women were prohibited by practice, tradition, or law from working in the more numerous men’s and boys’ correctional institutions or in probation and parole.
Matrons were a lower-paid exception sometimes hired for female institutions.
Women in rural jails, typically the sheriff’s wife, were nonetheless often highly active from 1900 to the 1970s.
Many women had to pursue legal action to access jobs and promotional opportunities only available to men.
29
Female Correctional Officers (2 of 2)
Current Status
Equal employment versus privacy interests of inmates
Qualifications for the job
Sexual and gender harassment
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
30
10.4: Discuss the challenges that female staff have overcome in corrections and how they did so.
Current Status
Equal Employment Versus Privacy Interests of Inmates
Most of the jobs in institutional corrections or in communities are in dealing with male inmates or offenders, but many male inmates would rather not have a woman watch them shower or use the toilet.
Generally speaking, courts tend to side with the right to equal protection of female employees over the male inmates’ right to privacy—a right which is already drastically curtailed.
Qualifications for the Job
Most institutions, agencies, and states have rightfully concluded women are physically and mentally qualified to work with male inmates.
Female officers as recently as 2006 have felt subtly harassed with less desirable shits or assignments from coworkers, while an officer’s clients may actually be more likely to treat her with respect and professionalism.
Biological differences make subduing an unruly inmate with brute force more difficult for most women, but this is rarely required in either correctional institutions or the community. Defensive or offensive tactics may also level the playing field, while there is some evidence that female staff have a calming effect on male inmate aggression.
Male and female officers may be more similar in work orientation and fear of victimization than originally thought, though women tend to value programming and amenities for inmates in their prisons.
Sexual and Gender Harassment
Women are much more likely to be the victims of male harassment by bosses and coworkers in the workplace and that when men are victims, they are as likely to be harassed by other men as by women.
Male institutions are even more susceptible to the development of an unequal or unsafe environment.
Hostile environment: Occurs when the workplace is sexualized with jokes, with pictures, or in other ways that are offensive to one gender.
Quid pro quo sexual harassment: Involves something for something, as in you give your boss sexual favors and he allows you to keep your job.
Suing is an imperfect, slow, and frustrating process of pursuing equality. There are few true winners, and it may be traumatic for a victim to spend hundreds of hours reliving abuse only for a case to be dismissed due to insufficient evidence.
30
