Do you agree or disagree with this students paper. Is there anything you would like to add based on the course materials? Use course text references:
I equate this assignment to the
situation of women in the military in the 1980s and 1990s. The similarities are remarkably close, small population, leaders did not handle nor understand the needs of the females, lack of separate facilities, limited hygiene supplies and services
when deployed, very few women in leadership roles and the list goes on. I am not trying to infer the military as a form of incarceration, but the housing, supplies and services were
male oriented. In the criminal justice system, the quality of life for male and female prisoners varies widely by states and just recently women inmates have received more attention due to the lack of correctional facilities and support services. More
importantly is the significant rise of female inmates over the last 40 years are due to the increase in drug and property crimes. In the 1980s the incarceration rate for women was less than 30,000; however, since that time the incarceration rate has grown to
over 220,000 in 2019. Proportionately most of the incarcerations are African
American, Latino and then white
women; however, a positive step is the number of incarcerated African
American women has dramatically decreased to under 100,000. The prison system is dominated by policies targeted at male inmates. For
example, pre-trial jails are high-risk facilities and women offenders are normally negligible risk criminals. It is
a fact that women pose less of threat and are less likely to engage in misconduct than their male counterparts. Men and women who are incarcerated have very different
needs for mental illness, relationship issues, parental stresses, and female
services. One of the major differences are that women have a greater chance at sexual victimization from staff members and in some cases inmate-to-inmate victimization. Health care needs are significantly different for
females than males due to resource availability. Some of the major concerns for female inmates is limited counseling, contraceptive care, potential access to birthright options, postpartum depression and
gynecological and obstetric care.
Another issue is the lack of services for parental support services and visitation rights to maintain the family ties that are more gender based. Since males and females are separated after incarceration the services available to female inmates
are less than their male counterparts. Due to the limited size of the female facilities the cost to manage two different systems can be costly. Some
options I would recommend is a low.risk offender alternative for women inmates like males who go to minimum security before release. As I mentioned previously, women are
less violent and do not engage in hostile behaviors like the male inmates. Improved access to counseling for female inmates, parental training or childcare centers for young mothers, educational
opportunities and transition services to improve their employment
potential after release. The use of alternative sanctions like halfway houses, electronic monitoring and credit for community service time is
another alternative.The disparity between male and female inmates is dramatic; however,
the issues are being addressed but require increased funding and social and political will to improve the plight of incarcerated women in their
transition to the community.
