Chapter 12
Incarceration of
Women
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
Incarceration of Women
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Women: Forgotten Offenders
Historical Perspective
 The Incarceration of Women in the United States
 The Reformatory Movement
 The Post-World War II Years
Women in Prison
 Characteristics of Women in Prison
 The Subculture of Women’s Prison
 Males versus Female Subcultures
Issues in the Incarceration on Women
 Sexual Misconduct
 Educational and Vocational Programs
 Medical Services
 Mothers and Their Children
Release to the Community
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
Why women tend to be
the “forgotten offenders”
 women commit fewer crimes than men
 female criminality tends to be less serious
than male criminality
 historically, women have tended more
often than men to be “excluded” from the
justice system, by lenient treatment
 women constitute a small proportion of the
correctional population (6%)
 popular social attitude tends to put all
females in a subservient position
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
Imprisonment of Women in The US
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
Institutionalized “Sexism”:
caused by low status of female criminality
 women’s
prisons are located farther from
friends & family, inhibiting visits,
especially for the poor
 women’s prisons lack diverse educational,
vocational, and other programs available
in men’s prisons
 women’s prisons lack specialization in
treatment and fail to segregate offenders
who present special problems or have
special needs
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
gender and crime:
who’s arrested for what?
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
evolution of women’s prisons
1st female-run
prison for women
Indiana, 1873
run for women, by
women
House of Shelter
Detroit, post civil war
1st reformatory for
women.
run by Zebulon
Brockway
Alderson Prison
West Virginia, 1927
1st federal prison
for women.
Mary Belle Harris,
warden
Women’s Prison
Asso.
New York, 1844
created to improve
treatment of &
separate females from
male inmates
END of
reformatory
movement
“ran its course” by
1935; no new
correctional
models
Elizabeth Fry
1780 - 1845
1st to press for
reform in
treatment of
women &
children
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
female prison reform in 1800s guiding
principles
separation of women from men
provision of differential care for
women
management of women’s prisons
by female staff
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
features distinguishing female from
male prisons
smaller
women’s
prisons
looser
security
inmate-staff
relations less
structured
shorter
sentences
less committed to
inmate code
less physical
violence
less developed
underground
economy
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
female inmate profiles
 predominately
Black (46%)
or White (36%)
 between ages of 25 - 34 (50%)
 never married (45%)
 some high school (46%)
or graduated (23%)
 Similar to characteristics of
male inmates
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
female prison subcultures
(per Heffernan)
 “square” (like ‘gleaning’)
 situational offender
 adheres to conventional
 “the
life” (like ‘jailing’)
norms & values
 persistent offenders
 act in prison as they did on the outside
 antisocial, stand firm against authority
 represent about half of female prisoners
 “cool” (like ‘doing time’)
 professionals;
controlled & manipulative;
‘keep busy, play around, stay out of
trouble and get out’
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
“pseudo-families”

a distinguishing hallmark of the
“subculture” in many women’s prisons
(as compared with men’s)
women
often cope with the stresses of
incarceration by bonding together in
extended “families” of convenience.
different women play the roles of various
members of the family, including father,
mother, siblings, grandchildren, even
cousins
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
key issues in the incarceration of
women
 educational
& vocational training
female programs tend to reflect stereotypical
“female” occupations
 women’s programs less ambitious than men’s

 medical

services
women have more serious health problems
 mothers
& their children
167,000 American children (2/3 of whom are
under 10) have a mother in jail or prison
 65% of incarcerated mothers were single
caretakers of minor children.

Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
official sexual misconduct
in prison
 number
of cases of misconduct by male
officers in on increase, with increase in
female inmates

e.g., Houston Cagle & Susan Smith, 2000
 Officers
may abuse authority to compel
sex by withholding goods and privileges to
prisoners or by rewarding them with same
 42 states have enacted legislation
prohibiting sexual misconduct
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th