Gender Issues in Corrections
Chapter Twelve
Women’s Prisons in the
United States
• Historically, women were confined in
separate quarters within men’s prisons
The Early Years
• 1880’s both men and women confined in
the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia
Separate Quarters
• Mid-18th Century saw increasing rates of
women offenders which prompted a move
to provide them with prison quarters of
their own.
Women’s Reformatories
• Reformatory movement began in 1870
Women’s Reformatories
(continued)
• Indiana Women’s Prison was the first
separate prison for women.
Racial Disparities
• Not all women received the benefits of the
reformatory model with its emphasis on
rehabilitation.
Racial Disparities (continued)
• African American women were routinely sentenced to
custodial prisons, including the atrocious custodial
plantation prisons of the South while white girls who
committed the same offences were sent to reformatories.
Racial Disparities (continued)
• It is clear that racism continued to influence prisoner
populations in the U.S. after the Civil War.
– The proportions of African American women in prisons of the
Northeast & Midwest continuously swelled grossly
disproportionate to their representation in the general population.
Women Offenders
• Since 1990 the women offender
population has doubled.
Women Offenders (continued)
• When demographics are taken into
account, black and white offenders
accounted for nearly equal proportions of
women committing robbery and
aggravated assaults.
Women’s Special Needs as
Inmates
Women Correctional Officers
• Research is clear that the experience of
women who have entered into male
dominant occupations, almost
unanimously, face discrimination in hiring,
promotions, assignment policies,
opposition and sexual harassment from
male co-workers, and inadequacies in job
training and socialization.
Women Correctional Officers
(continued)
• Women correctional officers have
historically suffered from discrimination in
their attempt to forge an entry into the
correctional field.
Women Correctional Officers
(continued)
• Problems that women correctional officers
have faced:
Women Correctional Officers
Selected Advantages
• Women correctional officers add a degree
of normalcy to an unreal environment for
incarcerated males.
Women Correctional Officers
Selected Advantages (continued)
• Male inmates seem to appreciate education more and
work harder to achieve under a female teacher
Progress of Women in the
Correctional Field
• Several legal decisions have assisted
women in forging an entry into the
corrections profession:
The National Advisory Commission on Criminal
Justice Standards & Goals Recommendations
• Change in correctional policies to eliminate
discrimination against women for correctional work
What Correctional Administrators
Must Do
• Recruiting, hiring, and retaining female
correctional officers is vital to a balanced
and effective organization
What Correctional Administrators
Must Do (continued)
• Market the correctional agency to potential
recruits as an open institution that values
the concept of cultural diversity and
inclusiveness