Issues Women Face in Prison

Issues Women Face in Prison by ShareLove.Fund’s Rainbow Women Social Enterprise endeavor and sponsored by your generous donations.

The issues that women face in prison are twofold – those that are a result of their lives before being incarcerated and those that are a result of being incarcerated. The pre-existing issues run the gamut from school failure to unstable families, from substance abuse to mental health issues, and from work failure to victimization. As if this weren’t enough, there are societal contributors too – being part of a minority, poverty, homelessness and single motherhood – all of which are leading to an increasing number of women being incarcerated.

Then there are the problems that arise specifically from incarceration. Various criminologists have pointed out that the US prison system can’t deal with these problems. They argue that such problems are better handled outside the prison environment. Some of these problems are:

1. Separation from Babies– It is estimated that around four to nine percent of women come to prison while they are pregnant. However, there are no policies in place to keep the children with their mothers and they are separated shortly after birth. They aren’t allowed to maintain contact either. In fact, there is only one prison, Bedford Hills in New York, that has a program that allows incarcerated women to keep their newborns with them.
   

2. Separation from Children –Surveys have been conducted on a national level that found that two-thirds of incarcerated women are mothers who have children under the age of 18. Child welfare agencies and the correctional system together put multiple roadblocks in these women maintaining a relationship with their children. Distances between the correctional facilities and the children’s homes can be daunting. No transportation services are offered that could bridge such a gap. The limited economic resources that these women have do not make the situation any better. The children have to undergo hardships of their own – trauma from their mothers’ arrest and the sudden separation from their mothers. A small percentage of these children also go into the child welfare system.

   There is hope on the horizon with some prisons in California and New York starting programs that address these issues.

3. Termination of Parental Rights – Almost 50 percent of states have policies in place that are related to the termination of parental rights. Lawyers fighting for women prisoners have argued that reunification should be a priority not the termination of parental rights.

4. Minimal Substance Abuse Treatment - Drug and alcohol abuse are some of the biggest contributing factors towards female incarceration. Yet, when it comes to treatment, there aren’t nearly enough programs that offer such treatment to women prisoners. The programs that do exist are hamstrung by lack of individual assessment, treatment for mental illnesses, drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs and vocational training programs. Studies have even found that women prisoners who are substance abusers are more prone to low self-esteem, psychosomatic symptoms and emotional distress than are male prisoners.

There are plenty of other issues that are unique to women prisoners such as lack of vocational training, gender-specific treatment and physical and mental health care. A lot of work needs to be done in all these fields on a nationwide scale before the percentage of female recidivism can be brought down.