The Incarceration of Women

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Recommended: Relevance of prison education

According to a factsheet by The Sentencing Project (2012), more than 200,000 women are incarcerated, including those in local jails. In addition, out of these 200,000 women “1 in 25 women in state prisons and 1 in 33 in federal prisons are pregnant when admitted to prison.” Due to their sentencing, many of these women are forced to give birth while incarcerated. Then days later are separated from their newborn to finish their sentencing. More mothers end up in jails than fathers, and men do not have to worry about bringing their future child into a jail cell like many women do. Granted they may leave their family behind, including a pregnant wife, but they do not have to worry about the care of another human being inside of them while they are behind bars.
However, there are cases when women actually feel they are safer in prison than when they are out in the world. The removal from the outside world gives them the chance to focus on themselves. Bradley and Davino’s study conducted in 2002 collects the general feel that 65 incarcerated women have towards a southern state prison. These women reported feeling safer when compared to their adulthood and childhood before prison. Outside of prison, women are susceptible to emotional and physical pain because of problems such as domestic violence or drugs. This prison also gave women the education needed when they are eventually released. Some women had not even heard of the dangers of disease like HIV before.
Andrew Novinska pointed out in his article from 2002, women “have been viewed within our culture as less mentally healthy than men” (p. 105). The women in the 2002 study recognized that their own world is not safe, even being in prison. One woman was into the drug scene and was...

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...e afraid of the outside world and the outside world does not need to be concerned about them if all goes well and they can carry through. It ends up being a win-win situation.

Works Cited

Bradley, R. &. (2002). Women's perceptions of the prison environment: When prison is "the safest place I've ever been". Psychology of Women's Quarterly, 4(26), pp. 351-359.
Clark, A. (2009, July 6). Giving Birth in Chains: The Shackling of Incarcerated Women During Labor and Delivery. Retrieved April 2014
Hutchinson, K. M. (2008). Incarcerated women's psychological functioning during pregnancy. Psychology of Women's Quarterly, 4(32), pp. 440-453.
Incarcerated Women. (2012, December). Retrieved April 2014
Novinska, A. (2002). Women & alcoholism. In K. Tyndall, Psychology and Women (pp. 105-106). Buford, GA: Lad Custom Publishing.
Summit House. (n.d.). Retrieved from Summit House.

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