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A SOCIOLOGICAL INPUT - WOMEN IN PRISON
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A SOCIOLOGICAL INPUT - WOMEN IN
PRISON
AUTHORED BY
- AYAN A. HAQ
First year
law student (BA LLB (Hons.)
National
Academy of Legal Studies and Research
Introduction:
In the tapestry of the modern
criminal justice system, women in prison meet at intersections of multiple
problems and challenges. More and more women are incarcerated in today’s world.
This is a clear fact that cannot be ignored. Many factors contribute to this
trend, such as the increase in non-violent crimes or the effects of social and
economic inequalities. These women have diverse stories that are influenced by
their past experiences of trauma, abuse, addiction, and injustice. Their
experiences in the criminal justice system are full of challenges and coping
mechanism, which need to be carefully examined and understood. We can seek to
understand the challenges and vulnerabilities faced by women in prisons by
exploring the intersections of gender, race, socioeconomic status, criminal
justice policies and social situations.
The
problems:
The prison system since its scattered
establishment has been an androcentric and male led ecosystem. In recent years,
there has been a rise in the quantity of incarcerated women all around the
world. They lead shorter terms for generally less serious crimes, in a system
that is wholly male led. Pushed into a system that has been made to cater to
the male gender, women prisoners deal with a plethora of problems; problems
that they face and don’t face in the real world exacerbated by the festering
lifestyle, violence, depravity, overcrowding, congestion, oppression and torture
inmates in today’s world face behind bars. Ever since the first lenses of
gender were trained on the institution of prisons, the “what women want” of it
has been studied in a way that disproportionally disadvantages females. Their
needs and wants have always been studied and recorded as extended needs and
special wants and not as basic necessities and a decent way of life. All over
the world, training just the lens of gender on inmates has never been enough.
Parallely viewing it through lenes of race, caste, creed, etc. all tend to
reveal that within the proportionally small population of women prisoners some
sects tend to be incarcerated at higher rates than the others. Female prisoners
generally tend to have a background and a past coloured in disadvantage,
disability and misfortune. If this is due to the broader population of male
prisoners, more extensive research on the pasts of women, offending being more
common among males or if it is a screaming testament to the blatant sexism that
persists in every corner of the institutions in place today is unclear.
Research into the responses of female prisoners and their adaptation to life in
prison, their addiction, history of mental health issues, familial pressure and
institutionalised oppression all affect their responses, all of which has been
slammed with the prerequisite of how similar those experiences are to the
male’s. Concerns raised all seem to question the governments, policy makers and
prison administrations of how the institution can be made a better place for
women, while entirely new schools of work focus on the gendered nature of
crimes and the disproportionate imposition of punishment on women prisoners.
Research into women in prison was
started by the classic prison sociology in the 1950s and later by targeted
studies in the 1960s[1].
In earlier times, women’s adaptation to prisons were studied as a comparison to
the prevalent male prisoner “code of conduct”. Most commonly and consistently
it seems studies into adaptation share studying issues like aggression,
depression, suicidal tendencies, emotional issues and mental trauma. Pre and
post-prison life of women need to and have been analysed, wherein the key lies
in understanding how the institution of prison compounds these tendencies, the
offenses and the root causes behind them, while recently, feminist schools of
thinking have influenced the understanding of women’s experiences and
adaptations in prison; criticising the mode of thinking and delving more into
how different layers of women’s identities and backgrounds shape their modes of
adaptation, moving away from the “need to fix” basis and the ideal type of
adaptation to prison.
One of the first major contributions
to the study of prisons was Clemmers’ studies and the theory of prizonisation[2].
The studies of the institution of prisons grew along with the growth of
different modes of thinking. Talcott Parson’s analysis from a functionalist
point of view, the first traces of studying prison as having its own
hierarchies and order in his “The Social System”. This and later “functionalist” studies of
prison systems first helped to establish the idea that it was not just crime
and punishment that influenced adaptations to prisons, but lives before prisons,
the ecosystem of the prison and manner and matter of punishment, etc.
Later, earlier classic American
studies on women’s life in prison created major waves. Studies of Ward and
Kassebaum[3],
Giallombardo's studies and Heffernan's research revealed first understandings
of women inmates’ life in prison. It revealed the dynamics of the relationships
that existed within prison, how preprison life affects the inmates’ positions
and first shed light, to much criticism, on the consensual and non-consensual
sexual relationships that existed within prisons. The existence of sexual and
emotional relationships that existed within prisons became an important field
of study within, pathologizing and maligning it, affected unquestionably by the
prejudices of the time. Over the years the methods of study in this have
changed, along with the thinking around relationships among women within
prison, showing an increase in acceptance and the number of consensual sexual
and emotional relationships within prison.
Understanding of individual coping
and adapting to life in prison, has a micro sociological aspect to it running
parallel with a completely psychological means of understanding. Here we zero
in on understanding mental health issues and deviant behaviour.
Understanding aggression and physical
violence; it seems generally women prisoners lead proportionally less physical
attacks compared to male prisons and prisoners though aggression seems a
prevalent problem among. Reports of violence against women prisoners by
authorities come forward all the time, while it is very certain that the actual
number of reports is very understated due to the lack of a proper framework in
many situations to bring forth such complaints and the means of suppression of
such incidents[4].
The prevalence of depression among
incarcerated female prisoners has been an important topic of study, though
relatively less systematic information is available about it5. When
both male and female included studies have been conducted it is seen that
females tend to proportionally have higher reported cases of depression[5].
As a major problem, the relatively smaller availability of women only prisons
and actual accommodation for women within the system as a whole, women
prisoners tend to be held at way higher restrictive environments than is necessary
for the crimes they have conducted; the restrictions imposed on a prisoner is
seen to directly tie into their mental state and severity of depression and
suicidal tendencies. Women prisoners are seen to face issues of suicidal
tendencies and self-harming at a higher proportion than the proportionally
higher quantity of male prisoners. Women prisoners tend to have higher rates of
alcohol and drug abuse. No specific reason could be offered to explain this
phenomenon and it is difficult to answer this question with empirical data
collected from this very small population. But studies linked to addiction and
re-entry into society reveal that problems with addictions and substance abuse
pre and post-prison is seen to be one of the greatest problems hounding women
inmates. Though actual empirical data has been collected from various different
periods and different areas of the world, all studies commonly tend to follow
these understandings of a women inmates’ mental health and problems in prison
from studies in Canada, USA and UK to third world countries[6].
Recidivism[7]
exists as one of the primary problems that need to be understood and handled
for inmates. There is a very common understanding that there is a blatant lack
of understanding of the mental, emotional and physical needs of women in the
traditionally existing androcentric prison systems all around the world, and
this extends to their re-entry into society from incarceration as well. The
question of “what works” in understanding the reformation of inmates has always
been a hard question to answer and becomes a harder question still when we
focus different lenses and backgrounds on the inmates. More recent
understandings of sociology and applying them to the prison ecosystems reveal a
call for understanding the background, lives within prison and future of the
inmates to understand “what works”, which just means that that question
currently does not have a specific answer. Intersection of race, gender, caste,
creed etc. all make the position of women and their recidivism in very risky
positions within the justice system.
Qualitative studies that women are
closely linked to structures of family and when sentenced to prison, an
important link of that family is taken away. Imprisonment has a profound effect
of women prisoners and their establishment and maintenance of family ties, a
social life, communities and economic opportunities. This closer tie to family
seems to offer a greater chance at reintegration into society, but the
variation in integration, affected by the stigma, drug and alcohol abuse,
victimization, etc. linked with women inmates’ recidivism offer unique
disadvantages.
Children of women in prison are the
most vulnerable yet the least studied and focused on. These children; their
lives and their futures are affected to great extents, especially when their
mothers acting as primary caregivers are the ones incarcerated. Losing such a
strong sociological link, and the kind of effects it has on the female prisoners
and their mental health as a whole, and the trajectory it sends the children
off on should be studied. The relationships that exist between these women in
prison and their children is very complex and is only beginning to be
understood and offers very different contradictory experiences to women
prisoners, depending on their ethnocultural background. Children born or
residing in prisons with their mothers are often not provided of the most basic
things necessary for proper development, going so far as being denied of breast
feeding as it might disrupt the schedule of the prison[8].
The institutionalised oppression and discrimination faced by women prisoners as
a whole seems to extend to their families and their offspring, making it one of
the most criminally under addressed problems that women in prison face.
Life after prison seems compounded in
terms of hardships for the majority of women. For the inmates who are not
pushed back into a cycle of a lack of economic opportunities or one of
addiction and abuse, necessary skills are not provided to break out of an
oppressive cycle that constantly holds them down. Prison is said to be an
institution of reformation. The effects of punishment a prison holds are very
clear when we look at the recidivism of women prisoners, and its lack of power
of reformation and providing inmates with the tools necessary to break out of
the oppressive cycles they live in and reform and integrate into society is
even clearer.
Very often incarcerated women, jailed
proportionally higher for lesser offences though given higher punitive
measures, seem to come from systems that have imposed various levels of trauma
and abuse on them, systematically pushing them into a life of crime (which too
could be an explanation of the addiction issues faced by women). The festering
life behind bars creates a condition where this trauma and abuse is commonly
imposed on women inmates from the authorities holding them there and the
inmates they share the institution with. Pre-prison, these inmates face lives
filled with “poverty, illiteracy, substance abuse, mental illness childhood
sexual abuse, and an intricate web of life-threatening physical, psychological,
racial, and sociological problems”. Incarcerated women are seen to face trauma
and abuse at rates compounded than is normally faced by females[9].
Reports come forward from institutions all over the world, after the nominal
silencing and oppression, of violence, sexual assault, and trauma imposed on
women inmates by the very institution they are housed in and “reformed” by. A
depressing extreme reflection of the society outside, women under authority is
forced to surrender to the authority before him to such depraved extends that
concepts of consent becomes irrelevant behind bars. Women in prison are constantly
reminded of the lack of autonomy over their over bodies under these figures of
authority through invasive and pervasive practices like body searches, sexual
abuse, sexual assault, behaviour in a physically invasive manner, etc. that has
seen to be the norm in female prisons and against female inmates around the
world. A sense of powerlessness and lack on control is hammered repeatedly into
the minds of convicts through a system in which they are constantly reminded of
the blaring power differences and their lack of control in it.
Homosexual women tend to face greater
victimisation and alienation behind bars. Homosexual inmates may also undergo a
type of victimization marked by feelings of shame and a negative "victim
mentality" resulting from their experiences in a predominantly
heterosexual society. Undoubtedly, the intersecting oppressions they face
profoundly impact the experiences of women entering and residing in prison. To
summarize, the presence of victimization significantly influences all women,
both as victims and witnesses of this violence. The dynamics within prison
exacerbate the already detrimental experiences of women, especially considering
the cultural victimization related to racism, classism, and various other forms
of oppression.
Considering the high occurrence and
gravity of past sexual victimization and trauma experiences among incarcerated
women, a significant number of female inmates endure the consequences of
childhood and adult sexual abuse9. This could offer one explanation
as to why rates of stress and trauma induced mental illnesses are high amongst
female inmates. These women, coming from positions of vulnerability and
unsafety and placed in a social situation that exacerbates those feelings and
does nothing to contribute to reformation and freedom from such feelings.
The existence of male correctional
officers in women's facilities may exacerbate power imbalances as women must
rely on men for basic necessities (Human Rights Watch, 1996). Correctional
officers’ and prison authorities’ absolute power over inmates create situations
of being thrown into sexual exploitative relationships. Inmates that have to
undergo these situations no longer cease to be victims of such situations but
just “inmates”. These exploitative and abusive relationships that develop and
sustain all too easy within prisons sustain not necessarily through violence or
abuse but through power.
Life in prison ceases to be life in
prison for a lot of inmates after a point. Life for them becomes a looming
threat of suffering in very extreme fashions at the hands of the power that
looms over them. Everyday becomes a physical, mental and psychological threat.
Attacked and further stigmatized by fear of expressing their discomforts to the
authority before them and the stigma that is naturally attached to any women
speaking up in society today, women in prison leave a life that is
characterised by a cycle of traumatization, victimization, revictimization and
retraumatization9.
There is a very urgent need to ask
the questions that matter. The “questions need to be about women, not about
crime or prisons, but about who the women are and how they become who they are”
(Lord 1995). The importance of a feminist approach to dealing with issues like
these are paramount. Focus of most studies today are on how prison can
structurally be made an easier space of living for woman inmates, but schools
of though need to focus on questioning the very deplorable level women inmates
have been pushed to by the institution of prison and its authority, and further
empowering these inmates to ask questions and challenge the conditions of their
lives. We cannot work on making life for women inmates easier without
understanding why and to what extent their life has been shaped by power and
the society around them, and in what ways they can be empowered to question it
and fight against it on their own self, starting from questioning the nature of
punishment and reformation in the institution of prisons by themselves.
Recognizing the undeniable connection between women's
involvement in criminal activities and their history of victimization and
trauma, it becomes imperative to scrutinize the necessary structural needed to
break the ongoing cycles of victimization affecting girls and women. While some
may question the feasibility of such a structural overhaul in our society, the
more pertinent question persists: can we afford not to?
In the 1960’s there emerged a global consensus that “women’s
rights” is not women’s rights but human rights. This realization is of utmost
importance when we study the institution of prisons. The most basic of needs
are seen as extended needs and specialised interests and not just basic
necessities and a way of life. Around the world and especially in third world
countries, prisons have become a “home” for socially displaced, undereducated
and persecuted women18. Studies of women inmates in prisons in South
Africa[10] reveal a story of underprivileged women travelling to cities
and being pushed into a life of institutionalised oppression, violence and
crime. Women are jailed at higher punitive rates for proportionally lesser crimes,
and their lives start to be lives in prison. Without a doubt, women entering
the criminal justice system have often endured significant victimization before
their arrest and imprisonment. While the specific reasons for their
incarceration may vary by country, it's clear that victimization, often
intertwined with poverty, plays a substantial role in pushing women into
challenging circumstances. One can make a compelling argument that
incarcerating women only worsens their already disadvantaged social status and
limits their options for reintegration into civil society.
A prison has had different definition of what it should be
throughout history. Now seen more commonly as an institution of history, it has
been defined as a cage to protect anti-social elements for society[11] and it seems to achieve this goal, prisons have historically
managed a sub-standard way of life; by compromising human dignity and putting
people in prisons as long as the “law” permits.
Conclusion:
The concept of the 'Madonna/Whore'
duality can be observed through men's perceptions of women[12].
Men often view women as potential mothers, sources of physical satisfaction,
objects of adornment, inexpensive labour, and sources of entertainment. An
analysis of women within the criminal justice system reveals that they were
generally accepted as long as they adhered to their designated, traditional
roles. However, challenges emerged when women began to question the prevailing
segregated status quo. While numerous theories exist regarding the criminal
behaviour of women, there is a noticeable lack of practical efforts to identify
concrete causes or viable solutions. The prevailing perception of female
offenders as deviant and nonconforming individuals perpetuates the
'Madonna/Whore' myth. This dichotomy becomes especially evident when discussing
women who aspire to achieve complete integration, equal employment
opportunities, and career advancement within the criminal justice system. They
are often unfairly characterized as unwomanly, sexually questionable,
promiscuous, physically frail, emotionally unstable, and a threat to the
well-being of corrections and law enforcement personnel, as well as detrimental
to the legal cases of their clients. Consequently, despite some progress made
by professional women, achieving full equality within the criminal justice
system appears to remain an elusive goal for the foreseeable future.
An examination of the sociological conditions
of women in prison reveals a complex and multifaceted set of challenges that
extend far beyond the prison walls. Women who find themselves entangled in the
criminal justice system often face a myriad of intersecting social and
structural inequalities. These inequalities are rooted in gender, race, class,
and prior life experiences, and they converge to create an environment where
women are undoubtedly unsafe and vulnerable.
It is evident that addressing the
sociological conditions of women in prison requires a multifaceted approach.
This approach must include comprehensive criminal justice reform, access to
mental health services, educational and vocational opportunities, and support
for mothers to maintain bonds with their children. Additionally, a critical
component of reform must involve addressing the root causes that lead women
into the criminal justice system in the first place, such as poverty, substance
abuse, and domestic violence.
In pursuit of a more “just and equal”
society understanding the sociological situation of women in prison and the
countless intersections of the problems that exist and don’t exist in society
is paramount. Breaking the seemingly daunting cycle of institutionalised
incarceration, supposed “reformation” and the lie of recidivism is another goal
that, for our dreams of a better world should be held close.
“The degree of civilisation is a society
can be judged by entering its prisons.”- Fyodor Dostoevsky
[1] Kruttschnitt, C.
(no date) Women’s imprisonment, Jstor. Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1147696.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default%3A6022a8cc57da7f3778c9575877bc118b&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&origin=&initiator=&acceptTC=1
(Accessed: 09 October 2023).
[2] IN 1940 CLEMMER DEFINED
PRISONIZATION AS THE ASSIMILATION OF DEVIANT NORMS, VALUES, AND MORE OF THE
INMATE CULTURE INTO AN INMATE'S PERSONALITY. HE CONSIDERED THIS TO BE A NATURAL
ADAPTATION BASED ON AN ATTEMPT TO ESTABLISH AN IDENTITY WITHIN THE PRISON
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION.
[3] WOMEN'S PRISON: SEX AND SOCIAL
STRUCTURE. By David A. Ward and Gene G. Kassebaum. Chicago: Aldine Publishing
Company, 1965. 269 pp.
[4] Women in prisons India. Available
at: https://wcd.nic.in/sites/default/files/Prison%20Report%20Compiled.pdf
(Accessed: 09 October 2023).
[5] Kruttschnitt, C. (no date) Women’s
imprisonment, Jstor. Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1147696.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default%3A6022a8cc57da7f3778c9575877bc118b&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&origin=&initiator=&acceptTC=1
(Accessed: 09 October 2023).
[6] From the Women's Prison: Third World
Women's Narratives of Prison, Barbara Harlow, Feminist Studies , Autumn, 1986,
Vol. 12, No. 3 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 501-524
[7] Recidivism is one of the most
fundamental concepts in criminal justice. It refers to a person's relapse into
criminal behavior, often after the person receives sanctions or undergoes
intervention for a previous crime.
[8] Women in prisons India. Available
at: https://wcd.nic.in/sites/default/files/Prison%20Report%20Compiled.pdf
(Accessed: 09 October 2023).
[9] Sexual Revictimization and
Retraumatization of Women in Prison, Danielle Dirks, Women's Studies Quarterly
, Fall - Winter, 2004, Vol. 32, No. 3/4, Women, Crime, and the Criminal Justice
System (Fall - Winter, 2004), pp. 102-115
[10] Women’s rights behind walls,
Mechthild Nagel, Criminal justice in Nigeria, Colonial systems of control,
University of Ottawa press, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1ckph37.18
[11] Our Prisons Punitive or
Rehabilitative? An Analysis of Theory and Practice, Pluto Journals, Rais
GulSource: Policy Perspectives, Vol. 15, No. 3 (2018), pp. 67-83
[12] Feinman, C. (no date) Women
in the criminal justice system. Available at:
https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/women-criminal-justice-system-1
(Accessed: 09 October 2023).
Article Information
A SOCIOLOGICAL INPUT - WOMEN IN PRISON
Authors: AYAN A. HAQ
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Published 2024/04/12
- Issue 7
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- Abbreviation IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
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