The Incarcerated Woman: Rehabilative Programming in Women's Prisons / Edition 1

by Susan F. Sharp

Overview

Written by some of the foremost scholars in the area of feminist criminology, this book provides the most comprehensive, cutting-edge overview available of treatment/rehabilitative policies and programming for women prisoners. Focused on the special needs of women prisoners, rather than on prison programming in general, it explores those needs in detail, the ability of current programming to meet those needs, and what could be done. Each chapter addresses the theory, practice, policies, and issues of a different aspect of rehabilitative programming needs of women in prison--e.g., education, health needs, mental health issues, abuse issues, substance abuse issues, parenting issues, and discharge planning for women prisoners. For those working in the Criminal Justice System and women's programs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780130940674
Publisher:	Pearson
Publication date:	03/18/2002
Series:	Prentice Hall's Women in Criminal Justic
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	189
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Susan F. Sharp, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Oklahoma. Her areas of interest encompass gender and the criminal justice system, gender and deviance, and the effects of criminal justice policies on families. Prior to obtaining her doctorate, she worked as a substance abuse counselor, primarily with offender populations. Recent research includes work published in Women & Criminal Justice, The Prison Journal, Deviant Behavior, Journal of the Oklahoma Criminal Justice Research Consortium, Journal of Youth & Adolescence, and Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. She is active in the Division on Women and Crime of the American Society of Criminology, serving as newsletter editor since 1999.

Read an Excerpt

Welcome to our Women's Series. This is the first of many volumes on particular topics that deal with women and issues of criminal justice. Women have had to struggle to be considered equals since the inception of our country, and gender-based disparity has certainly been very apparent in the field of criminal justice. Women were not supposed to get arrested. Women were not supposed to work in the field. Women belonged in the home, preserving the sanctity of family and life as it was "meant to be." But all that changed over the many decades of our country.

Women are and have been getting into trouble since our nation was founded. Women are getting arrested and women are working in the field of criminal justice. And yet in the twenty-first century women are still looking to be treated as equals. Gender-based disparities have been under investigation for a long time now, and it is only recently that we find such unequal treatment being acknowledged as unacceptable.

For years now, female offenders, crime victims, and criminal justice professionals have been neglected. It has always been assumed that if a female "dares" to participate in the criminal justice system, be it as offender, victim, or professional, she should receive the same treatment as her male counterpart. Over the last decades, we have recognized that greater emphasis and concern has to be focused on women. Programs for women have always suffered, because criminal justice and women were not similar terms. Women have always had to struggle for acceptance not only as professionals, but as individuals who do commit crimes, and are in fact victims of crimes. Gender inequality has always been deeply rooted in the workplace, having been based on societal expectations. Women have always had to face many drawbacks and obstacles in what has been noted as male-dominated fields. For women to be considered to work in the professions of criminal justice was almost unthinkable. Early female police officers were thought to be capable only of watching over women who committed unthinkable crimes, or of directing traffic. The idea of women working in the field of corrections was totally unacceptable until the 1970s.

There was a common perception that the criminal behavior of women and the delinquent actions of young girls were not serious problems. Women, if they did commit crimes, were thought to commit only the simplest and most minor of offenses. Historically, they constituted a very small proportion of the prison population. These facts masked a trend that currently attracts our attention: the dramatic rise in the number of prison and jail inmates, even though crime rates are down. However, when we look at women who commit crimes, we find that their rate of offending is increasing faster than those of their male counterparts, and therefore, so is the need for women criminal justice professionals. Today, women are being arrested at a faster rate than men. There is also the discussion of whether gender should be given special consideration, rather than simply treating female offenders exactly the same as their male counterparts.

Attention needs to be focused on women to understand their status as both offender and victim. We need to recognize women as professionals in the criminal justice system. As an example, violence against women—including domestic violence or intimate violence, sexual assaults, sexual harassment, and stalking—have been in the limelight of late and therefore recognized as having some significance for those who study criminal justice.

Admittedly, there have been limitations on the data collected because crimes against women and data on women as offenders have been underreported. Today, there are probably about 200,000 women offenders in prison; what put them there? Incarcerated women seem to be disproportionately women of color, from low-income backgrounds, and individuals who face violence on an everyday basis. There are those women who commit crimes to survive—who are they? What have we done to help them, or better yet, to prevent such situations from occurring? Is there a correlation between women who are victimized and those who offend?

This women's series, as developed, will focus on many of the topics that formerly have not been considered pertinent to the study of criminal justice. Without studying what happens to women, how women gain entry into working as professionals in the criminal justice system, we do not give the complete picture of criminal justice in the United States in the twenty-first century.

We welcome you to our first book, The Incarcerated Woman: Rehabilitative Programming in Women's Prisons, compiled by our guest editor, Susan Sharp. Significant progress has been made, but not enough. Women's unequal treatment constitutes a massive violation of human rights. We are here to direct your attention to the problems and issues and underscore what the costs of inequality are, what has kept it in place in the past, and what we need to do to move forward.

Roslyn Muraskin, Ph.D.
Series Editor Long Island University

Table of Contents

Overview, Roslyn Muraskin.

I. THE PROBLEM: RISING FEMALE INCARCERATION RATES.

1. Reinventing Women's Corrections: Challenges for Contemporary Feminist Criminologists and Practitioners, Meda Chesney-Lind.

II. EDUCATIONAL AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING.

2. Stereotypes and Vocational Programming for Women Prisoners, Pamela J. Schram.

3. Does Rehabilitative Justice Decrease Recidivism for Women Prisoners in Oklahoma?, Dennis R. Brewster.

III. HEALTH CARE FOR WOMEN PRISONERS.

4. Issues in the Availability of Health Care for Women Prisoners, Tammy L. Anderson.

5. Pregnant Prisoners: Health, Security, and Special Needs Issues, Diane M. Daane.

6. Doing Time in the Shadow of Death: Women Prisoners and HIV/AIDS, Barbara H. Zaitzow and Angela D. West.

IV. ISSUES IN MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE.

7. Responding to the Needs of Women Prisoners, Joanne Belknap.

8. Treating the Woman Prisoner: The Impact of a History of Violence, Susan T. Marcus-Mendoza and Erin Wright.

9. The State-of-the-Art in Substance Abuse Programs for Women in Prison, Margaret S. Kelley.

V. FAMILY AND PARENTING ISSUES.

10. Mothers in Prison: Issues in Parent-Child Contact, Susan F. Sharp.

VI. PREPARING FOR RETURN TO SOCIETY.

11. Leaving Stronger: Programming for Release, Lori B. Girshick.

12. Where Do We Go from Here?, Susan F. Sharp.

Preface

Welcome to our Women's Series. This is the first of many volumes on particular topics that deal with women and issues of criminal justice. Women have had to struggle to be considered equals since the inception of our country, and gender-based disparity has certainly been very apparent in the field of criminal justice. Women were not supposed to get arrested. Women were not supposed to work in the field. Women belonged in the home, preserving the sanctity of family and life as it was "meant to be." But all that changed over the many decades of our country.

Women are and have been getting into trouble since our nation was founded. Women are getting arrested and women are working in the field of criminal justice. And yet in the twenty-first century women are still looking to be treated as equals. Gender-based disparities have been under investigation for a long time now, and it is only recently that we find such unequal treatment being acknowledged as unacceptable.

For years now, female offenders, crime victims, and criminal justice professionals have been neglected. It has always been assumed that if a female "dares" to participate in the criminal justice system, be it as offender, victim, or professional, she should receive the same treatment as her male counterpart. Over the last decades, we have recognized that greater emphasis and concern has to be focused on women. Programs for women have always suffered, because criminal justice and women were not similar terms. Women have always had to struggle for acceptance not only as professionals, but as individuals who do commit crimes, and are in fact victims of crimes. Gender inequality has always been deeply rooted in the workplace, having been based on societal expectations. Women have always had to face many drawbacks and obstacles in what has been noted as male-dominated fields. For women to be considered to work in the professions of criminal justice was almost unthinkable. Early female police officers were thought to be capable only of watching over women who committed unthinkable crimes, or of directing traffic. The idea of women working in the field of corrections was totally unacceptable until the 1970s.

There was a common perception that the criminal behavior of women and the delinquent actions of young girls were not serious problems. Women, if they did commit crimes, were thought to commit only the simplest and most minor of offenses. Historically, they constituted a very small proportion of the prison population. These facts masked a trend that currently attracts our attention: the dramatic rise in the number of prison and jail inmates, even though crime rates are down. However, when we look at women who commit crimes, we find that their rate of offending is increasing faster than those of their male counterparts, and therefore, so is the need for women criminal justice professionals. Today, women are being arrested at a faster rate than men. There is also the discussion of whether gender should be given special consideration, rather than simply treating female offenders exactly the same as their male counterparts.

Attention needs to be focused on women to understand their status as both offender and victim. We need to recognize women as professionals in the criminal justice system. As an example, violence against women—including domestic violence or intimate violence, sexual assaults, sexual harassment, and stalking—have been in the limelight of late and therefore recognized as having some significance for those who study criminal justice.

Admittedly, there have been limitations on the data collected because crimes against women and data on women as offenders have been underreported. Today, there are probably about 200,000 women offenders in prison; what put them there? Incarcerated women seem to be disproportionately women of color, from low-income backgrounds, and individuals who face violence on an everyday basis. There are those women who commit crimes to survive—who are they? What have we done to help them, or better yet, to prevent such situations from occurring? Is there a correlation between women who are victimized and those who offend?

This women's series, as developed, will focus on many of the topics that formerly have not been considered pertinent to the study of criminal justice. Without studying what happens to women, how women gain entry into working as professionals in the criminal justice system, we do not give the complete picture of criminal justice in the United States in the twenty-first century.

We welcome you to our first book, The Incarcerated Woman: Rehabilitative Programming in Women's Prisons, compiled by our guest editor, Susan Sharp. Significant progress has been made, but not enough. Women's unequal treatment constitutes a massive violation of human rights. We are here to direct your attention to the problems and issues and underscore what the costs of inequality are, what has kept it in place in the past, and what we need to do to move forward.

Roslyn Muraskin, Ph.D.
Series Editor
Long Island University