NCJ Number
94300
Journal
Prison Journal Volume: 64 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring/Summer 1984) Pages: 3-14
Date Published
1984
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Although female inmates housed in coeducational institutions benefit from greater access to rehabilitative programs than are found in segregated institutions, women's interests remain subordinate to those of men. An alternative model, the coordinate prison, is suggested to minimize the liabilities of either the segregated or integrated models.
Abstract
The first cocorrectional or integrated prison was opened in 1971 in Texas, representing the first reintegration of prison inmates in more than a century. Cocorrections began as a means to cut costs. There are now 3 adult cocorrectional institutions in the Federal system and 10 coed State prisons. State coed prisons offer fewer coed activities than Federal prisons. Coed prisons tend to favor men in that they are designed more for the needs of men, who are more numerous. Although women humanize the prison environment, they often play a subservient role. Moreover, the burden of upholding the ban against sexual contact falls more heavily on women than men; their movements are restricted or closely watched. Women also tend to hold the lower status jobs. However, women in coed prisons are likely to have far more programs available to them than in women's prisons. Their participation in these training and educational programs depends, however, on the staff's attitudes toward educating women and on the proportion of women in the population. To increase women's educational involvement, administration and staff should support goals for women so that pressures from a male-dominated prison environment and a male-oriented culture can be overcome. An alternative to either the segregated or integrated prison may be the coordinate prison, which would be administered separately for each sex but would offer certain coed programs. Advantages of this model are noted. Fourteen notes and 21 references are supplied.