NCJ Number
128844
Journal
Women and Criminal Justice Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Dated: (1990) Pages: 3-17
Date Published
1990
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Women's prisons in Spain developed out of early policies on prostitution and Magdalen houses, religious beliefs, and concerns about order and authority.
Abstract
Gender beliefs that led to different directions in the development of women's and men's prisons are apparent in a proposal made in 1608 by madre Magdalena de San Geronimo to the King of Spain. Subsequent penal policies were influenced by the proposal and a gender-specific transition was promoted from corporal public punishments into private reformatory incarceration. Madre Magdalena's proposal reveals the origins of female incarceration in prostitution and concerns about order and authority. Reform movements within the Church insisted that all sinners could be changed and that discipline imposed on them should be for the purpose of redemption rather than punishment. Gender ideology in this culture promoted enclosure and discipline for all women as essential to public order and as an antidote for disobedience and uncontrolled sexuality. 46 endnotes (Author abstract modified)