NCJ Number
187939
Date Published
2000
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This paper presents the results of a literature review that pertains to the needs of women inmates and the management and rehabilitation implications of these needs.
Abstract
This review identifies some of the features of "best practice" in rehabilitation in general and then identifies and discusses the issues that arise in applying these principles to the treatment and rehabilitation of women inmates. Canadian researchers (Andrews, Bonta, Hoge, etc.) have concluded that recidivism reductions are much greater when rehabilitation programs are based in five principles: determining the characteristics of offenders who are at greatest risk and the degree of risk, identifying needs that underlie risk of offending, tailoring programmatic responses to identified needs, ensuring program integrity, and providing for professional discretion in program design and implementation. Research (Moth and Hudson, 2000) has shown that the criminogenic needs of female offenders pertain to being responsible for children, financial problems, limited job skills/opportunities, current clinical depression, drug use, the absence of a stable relationship, antisocial peers and attitudes, lack of affiliation with prosocial agencies, educational problems, and personality and behavioral problems. Most of the studies related to the adaptation of standard programs for women relate to changing the content of programs to make them more congruent with women's needs. Alternatively, the argument may be made that the function/antecedents for programs (e.g., substance abuse) are different and that such needs should, therefore, be handled differently in programs for women. Some researchers recommend that all prison regime changes should be submitted to a "gender test" that asks whether the proposed innovations require differential implementation in women's and men's prisons because of the biological and culturally induced differences between female and male inmates. 38 references