Women in Prison: The Treatment, the Control, and the Experience (From Gender, Crime and Justice, P 161-175, 1987, Pat Carlen, Anne Worral, eds. -- See NCJ-127255)

• NCJ Number: 127264
• Author(s): E Genders; E Player
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 15 pages
• Sale Source: Open University Press
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This analysis of penal policy towards women in Great Britain focuses on some of the adaptations that contemporary prisons have made for the treatment and control of women and on how these adaptations relate to the experiences of female prisoners.

Abstract

The adaptations have occurred in the following four areas: (1) education and training programs that emphasize traditional "women's subjects"; (2) an emphasis on esthetics in women's prisons; (3) the introduction of determinate sentences for offenders between ages 18 and 20 under the Youth Custody policy; and (4) the more extensive prescription of psychotropic drugs for female offenders. These adaptations rest on gender-specific assumptions about female sex roles and about the behavior and needs of women in prison. Despite these adaptations, interviews with 254 female inmates revealed that the loss of social contacts, the loss of personal possessions, and the loss of autonomy continue to represent the major pains of imprisonment and may even be exacerbated by organizational interventions. Therefore, changes that would restore to women some level of responsibility for their problems and would provide realistic work skills would be desirable. Note