Women's Imprisonment - A Study in Social Control

• NCJ Number: 90652
• Author(s): P Carlen
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 251 pages
• Sale Source: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

Interviews with recidivist inmates in Scotland's women's prison reveal the changing and various meanings of imprisonment in general and the invisible nature of the social control of women in particular.

Abstract

In addition to presenting results from interviews with women inmates, this study also makes extensive use of interviews with law enforcement officers and social workers, as well as observation in prisons, the courts, and the lodging houses. One section of the study discusses the relationship between women, family, and imprisonment. It describes how some elements of Scottish domestic life have traditionally disciplined women in a multitude of nonpenal ways and suggests that when sheriffs and magistrates are faced with a sentencing dilemma involving a female offender, the decision about whether to imprison is based on an assessment of the woman as a mother. It was found that although the women's prison emphasizes the cultivation of domesticity and the rebuilding of family relationships, it interferes with the building of such relationships on the outside. It is further concluded that the prison's disciplinary regime debilitates short-term inmates by contradictorily defining them as being both in need of developing adult feminine roles appropriate to Scottish society while simultaneously conditioning them to a disciplinary regime that deprives them of femininity and adult responsibilities. Other chapters conclude that the female petty offenders who are imprisoned are those viewed as being beyond the care of social services and beyond cure by the medical authorities. Thus, women inmates are so viewed and treated that they are effectively denied an environment conducive to their learning to live responsibly in Scottish society. The appendixes present data on female inmates committed to prison in Scotland in 1978, the interview questionnaires used with the inmates and other interviewees, and an examination of social work training as it bears on preparation to work with female offenders. A total of 127 bibliographic entries are provided.