Women In Prisons

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Women's division is one of the fastest growing divisions of prison population all over the world, especially in the United States. The increasing amounts of women are locked in prisons due to different reasons. In 1980 mandatory sentencing laws took effect, this increased the female population in California prisons. The incarceration rate for women is still much lower in comparison to the male prison population, but the rates for women are increasing at a large rate than expected to be. According to the Criminal Justice California Department of Corrections, in 1996 there were 78 percent of women in California Prisons that were incarcerated for non-violent offenses. Most of the crimes are related to use or possession of any narcotics, or …show more content…
This large amount of media attention has highlighted the prevalence of issues including self-harm, suicide and drug addiction within women’s prisons. Women in prison have experienced victimization, an unstable family life, school and/ or work failure, and substance abuse and many other problems (Ajinkya 2012). Social factors that isolate their participation in mainstream society and contribute to the rising number of women in prison. Criminologists have argued that the prison system is “ill-equipped” to deal with the problems that set women to prison in the first place (Jrank 2016). It is believed by many that these issues are better managed outside the harsh environment of the prison. Without trying to fix or address these issues, women are often released from prison unprepared to manage the problems they were incarcerated for. Not only that, but now the women are being released with new issues they have experienced when they were imprisoned which just piles onto the previous problems. These are just several critical problems faced by women in …show more content…
Some people say that it allows women to learn from their wrongful actions and get some kind of treatment. Prison can be effective because in a way it can scare you straight, however due to the current conditions in California prisons it seems like more harm than good is being done. In order for prison to have a positive affect on women it has to have the correct living conditions and proper support. Research shows that custodial sentences are not appropriate for many women and not effective in reducing offending or reoffending (UK 2015). Prisons are usually always built for the male prison population in mind and that is why they don't provide for the women
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