Programs for Incarcerated Women - Research Paper Example

PROGRAMS FOR INCARCERATED WOMEN (The Hidden Victims) ID Number: of of School (University) Estimated Word Count = 2,250 Date of Submission: February 18, 2012 Abstract This paper explores the topic of women in incarceration and how this affects their own children. The prevailing wisdom was that women in prisons were just a small minority and were largely ignored or overlooked in the past. However, the feminist movement has spotlighted some special concerns with regard to incarcerated women, considering that many of the women are mothers, often with children below 18 and in need for maternal support. Previously, women in prison were arrested and incarcerated for violent crimes such as murder, poisoning and arson, but the last few decades saw that a growing number of new female inmates were inside a prison for non-violent crimes, meaning these are crimes which are economic in nature. This is not a surprising fact, given that a lot of female inmates belong to racial and ethnic or other minorities such as those belonging to the lower socio-economic classes or being uneducated. The negative effect of incarcerated mothers gave rise to innovative ideas and approaches when it comes to dealing with children whose mothers are in prison. Special attention was paid to their daughters, and that is how the Girl Scouts of the USA came out with their “Girl Scouts Beyond Bars” program which made a positive influence on people who would otherwise had lost hope. Keywords: daughters, drugs, economic, girl scouts, incarcerated, women in prison Introduction The issue of women in prison is a very sensitive topic for most people. Only lately has it caught the attention of policy makers, politicians and other interested parties because of the so-called womens movement, or feminism. The previous research on this subject was limited to the gender gap among highly visible political issues such as voting preferences between males and females, social equality discussions at the workplace, abortion rights and gender differences in attitudes towards crime and punishment. Some studies showed that most women, who feel that they are more vulnerable to crime due to their enhanced feelings of insecurity, usually favor a harsher and more severe punishment for convicted offenders to serve as deterrence. Female attitudes with regard to appropriate punishments include a longer prison sentence and capital punishment. The prevailing psychology in this regard is that punishment is used as deterrence for potential crime offenders and that the said punishment will somehow reduce crime in society. Women feel particularly vulnerable when it comes to certain crimes in which by their very nature, women are the predominant victims, such as domestic violence and rape. A general perception is that the two sexes have a different attitude towards crime and punishment, with women oriented to more “ethic in care” while men prefer the “ethic in equity of justice” by which criminals must be punished immediately with enough severity, sometimes by applying death penalty. Only lately has the issue of women in prison been brought out into the open and included in the public discourse. The feminists have done quite a job in highlighting the problems of women in prison, including the racial and economic differences found to be inherent in the criminal justice system, and in particular, how female prisoners fare. This topic is the subject of this paper. Discussion The previous focus of the womens movement had been on the perceived vulnerability of women to certain crimes targeting them specifically. This feeling of fear and insecurity is of a great consequence in terms of their feeling and perception as potential victims. However, a new feminist focus today is one on the problem of women ending up in prisons and all the other issues related to female incarceration. The prior years had been focused on women as victims, but this new tack in public discourse has now shifted to women as convicted criminals. There is a whole new dimension with this tectonic shift, from victims to crime perpetrators. but this is a very complicated issue unlike that of men who are in prison today. Part of this complexity is the related problem of women who are single mothers, with young kids to take care of, and the bad or adverse effects on young children whose mothers end up in prison. These children of women who are incarcerated are innocent of the crime but end up being victims themselves. Over the years, women have constituted a negligible minority of the prison population. Statistics gathered since 1632 up to 1987 showed that female prisoners comprised only 1.1% of the total prisoners condemned to death (those found guilty and sentenced to capital punishment) and the total percentage of women who were actually put to death was even much smaller (Harries, 1992, p. 21). The crimes they had committed ranged from murder, witchcraft, arson, poisoning and attempted murder (ibid., p. 25). One statistic which stood out was that black women were very prominent in the prison population, although black Americans constituted then, as well as they do now, just a minority of the entire U.S. population. A relatively new development in jurisprudence was the battered-wife syndrome which allowed defense against patterns of physical abuse (ibid., p. 28). All these developments reflect the growing public discourse and female awareness in an issue that affects them most. This is part of the larger recent interest in the social narrative of women’s experience, from feminism to equal rights. The broader female experience has been extended to how women have fared in the judicial system, and in particular, how their repeated “ethic in care” has covered more areas of interest, such as inter-personal violence, care of kids, domestic or family abuse, responsibility for aging parents, harsher penalties against wife beaters and heightened advocacies for laws that prevent violence against children. An example of gender differences is when men respond to a husbands use of force as generally justified, while females tend to view it as bordering on seriously criminal (Hurwitz & Smithey, 1998, p. 92). One negative development that has feminists and sociologists very much concerned is a continued rise in women who end up in prison. Among them are a greater number of mothers who are single or unwed, with kids who have no one left to care for them. Most often, these children are left to the care of grandparents and possibly other close relatives. This is a vulnerable sector which is too often either ignored out of sheer ignorance of the magnitude of the problem involved or due to having been overlooked or neglected by social workers. In other words, there is a whole new dimension to the problem of young children whose mothers are in prison. Increased awareness of this often lingering problem has been raised due to the feminist theory in order to initiate a wider discussion of women in prison, especially the mothers who, in many cases, have been the victims of their own circumstances. Previously, women were mothers, wives and sisters of those in prison, but now the situation has been altered markedly by women who end up being in prison, and a new feminist perspective is being used (Pope, 2002, p. 257). Whereas in previous decades the primary reasons why women would end up in prison were murder and attempted murder, the profile of women in prison has changed considerably these days. A majority of them are in prison due to illegal drugs possession and illegal drug dealing. A “war on drugs” has caused the female prison population to grow fivefold since the early 1990s; it is still growing considerably ahead of the male population (Zaitzow & Thomas, 2003, p. 119) in a trend that has alarmed experts because the majority of these incarcerated women are young. A good portion of them turned to illegal drugs to support themselves and their children. Todays more enlightened carceral system has been modified somewhat to accommodate this new reality. Female advocates within the criminal justice system have sought new ways for a lot of these women to be empowered in order to spare their children from the harm that their own incarceration may inflict on their offspring. The underlying paradigm in penology, which is equal punishment for an equal crime, may not be so appropriate when taking into consideration what a lot of women carry with them to prison in terms of extra emotional baggage of having kids. The prevailing provision that penalties should be commensurate (proportional) with the crime may need to be re-examined. In other words, women prisoners may need an extra leniency. The vast majority of women in correctional facilities are mothers. These women face a considerable additional challenge when it comes to managing motherhood while in prison. The demographic characteristics of this female inmate population is composed mostly of ethnic and racial minorities (47%), majority of them have less than a high school education (62%) and their median age is 31. A more alarming statistic is that many of them are in prison for non-violent (or economic) crimes and 78% of the females are likely to be parents (Enos, 1998, p. 58). Further research showed that 70% of female inmates lived with their children before an incarceration and 66% of them had children below 18.. The adverse impact, both in mental and emotional aspects, of taking these women away from their families and young kids is putting an additional burden on them because most of these women were embedded in caretaking and were active family members at the time of their arrests (ibid.), which can be traumatic to their kids. Rehabilitative programs are being adopted for the purpose of letting kids of female inmates deal with the aspects of their incarceration, from denial to acceptance; these programs are designed to let them escape the so-called BADD cycle (bargaining, activity, disillusionment and desperation) as most children tend to avoid visiting their mothers while they are in prison (AI, 1999, p. 24). The growing number of incarcerated women gave rise to the hidden victims of a female inmate population – children who had been deprived of maternal guidance by their absence. This is the focus of some advocacy groups and non-governmental organizations which give support to these hidden victims of incarceration. A variety of measures and programs to help these children adjust to absentee mothers are being undertaken because a big majority of these young children do not automatically enter the government foster care system (Deer, Clairmont, & Martell, 2008, p. 158) and are exposed to various social dangers such as juvenile delinquency and absenteeism from school or dropping out altogether, if the child is of schooling age already. When the mother is incarcerated, she runs a very real risk of losing her parental rights, and her child or children can end up being shuffled within the foster care system, some of them not seeing their mothers again. The kids end up as wards of the state and some of them wind up being put out for adoption, thereby severing contact with their incarcerated mothers (ibid.). Very young children are the most vulnerable, as these kids with mothers in prison exhibit a host of emotional and psychological problems such as bedwetting, nightmares, a fear of darkness and withdrawal symptoms. One way to obviate the ill effects of incarceration is to have maximum contact for imprisoned mothers with their children, such as frequent prison visits. The criminal justice and social workers assigned to see to it that this emotional requirement of maternal contacts was complied with, came up with a unique Girl Scouts program (Girl Scouts, 2012, p. 1). In this regard, a very innovative program was undertaken by the Girl Scouts precisely to deal with this problem. Its aim and premise is quite simple, which is to re-unite the incarcerated mother with her daughter. This unique program is the feminists answer to the universal justice system which often does not distinguish or give due recognition to the special needs of females in prison, with regard to the children they had left behind. Important aspects of this program are to provide the mother and daughter with joint fun activities, counseling and family advice. This program is appropriately named as “Girl Scouts Beyond Bars” and has been a positive factor in many families and since its inception in 1992 at a womens correctional facility in Maryland, has been expanded to 23 similar facilities throughout some 22 states. The idea is to engage both the daughter and mother to have a positive relationship despite incarceration (Moline, 2002, p. 1). The program has received federal funding support and has been administered by the Girl Scouts of the USA. This is a good example of a brilliant use of taxpayer dollars with regard to dealing with the epidemic of women in prisons, the majority of whom are mothers with young or teen-aged daughters. The daughter joins the Girl Scouts as a member to earn merits and badges while her mother is likewise enrolled for the said program for them to develop a healthy relationship. Conclusion The problem of women in prisons has been ignored for sometime because the women in correctional facilities are just a small minority of the prison population. In previous centuries, the main causes of their incarceration were murder, attempted murder, arson, poisoning and in weird periods of American history, witchcraft such as those in Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts, at that time a capital offense, similar to laws imposing the death penalty on cursing ones parents. A lot has changed since that time, and one particular development was the sudden rise in womens prison population due to the war on drugs. Most of these incarcerated women were arrested and imprisoned due to economic difficulties and forced to engage in illegal drug dealing, either as a pusher or were in possession of illegal drugs for being addicts. Either way, this gave rise to new challenges in penology because it so happened that many of these imprisoned women were mothers. With their orientation towards an “ethic of care”, many of the women in prison were active in the family as members prior to their arrests, which means they were directly involved in child care. The forced separation between mother and child, in particular her daughter if she has a daughter, is a traumatic experience for both of them. It results in frayed relationships; maybe in a few instances, it pushes the daughter herself into the same cycle of despair, desperation and crime. An innovative way pioneered by the Girl Scouts is expected to alter this vicious pattern of hopelessness by giving the mother and her daughter a chance to bond despite the incarceration and, maybe, to lead useful and reformed lives to become productive citizens of this country. The “Girl Scouts Beyond Bars” (GSBB) is really a very wise use of federal funds which has a maximum positive effect on many lives. It has given many women a new lease on life and a new reason for living. References Amnesty International, USA. (1999). “Not part of my sentence”: Violations of the human rights of women in custody. Ann Arbor, MI, USA: University of Michigan Press. Deer, S., Clairmont, B., & Martell, C. A. (2008). Sharing our stories of survival: Native women surviving violence. Lanham, MD, USA: Rowman Altamira. Enos, S. (1998). Managing motherhood in prison: the impact of race and ethnicity on child placements. In J. Harden & M. Hill (Eds.). Breaking the rules: Women in prison and feminist therapy (pp. 57-64). Orlando, FL, USA: Routledge. Girl Scouts of the USA. (2012). “Program opportunities: Girl scouts beyond bars, girl scouting in detention centers.” Www.girlscouts.org Retrieved February 17, 2012 from http://www.girlscouts.org/program/program_opportunities/community/gsbb.asp Harries, K. (1992). “Gender, execution, and geography in the United States.” Human Geography, 74 (1), 21-29. Hurwitz, J. & Smithey, S. (1998, March). “Gender differences on crime and punishment.” Political Research Quarterly, 51 (1), 89-115. Moline, A. (2002, March 10). “Girl Scouts reunites moms in prison with daughters.” Womens E-News org. Retrieved February 18, 2012 from http://womensenews.org/story/incarceration/020310/girl-scouts-reunites-moms-prison-daughters Pope, A. (2002). “A feminist look at the death penalty.” Law and Contemporary Problems, 65 (1), 257-282. Zaitzow, B. H. & Thomas, J. (2003). Women in prison: Gender and social control. 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