Assessing the Racial Climate in Women's Institutions in the Context of Penal Reform

• NCJ Number: 203525
• Journal: Women & Criminal Justice Volume: 15 Issue: 1 Dated: 2003 Pages: 55-79
• Author(s): Kristin C. Carbone-Lopez; Candace Kruttschnitt
• Editor(s): Donna C. Hale
• Date Published: 2003
• Length: 25 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article explores women inmates’ racial attitudes and their perceptions of race relations in two prisons reflecting different penal eras and focuses on race relations and the racial climate of prisons.

Abstract

The female incarceration rate increased five-fold from 1980 to 1999, fundamentally changing the imprisonment of women in the United States. The expansion of the female prison population produced a record number of new institutions for women. This rapid change and expansion has been characterized by scholars as a new penal era encompassing stricter disciplinary regimes, harsher environments, and a place where custody rather than treatment is emphasized. This study explored whether these institutional changes are changing women’s perceptions of the racial climate of prison by examining two California prisons that differ on virtually all dimensions. The study was based on both interviews of 70 female prisoners and surveys administered to 1,821 women housed in the California Institution for Women (CIW) and Valley State Prison (VSP). The study examined women’s perceptions of racial hostility and attitudes about racial conflict in light of their current incarcerated setting. The study found that women’s racial attitudes and their perceptions of racial conflict and custodial staff’s racial prejudice remained largely consistent and relatively benign. No evidence was found of serious racial conflict and little variation in racial attitudes across institutional contexts. The findings clearly indicate that elements of the new correctional philosophy are permeating inmates’ attitudes about their environment. Women’s prisons are not totally immune from the types of changes that have shaped the prison industry over the past two decades, but in terms of race relations, they remain pretty resilient. Women’s experiences in prison can provide information about not only the practices of punishment in society today, but about the conflicting ways in which gendered regimes both undermine and reinforce women’s sense of identity. References