NCJ Number
183054
Date Published
1999
Length
19 pages
Annotation
The major concerns about women's imprisonment in England in the late 1990's are those provoked by the rapid increase in the female prison population and the consequent overcrowding in the women's establishments; the special plight of imprisoned mothers; and the continued failure of the prisons to recognize that the needs of women prisoners are different from those of their male counterparts.
Abstract
In the late 1990's the numbers of women in penal custody in England and Wales continue to increase. In 1997 the average female prison population increased 19 percent, from 2,260 in 1996 to 2,680. When women go to prison, a mesh of informal controls that silently coerce and define women outside of prison is immediately intertwined with formal penal sanctions. As a result, women usually experience a much heavier penal burden than men. The most obvious effect these informal controls have on women's imprisonment is manifested in the pain that mothers experience as a result of being either pregnant and in prison or deprived of their children while serving their sentences. In England there is still no insightful, principled, coherent, and holistic strategy for the management of women's imprisonment. This chapter discusses four of the most recent effects of the Prison Department's continuing failure to recognize that biological and gender differences result in women experiencing many aspects of prison life both differently and with greater pain than men. These practices are mandatory drug testing for women inmates, in which urinalysis specimens are taken in the presence of a corrections officer; the use of dedicated search teams that conduct embarrassing intrusive strip searches; handcuffing; and the hiring of men to work in women's prisons, a practice that often leads to sexual exploitation. 51 notes and 29 references