Female Inmate Prison Programs

Prison programs are both beneficial to the inmates, and to the public. These programs provide hope, positivity, and the much needed skills/training/education for inmates. Once inmates are released, the rates of returning to prison are very likely. Especially in California, with recidivism rates in the area of about 68%. How can one not question the effectiveness of America's prison systems? Even though there are many different types of prison programs, I will talk about five which I thought highlight female prison programs. These 5 programs include:prison nurseries, dogs in prison, female inmate fire crews, drug treatment, and education.

FEMALE INMATE FIRE CREWS

In the article, “Inmates doing time on Calif. fire lines” women inmate fire crews are observed in Goleta, California. Female inmates from the Conservation Camp Program, near Santa Barbara have the opportunity to help fight fires. The Conservation Camp Program has both male, and female inmates, with about 350 female inmates participating in this particular program. The inmates “are trained to fight fires and do forestry work on public lands”. “The women do the same work as their male counterparts, and while they're not as strong or fast, they're more precise", said Lt. Angela R. Alexander, supervisor of the Goleta fire crew. He also noted how much cleaner the female fire crew lines were, compared to the men. And in addition, Alexander noted the close knit “buddy systems” the women prisoners have. The only real difference between the inmates, and the non inmate fire crews is that the inmates cannot use the torches used for setting backfires. For the hard work these females inmates do, "they earn a $1 an hour and two days off their sentence for every day worked”. I think that is great that inmates both male, and female can participate in helping put out brush and forest fires. They are being productive with their sentence while helping out society. Even though it is understandable how not every inmate can qualify to participate, the fact that they are effectively using their time controlling and maintaining brush and forest fires is terrific.



PAWS IN PRISON/PATRIOT PAWS

There are two programs involving dogs interacting with inmates, specifically females in a prison environment.Lori Stevens, runs a non profit called Patriot Paws which was founded in 2006. This program takes service dogs, and lets female inmates train them for veterans who are disabled. Patriot Paws runs on donations, however Stevens says, "there is never enough funding”. She also notes, “the hardest part is asking for money”. The training of the dogs start when the puppies are 6-18 months, and according to Stevens, “They are usually Labs because they are smart, eager to learn and friendly” . Stevens has over 20 years of dog training experience, and is a certified dog trainer. The second dog program I will note on is Paws In Prison, which I also posted a video from youtube about the program. Paws in Prison runs out of a Womens Correctional Facility in Lockhart, Texas.This specific program takes homeless dogs, and assigns them to qualified female inmates. For eight weeks, the dogs are then assigned to a primary, and secondary offender trainer. The dogs are basically trained to be socialized, and to receive basic training. This training makes the dogs useful in for a family environment.The female inmates attend classes twice a week with professional dog trainer to help in them with the training process. Once the dogs complete their training during the program,they “graduate” and are” ready for adoption by families found through the local collaborating agencies” Both of these dog prison programs show how beneficial these programs really. These animals provide these women with self esteem,better moods, and even provide social support.




PRISON NURSERIES


According to wpaoline.org(2010), there are only nine states (Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Nebraska, New York, South Dakota, Washington, California, and West Virginia)in the U.S. that offer prison nurseries for female inmates with young infants, and children. Four of those prison nursery programs were created within the last five years. As noted in my earlier blog on Female Inmates, the incarcerations rates of females in the past thirty years have risen significantly. So it’s understandable to see the increase in the number of women in entering prison pregnant, and then having the baby while in custody. According to wpaonline.org (2009) prison nurseries programs were being fully operated up until the 1950’s, and by the 1970’s every state prison system except New York had closed their nurseries entirely. So as a result when women would give birth in prison, their babies would instantly taken away from them. Consequently, their babies would be adopted, sent to foster care, or be turned over to a family member to raise.

People opposed to prison nurseries tend to say how a correctional prison setting is not an appropriate place, to raise small children. The environment would hinder the children from properly developing. In addition, the fact that these women have “broken the law” and deserve the consequences, even if that means being separated from her children. Simply these women should not “have the privilege of parenting”.I feel that those arguments could be arguable however, the children of inmates should not suffer at the cost of their mother’s wrongdoing. Instead the children should be able to have a chance at having their mother raise them even if it is in prison.“When adequate resources are available for prison nursery programs, women who participate show lower rates of recidivism, and their children show no adverse affects as a result of their participation”(wpaonline.org)

To be qualified to enroll in a prison nursery program the inmates must not have been convicted of a violent crime, or have a history of any type of child abuse(neglect, physical, or sexual). And the maximum amount of the stay of the children varies among the different nursery programs across the United States. However most of the prison nurseries maximum time allowed is 12-18 months.



SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT

According to waponline.org(2010), "Women continue to be hard hit by the war on drugs. Between 1997 and 2006, women’s arrests for drug abuse violations rose by 29.9%, while men’s arrests for the same type of crimes rose by 15.7%. Over 200,000 adult women were arrested for drug abuse violations in 2006, an increase of nearly 23% from 2002".I have attempted to show the progress of prison programs for female inmates. However, in reality the availability, and funding for these programs isn’t always possible. Substance abuse is a very serious problem that is affecting both male, and female inmate populations and society as a whole.
In the article, “As rehab programs are cut, prisons do less to keep inmates from returning”, the issue of California’s state budget affecting prison programs are focused on. “Officials plan to chop $250 million a year from rehabilitation services, more than 40% of what the state now devotes to them and a quarter of the $1 billion it is slicing from its prison system”. It is quite sad what is happening with the budget, 20% of state workers wages were cut, higher education is hiked up, social services/programs are being cut. This is affecting everyone in California in one way or another. However the state needs to think of ways to make the state budget work for everyone. If we cut these prison programs, inmates who will be released at some point in time will not have the resources/training/treatment to help them survive out in the real world. As a result, many parolees will most likely resort to criminal activity to survive. Thois will in turn affect the safety of the public. Specifically, focusing on substance abuse programs, “At eight prisons, substance-abuse programs will close; scaled-down versions will remain at only 12 of the state's 33 lockups and one of its privately run prisons”. With the war on drugs which is also a SES issue, the situtation will in my opinion just get worse as more and more families undergoing loss of employment, and financial hardships with the state of the US economy.

EDUCATION IN PRISON

In the article, “Inmate education is found to lower risk a new arrest” two studies done on inmate...the Dept. of Education conducted a study on female inmates who received education in prison.The study revealed that inmates who receive highschool, and/or college education are less likely to return to prison within three years of their release. In this study more than 3,000 inmates were Maryland, Minnesota, and Ohio. According to public official..., “We found that for every dollar you spend on education, you save two dollars by avoiding the cost of re-incarceration”. A second study was conducted only on women, at the New York state maximum-security women's prison, Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.According to the study which was conducted by the Open Society Institute, "a philanthropy backed by George Soros, fewer than 8 percent of the former inmates who attended college classes in prison returned to prison after three years, compared with almost 30 percent of the women who had not participated in the college program”. However the funding for these education programs in prisons isn’t always available. “In 1994, when politicians nationwide were trying to show they were tough on crime, Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, making people convicted of felonies ineligible for Pell grants, the federal tuition assistance for the poor. Prison education accounted for less than 1 percent of the Pell grant budget”. However now things are changing for the better, “ under the Higher Education Act's Grants for Youthful Offenders program, the federal government has begun providing about $17 million for postsecondary education, mostly vocational, for inmates under 25 with less than five years to serve”.

Prison programs provide inmates with a more productive way of serving their time as well as self esteem, vocational/educational skills, compassion, and social skills.In addition to the inmates benefit, I believe entire prison can benefit with the type of environemnt prison programs promotes within in the prison. Even though funding for prison programs isn't always available, I hope that the public can see just how much these programs benefit everyone. Inmates and the public both benefit....Even though I just talked about five programs, there are many more options out there such as religion based programs,contemplative programs

SOURCES:

Lewen, Tamar,NY Times 2001 Nov. 16,“Inmate Education Is Found To Lower Risk of New Arrest”

Rothfield, Michael Los Angeles Times ,October 17, 2009 “As rehab programs are cut, prisons do less to keep inmates from returnin” http://articles.latimes.com/2009/oct/17/local/me-rehab17

Paws In Prison
www.wpaonline.org- A Look at Prison Nurseries May 2009

“Females doing time on Calif. fire lines” 2008 USA Today

Berger , Joseph “Prison Puppies” NY Times, June 1, 2008 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E1D91F39F932A35755C0A96E9C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1

http://www.thechowchillanews.com/2010/02/03/20205/prisons-substance-abuse-program.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marian-wright-edelman/mothers-rocking-the-priso_b_108625.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/16/us/inmate-education-is-found-to-lower-risk-of-new-arrest.html?pagewanted=1

Abshire, Richard , June 1, 2009 The Dallas News, “Female felons train Rockwall nonprofit's canine”

WWW.YOUTUBE.COM

Female Inmates

“The female prison population grew up 832% from 1977-2007. The male prison population grew 416% during the same period”. Even though there are much fewer women in prison today versus men, the rate at which women are being incarcerated as increased at an alarming rate. A majority of the crimes women commit are non violent, such as drug and property offenses. In the United States there are approximately 200,000 females behind bars. California is the state that has the largest amount of prisoners, currently at 5,010 inmates. In addition California “hosts” the world’s largest women’s prison, the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. There are 3 major women’s prisons in California. Besides, CCWF, there is Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW), also in the Central Valley, and the California Institution for Women (CIW) in Corona. There are many issues that women in prison must face: medical care, parenting, lack of proper resources, and sexual abuse. In trying to better understand incarcerated females, I will talk about a brief history of women inmates in the early 1900’s as well as women’s offenses and issues of interest with women inmates. In doing so I will attempt to answer the question: Who are these women being incarcerated in the United States?

In the beginning of the 19th century, there were few women imprisoned, and as a result, these small numbers were subjected to particularly harsh conditions. Both men, and women prisoners in the early 1900’s had to endure harsh treatment, filthy conditions, and overcrowding. However, because of the lack of women matrons(women that oversaw female inmates) for female prisoners, women were defenseless, and “vulnerable to attack from prison guards”. In addition women were not allowed to go to mess halls, exercise yards, workshops and had less access to physicians compared to male prisoners. Instead women were stuck in their cells, with their meals brought to them, basically left to die for the remainder of their sentences. Taking for example, the Auburn Penitentiary in New York in the 1920’s.Women were housed together in a one room attic, the windows were sealed preventing communication with men. The only options for women prisoners were penitentiaries, and custodial units which followed a “masculine model” . This model focused on “hard labor and harsh discipline”. The women’s reformatory movement emerged in the 1870’s with the development of reformatories which had more humane conditions and focused on actual rehabilitation. However in the 1930’s, during the Great Depression these reformatories were merged with custodial units, and because of lack of funding Reformatories lost their focus.



A typical female in the prison system is African American, or Latina. Unfortunately, a majority of these women have minimal education, and job skills. “Ninety-three out of every 100,000 white women were incarcerated at midyear 2008. During the same time period, 349 out every 100,000 black women and 147 out of every 100,000 Hispanic women were incarcerated”. This shocking statistic is just one of the many which exhibit the racial bias in our criminal justice system. According to prisonpolicy.org Black Women compared to White Women are, “over-arrested, over-indicted, under-defended and over-sentenced”.

Women in prison have many distinctive healthcare issues from male inmates. “As of December 31, 2005, 65.7% of women in California prisons were imprisoned for non-violent offenses, the majority of which were drug-related”(CDCR). A majority of female inmates have drug problems. Unfortunately even though many women entering prison have drug related problems, there is a lack of programs which therefore prevent women from getting the treatment they need to overcome their addictions. Another increasing problem, is the high rates of HIV and AIDS among female inmates. Since a majority of female inmates have problems with abusing drugs and prostitution. “57% of women in State prison report that they were physically or sexually abused prior to incarceration”(www.prisons.org).In regards to reproductive issues, women who give birth in prison are shackled. Because of the restrictive manner in which women inmates give birth in prison their babies are at risk. Studies have shown that women who are shackled during childbirth, develop complications such as decreased fetal heart rate. And in addition if a women needs a c-section, because of the increased time due to being shackled while birthing the child, the extra time(delay) can cause brain damage in the baby. A lot of women inmates have histories of physical, and sexual abuse. These histories, are often as a result of abusive male family members, husbands, or intimate partners. Because of histories of sexual, and physical abuse, a lot of incarcerated women have mental issues such as post traumatic stress disorder. However there are very few female prisons that offer the proper counseling services for these women.


“Most women prisoners are mothers. 64% have minor children, and 60% were living with their kids when arrested”(www.prisons.org). The issue of women inmates and their families are considerably different than men and their families. A majority of women in prison were the main providers for their families. So as a result, their families often get separated during their imprisonment. Often children of incarcerated females get “lost” in the foster care system. In addition many female prisons across the country are located in rural areas. A lot of women who get sent to prison come from urban, low income families. Taking California’s female prisons, for example. Two of the three women’s prisons are in Chowchilla (central California), and the third is located in Corona in southern California. For many families without cars, the trip to the prisons can be a difficult one. Unfortunately children are the ones who have to pay the price, for their mothers incarcerations. For many young toddlers an school age children the experiences along of just visiting their mothers can be traumatizing. According to the TIMES article, Mothers in Prison, children are subjected to strip searches.


Finally I will touch on the topic of sexual misconduct occurring in female US prisons. There have been many accounts of female inmates being raped, coerced to have sex, pat down searches which were inappropriate, or have been violated in some way by correctional staff(medical, officers). Rule 53 of the United Nations’ Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners declares that women prisoners must be supervised only by female officers. However the predominately male percentage of correctional officers, observe female inmates at all times. Some examples include: taking showers, dressing, and going to the bathroom. Until early 2006, male guards were allowed to pat search female prisoners in California (California Prison Focus). However because of a series of human rights campaigns in 2005,CDCR ended cross gender pat searches of women prisoners in California.

Even though women in our nation’s prisons and jails have committed crimes, there are special circumstances surrounding women and imprisonment. There are issues that women have to deal such as sexual abuse, reproductive and mental health issues, substances abuse issues, and lack of job/employment skills. Because of these issues, when these inmates are eventually released it will be like a cycle. A cycle that will not fix the problem, the problem surrounding women inmates in the criminal justice system.




Sources:
M Kay Harris (1998)Women’s Imprisonment in the United states, Corrections Today 60,7; Criminal Justice periodicals p.74
Kursham, Nancy “Women and Imprisonment in the US” www.prisonactivist.org
“Women & Criminal Justice-2009” http://www.wpaonline.org/pdf/Quick%20Facts%20Women%20and%20CJ%202009.pdf
“Women in Prison” America, 5/29/2006, Vol. 194 Issue 19, p5-5, 1p;
www.cdcr.com California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Drummond, Tammerlin “Mothers in Prison” TIME magazine Oct. 9, 2009
Women Prisoners: Altering the Cycle of Abuse. By: Fettig, Amy, Human Rights: Journal of the Section of Individual Rights & Responsibilities, 00468185, Spring2009, Vol. 36, Issue 2
www.prisonpolicy.org
http://www.womenprisoners.org/resources/critical_statistics.html