Angela Davis in her book, Are Prisons Obsolete?, argues for the overall abolishment of prisons. Amongst the significant claims that support Davis’ argument for abolition, the inadequacy of prison reforms stands out as the most compelling. Reform movements truthfully only seek to slightly improve prison conditions, however, reform protocols are eventually placed unevenly between women and men. Additionally, while some feminist women considered the crusade to implement separate prisons for women and men as progressive, this reform movement proved faulty as female convicts increasingly became sexually assaulted. Following the theme of ineffectiveness, the reform movement that advocated for a female approach to punishment only succeeded in strengthening …show more content…
Angela Davis demonstrates the ongoing violent abuse as she quotes a report on sexual maltreatment in women’s prisons, “We found that male correctional employees have vaginally, anally, and orally raped female prisoners and sexually assaulted and abused them” (Davis 78). However disturbing this blunt sexual contact that male officers take with the vulnerable prisoners may be, the officers adopt even more severe tactics to harass and abuse the women as they often utilize “mandatory pat-frisks or room searches to grope women 's breasts, buttocks, and vaginal areas...” (Davis 79). To add insult to injury, women are virtually incapable of escaping from their abuser(s). Prison employees upkeep their inappropriate behavior as it is believed they will “rarely be held accountable, administratively or criminally” (Davis 78). Davis specifies that the lack of accountability for inappropriate behavior is caused by faulty administrative action as she explains, “Grievance or investigatory procedures, where they exist, are often ineffectual...” (78). Since women’s prisons were established, sexual abuse has been used as a form of punishment, although this is not formally acknowledged by prison officials, it is undeniable that women’s prison staff more than oftentimes engage in sexual …show more content…
This preconceived notion could not be farther from the truth. In reality, these reform movements are idiotically placing a bandaid over the tremendous issue that the prison system is. An imbalance of reforms between women and men, unrestrained sexual abuse in women’s prisons, and tyrannical gender roles are just three of countless examples of how prison reform movements only create more misfortune and fail to provide any real solution to worsening prison conditions. Perhaps instead of conjuring up additional ideas on how to reform prisons, America’s so-called democratic society should agree upon abolishing prisons as a whole. This being said, it is crucial to identify ongoing issues in today’s society, understand how they contribute to unlawful behavior, and seek a solution. For instance, tackling issues such as health care and education, which provide severe inequality and adversity, would create an equal and safer society that would thus reject any need for criminal behavior, Davis herself suggests, “Rather, positing decarceration as our overarching strategy, we would try to envision a continuum of alternatives to imprisonment-demilitarization of schools, revitalization of education at all levels, a health system that provides free physical and mental care to all…” (Davis 107). It is clear that prisons and
In 1968 Robin Woods was convicted of two counts of felony breaking and entering. He was sentenced to 16 years at Maryland Correctional Institute, a maximum-security prison, for his nonviolent crimes. He recalls the atmosphere of MCI being both tense and racially charged. Amid reports of overcrowding and brutality from guards, a severe riot ensued adding an additional charge and 7 more years to Woods’ sentence. Our prison system neglects people’s mental and emotional needs, and treats them with contempt, yet expects respect and obedience in return.
Eduardo Mendieta constructs an adequate response to Angela Davis’ Are Prisons Obsolete? in his article, The Prison Contract and Surplus Punishment: On Angela Y. Davis’ Abolitionism. While Mendieta discusses the pioneering abolitionist efforts of Angela Davis, the author begins to analyze Davis’ anti-prison narrative, ultimately agreeing with Davis’ polarizing stance. Due to the fact Mendieta is so quick to begin analyzing Davis’ work, the article’s author inadvertently makes several assumptions about readers of his piece. For instance, Mendieta assumes that readers will automatically be familiar with Angela Davis.
Inmate on inmate victimize Asian is much higher among females than that of their male counterparts. Most correctional facilities do not consider female on female assault a true act of rape, which could be one of the possible reasons why they are not reprimanded and this type of assault on our children and mothers in our local jails is on a rise. One of the worst types of sexual salt is by a male or female correctional officer typically male whose job is to keep order in peace inside the jail. In officer who performs this abuse of power and violates the victims eighth amendment of being free from cool and unusual punishment often forces the inmate to be victimized by threats from the officer to prevent visitation from children, and family, or if close to parole report a false behavior report to the board so they will be denied the parole. In order for the victimized inmate to report the attack they must report it to either the individual officer that initiated the attack or their colleagues and are at a greater risk of being honest and having basic necessities taken away for reporting on an officer.
Davis believes if abolishing imprisonment is not possible, she fights to improve the prison system by applying alternatives such as programs that could be useful to improve inmate’s behavior. Although alternatives to imprisonment such as rehabilitation, fines, and shorter sentences are difficult to implement, the United States should still give those alternatives a chance because it could be a good investment that might lessen the government’s expense and improve
In women 's correctional facilities sexual abuse is at an all time high and it isn 't just happening to the inmates, but visiting woman as well. We need to understand the day to day struggles these woman tend to go
The stories of the ladies in Maryland only women prison allowed me to see the reality of what women are truly facing and dealing with. These women have been fighting with their self for so long to come and find them self-having to face time behind bar. Trying to figure out how they’re going to find some type of peace and comfortable with in such a small cans cold area with no one to help through the emotions that there feeling. They are the example of what people are saying about women being incarcerated, they are dealing with anger build up from the past and some binding behind the fact and being deceitful about the reason they are really there. Over the events of days seeing what these ladies are through mentally and physically is displeasing
There have been several arguments over the years as to why women should not be employed as correctional officers. Reasons for the opposition include a belief that women are physically weaker than men and can’t hold their own in a fight with male inmates — a fear that women could fall prey to an inmate and be raped by those sexually deprived and predatory male inmates. Lastly, an overall assumption that women are mentally weak and unable to handle the mental challenges of working in an all-male prison environment. “GOOD OLD BOYS”
Women of color are the most targeted, prosecuted, and imprisoned women in the country and rapidly increasing their population within the prison systems. According to Nicholas Freudenberg, 11 out of every 1000 women will end up incarcerated in their lifetime, the average age being 35, while only five of them are white, 15 are Latinas, and 36 are black. These two groups alone make up 70 percent of women in prison, an astonishing rate compared to the low percentage comprise of within the entire female population in the country (1895). Most of their offenses are non-violent, but drug related, and often these women come from oppressive and violent backgrounds, where many of their struggles occurred directly within the home and from their own family.
Women get treated differently in a prison system, but they also experience their sentences differently too. For woman the facilities are smaller and further away from their love ones. This is in hope that the women will rehabilitated so they are not away anymore. In most cases woman are serving shorter sentences than men are for the same type of crime. This again is in hopes that the woman will change her ways so that she can go home to her children.
Traditionally, women are more nurturing and brought up to not make bad choices and to follow the rules. According to Stohr, Hemmens, Kifer, & Schoeler (2000),” female correctional staff reported a more human services orientation toward rehabilitation and expressed disagreement that punitive correctional actions reduce crime” This is because they tend to focus on interpersonal communication rather than physical force thus the tendency to likely score higher on the ethics summary variable. Reference Stohr, M. K., Hemmens, C., Kifer, M., & Schoeler, M. (2000). We know it, we just have to do it: Perceptions of ethical work in prisons and jails. Prison Journal, 80(2), 126.
I totally disagree with the above statement, that being a correctional officer is the same for both women and male genders. For example, female correctional officers that are working within male prison units are subjected to predatory behaviour from the male offenders i.e., male inmates will attempt to seduce female correctional officers. Often, these behaviours will start innocent enough with something as simple as being nice to the female staff but it can develop quickly into asking for things which can then escalate into potential prison escapes — like the one seen in the Clinton Correctional Facility. Even though the female correctional officer did make a decision to help these dangerous offenders escape, which is a criminal offence. It can be argued that other prison correctional officers and administrational staff noticed this type of behaviour taking place but did nothing to prevent or correct the behaviour to help this female correctional officer from going down a wrong path, because no one helped her she could have been feeling pressure from the offenders to help them out.
The health care system services in the prison has many flaws in the services that they provide for the prisoners, which can varies among individual by sex, race, and others account. According to Young (2000), “The majority of women in U.S. prisons belong to groups which systematically experience race, class, and, of course, gender oppression. On an individual level, the institutionalized nature of oppression means that people are not afforded the same opportunities to pursue economic, social, and personal well-being” (p. 220). The rate of incarceration females in prison and jails per 100,000 were black females 260 per 100,000, Hispanic females 133 per 100,000, and White female were 91 per 100,000 (US Department of Justice, 2015).The health
1. Based on the first part of this video, develop a theory on how/why these women committed their crimes. Did you see any themes run through their stories that might help you understand their actions? In the documentary, Women and Prison, it focuses on various women who have committed crimes that have resulted them being sentenced to prison along with their background history, what type of crimes they have committed, and why they have committed these crimes. After viewing this short film I personally have come up with a theory about why these women have committed these crimes based off of numerous factors that were provided.
The 1960s to the 1970s, was the basis for the emergence of feminist critical thought on gendered perspectives including criminology (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). The second wave of feminism saw a more critical analysis of masculinity and crime (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). The different types of feminism have seen valuable contributions to criminological theories today (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). Liberal feminism has made a significant contribution to the development and application of law, especially in discrimination (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012). Radical feminism regards male dominance as the cause of gender identity (White, Haines and Asquith, 2012).
These women eventually adapt to the environment of the prison and cope with the situation they are facing. The programs women have access to are male orientated and even use male pronouns that are less successful. Even though women have smaller numbers in prisons, are there recidivism rates higher than male recidivism rates because of the programs? Males and females have different hormones and their brains are different and respond to different things better than one another, so obviously the programs and treatment has to be different. The approach for women has to be different and prisons need to be gender orientated.