Abuse of Women in Prison

Name

Institution

Abuse of Women in Prison

One of the major startling issues in the criminal justice has been the increasing cases of incarceration of women in prisons. Women in prisons have been more vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse compared to men. According to approach 1 that is based on micro or individual (biological) level of explanation, the increasing punitive sentencing policies have led to women being trashed in prisons without positive outcomes on the improved behaviors and, high likelihood of them not being accepted back in the society. The approach 1 has been rather a flawed approach that has seen more than 200, 000 women being put behind the bars and more than one million women on probation or parole (Siegel, 2011). However, many women are still struggling with histories of physical and sexual abuse, mental illness and substance abuse. The criminal justice system should ensure healthy and safety of women and girls and facilitate their successful re-entry into the communities. However, according to data released by Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2007, more than 50 percent of women in jail made claims to have been physically and sexually abused at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York. The data revealed that women were forced to have sex with the prison staffs, made to exchange sexual favors and encountered verbal harassment. Some of the women claimed to have been impregnated by the staff and forced to have abortion, placed in seclusions for days and stripped naked and watched by men on cameras. These complaints went uncovered and were never investigated, making these women to suffer from emotional psychological trauma. Therefore, the micro approach does not look into the issues of women in prisons who require special needs such as the counseling of women who are suffering from the psychological problem and sexual abuses (Siegel, 2011).

As a result, there has been the need to change the criminal justice systems to enable prisons and other correctional facilities to help inmate women address the issues and prosecute the perpetrators of the victimizations. According to the study done by US department of justice, the numbers of juvenile females into prisons are on the increase. As such, the Illinois State Bar Association report of 2008 state bulletin indicated out of 6, 183 women in prisons, 74 percent were diagnosed with mental conditions which were associated a record of criminal history. As a result, the Illinois criminal system has been working towards solving the victimization problems being faced by the women in prisons for the benefit of both the prison population and the society. The justice systems has adapted a contemporary approach, which is the approach 2 that aims at offering an improved, multi-level (macro, intermediate, micro) explanation of the cause of the causes of the problems experienced by women in prisons and ways to eradicate them. One of the contemporary issues methods of addressing the widespread cases of sexual misconduct against the women in prisons has been the litigation process. Examples of the laws that have been enacted include the Eighth Amendment, Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1994 that allows the women to report the sexual misconduct and protects them against retaliation from the perpetrators. The correctional facilities have also been providing counseling for women who have been subjected to sexual abuse by the staff members. As a result, the second approach has created a stimulating learning environment where the women in prison are supported through design programs that foster positive changes in their behaviors and prepare them for to be accepted back in the society (Siegel, 2011).

References

Siegel, L. (2011). Criminology. Natorp Boulevard: Cengage Learning