Gender-Responsive Corrections and Working in the Field

In the last couple of weeks we have had really great personal experiences shown to us within lecture and during our interactivities.  The main one being from the book, Inside this Place, Not of It.  This book was very interesting and eye opening to the experiences women face and have faced when in the correction system.  There is a high prevalence of drugs, abuse and degradation.  In some stories, women reflection on how much easier it was to obtain drugs within prison than in the outside community.  Some women also state that they came in sober or hooked on one drug and left addicted to a certain drug or on a complete different drug than they came in with.  Abuse in prison can happen in many forms; sexual, physical, mental and emotional.  Women tell stories of being sexually assualted by the guards, being manipulated into relationships with the guards and in some cases by fellow inmates.  Guards would also abuse them in other ways by there not being any sort of regulatory control on the guards actions with the inmates.  The guards are able to do whatever they want with the inmates because there is no enforced rules.

Women are more likely to face abuse in prison because of many reasons.  Many women come into the system with some form a trauma.  From this trauma, they are more vulnerable to abuse.  Women are also over sexualized by society allowing for sexual abuse to happen.  From the book, many women went into the system pregnant.  Reading their stories sheds some light on the fact that pregnant women get little to no healthcare or help during their pregnancy.  

The prison system is set up mainly for men based on studies from men and how they commit crime.  When women enter into the system it is completely different and they respond different to the prison system.  The prison system right now sets the women up for failure.  When taking trauma-informed care, this strategy seeks to meet the needs of women coming into the system so they are less likely to recidivate.  When women's needs are met and addressed then the healing can begin.  When a women heals her past trauma, then she can open many more doors for herself and better her future once she exits the system by not cycling back to the bad things/trauma that lead her there in the first place.

Women within the Criminal Justice system is very minimal compared to the amount of men.  This is due to many factors.  Women have been viewed as weak and not strong enough to hold a position like working in the prison system.  They need to jump through barriers to get to a higher position because of this as well.  They face many discriminations due to their gender.  It is much harder for them to balance work and family life because women are faced with the burdens of taking care of children.  Their job is often not prioritized either within a marriage because men are viewed as the breadwinner.  Overall there has been great movement for women in this field and major changes happening.  I do think though that there is still a stigma dealing with genders in the work force especially jobs that have been labeled "more masculine."