, AK: Nov, 2001.
Improving Outcomes for Women Offenders and Their Families
I thank the Women's Caucus for the opportunity to provide my perspective on women in prison with particular emphasis on the implications of motherhood. I would like to focus my remarks on several key factors:
- Lack of Policy Attention & the Differential Impact of the "War on Drugs"
- The Context of Women's Lives
- Improving the Lives of Children by Improving the Lives of Women
- Reintegration & Community Justice.
Lack of Policy Attention & the Differential Impact of the "War on Drugs"
For decades, the problem of women in prison has been invisible to the public eye. Although B movies have provided sultry images of "women behind bars", serious policy and research attention has focused on the issue of male prisons. In the mind of the public, the problems of crime and prison are male problems. Women as criminal offenders and as prisoners are often only an afterthought in public discourse and public policy. To be sure, both crime and prisons are markedly different for men and women. Overall, women tend to be less "criminal" and certainly less violent than men. Men tend to commit more crime, and these crimes are generally more serious and more violent than the crimes committed by women. Male prisons, in turn, tend to be larger, more numerous and generally more violent. Concern about women in prison often takes the back seat to the seemingly overwhelming problems of male crime and imprisonment. But, in the last decade, the issue of women in prison has become more visible. A partial explanation for the new visibility lies in a startling fact: since the 1980s, the rate of growth in women's imprisonment has far outstripped the rate of growth in men's imprisonment. This enormous growth has prompted many criminologists to examine the rise in women's imprisonment from several perspectives. California, which has seen huge increases in women's imprisonment, has experienced a decline in state prison admissions of women for violent offenses and huge upswings in drug-related prison admissions. In 1992, only 16% of the women admitted to California state prisons were incarcerated for violent offenses, compared to 37.2% in 1982. Nationwide, the trend is the same: the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that about 1 in 3 women were likely serving time for a drug offense as compared to 1 in 8 in 1986. The Bureau of Prisons reports that almost 80% of their female population is incarcerated for drug-related offenses. This compares to only 26% of the 1981 female federal prison population that was held for drug offenses.
In addition to gender differences between male and female crime, researchers have
found that women's arrest and incarceration rates vary by race. In her study of the "triple jeopardy" women in prison face as a result of race, class and gender, Barbara Bloom argues that women of color are more likely than white women to be arrested for crimes against persons and are more likely to be sentenced to jail or prison. Research on the racial make-up of US prison populations and incarceration patterns clearly shows growing racial disparities in punishment for both men and women. However, research and discussion about racial disparity in the criminal justice system has overwhelmingly centered on men.
Many researchers argue that the war on drugs has become a war on women. In 1994, Barbara Bloom, Meda Chesney-Lind, and I discussed this fact by saying:
The increasing incarceration rate for women in the State of California, then, is a direct result of short-sighted legislative responses to the problems of drugs and crime--responses shaped by the assumption that the criminals they were sending to prison were brutal males. Instead of a policy of last resort, imprisonment has become the first order response for a wide range of women offenders that have been disproportionately swept up in this trend. This politically motivated legislative response often ignores the fiscal or social costs of imprisonment. Thus, the legislature has missed opportunities to prevent women's crime by cutting vitally needed social service and educational programs to fund ever-increasing correctional budgets.
Seven years later, little has changed as the impact of these policies continues to drive female prison populations. While men too have suffered as the United States continues its imprisonment binge, there has been a measurable gender-based difference in the rates of this increase. This difference is most apparent among women of color. Others have examined the substantial impact of policy on the involvement of women in the criminal justice system. A study by the Sentencing Project found that, between 1986 and 1995, drug offenses account for about one-third of the rise in male prison population but fully half of the increase in the female prison population. During this period, the number of women incarcerated for drug offenses rose an amazing 888 per cent; those incarcerated for other crimes rose 129 per cent. This difference is particularly marked in states with serious penalties for drug offenses. In New York, they argue, the notorious Rockefeller drug laws account for 91 per cent of the women's prison population increase; in California, drug offenses account for 55 per cent; and in Minnesota, a state committed to limiting incarceration to very serious offenses, only 26 per cent. Compared to white women, women of color are also more likely to be arrested, convicted and incarcerated at rates higher than their representation in the free world population.
It is important to emphasize that individual behavior alone cannot fully make sense of these dramatic increases. It is a misguided "war on drugs" and the accompanying mandatory sentencing for even the most minor drug offense that accounts for these ever increasing numbers. Quite simply, the war on drugs has become a war on women and it has contributed to the explosion in women's prison populations. In addition to increased prosecution of drug offenses, two other factors account for the increasing population: more severe and punitive responses to these crimes and the lack of viable treatment and alternative community sanctions for women.
The Context of Women's Lives
Most women offenders come to prison in ways much different than male offenders. Economic marginalizaton, substance abuse, violence in their personal lives and disrupted relations with children are primary stops on the path to prison for women. Women offenders are also different in that their connections to others very often play a central role in their lives. Understanding women's imprisonment begins with an investigation of the context of their lives prior to imprisonment. As I have argued previously, three central issues shape the lives of women prior to imprisonment: multiplicity of abuse in their pre-prison lives; disrupted family and personal relationships, particularly those relating to male partners and children; and drug use. Given this background, spiraling marginality and subsequent criminality is a common result. Combined with a public policy that criminalizes drug-using behavior, the outcome is ever-increasing rates of imprisonment for women.
Even as more women are incarcerated, the overall profile of women prisoners has remained consistent. The majority of women in prison come from poor minority communities. They have few educational or vocational skills and are mostly young mothers with personal histories of substance abuse, unemployment, physical and mental illness, and physical and sexual abuse.
The Status of Women In Society
In its various shapes and sizes, female criminality is based on the need for women, excluded from conventional institutions, to survive under conditions not of their own making. In this view, the criminality of women reflects the conditions of their lives and their attempts to struggle with survival. Often marginalized outside of conventional institutions, many women conduct this struggle outside legitimate enterprises. The story of women in prison reflects their status in society--a status that reflects ingrained racism and sexism, the subtle de-valuation of women and girls and the open toleration of sexual and domestic abuse in a male-dominated society. Women's prison, perhaps even more than its male counterpart, is a place, by and large for people that have no place in conventional worlds, a place for someone who no one wants, or a place for women for whom there is no place else to go.
It may well be that the rising numbers of women in prison are a measure of society's failure to care for the needs of women and children who live outside the middle class protection. These increasing numbers reflect the cost of allowing the systematic abuse of women and children, the problem of increased drug use and a continuing spiral of marginalization from conventional institutions. Many agree that the lack of adequate economic and social supports for women and children in society is a significant contribution to rising crime rates. The poverty of their lives on the street, the lack of educational opportunity and economic advantage makes crime a reasonable choice for some women, with subsequent imprisonment a predictable outcome for some proportion of female offenders.
Substance Abuse, Violence & Trauma
In the 1990s, substance abuse played a key role in the imprisonment of women and contributed dramatically to their increasing numbers. Women are more likely to use drugs more often, use more serious drugs, and be under the influence of drugs at the time of their crime than males. Clearly, drug use and its impact on life chances contribute significantly to these rising imprisonment rates. In our California study, we asked a variety of questions about this substance abuse. Alcohol was the most often mentioned substance, with three-quarters of the sample saying they began to drink before they were 18 years old. Over half of the women said they had used some form of cocaine or heroin at some time in their lives. About 60% said they began using drugs before they were 18 years old. Slightly less than half of those interviewed said they had used a needle to inject drugs at some time in their lives. Drug use contributes to criminality and aggravates existing personal and social problems. Many researchers argue that drug use is tied to criminality, oftentimes as a result of the emotional and psychological traumas caused by abuse and prostitution, as well as living on the street and "in the life."
In addition to the damage done by substance abuse, the impact of the physical, sexual and emotional abuse must be recognized. Scholarship on women in prison establishes this fact: Women prisoners have been victimized both as children and adults. Studies consistently report a high incidence of physical, sexual and emotional victimization in the personal histories of women prisoners with figures ranging from 30 per cent to 80 per cent of women having an abusive background. Violent offenders were more likely to have previously experienced this abuse. Our California study found that physical, sexual and emotional abuse is a defining experience for the majority of women in California prisons. In this sample, which included the category of emotional abuse, 80 per cent of the women interviewed reported experiencing some kind of abuse. With the exception of sexual assault, most women indicated that they were harmed by family members and other intimates.
In a detailed examination of women incarcerated in New York prisons, researchers found that a substantial majority of their sample reported sexual molestation or severe violence in childhood and adolescence. Out of 150 women interviewed, 70 per cent reported experiencing severe physical violence from a caretaker. Fifty-nine per cent reported some form of sexual abuse during childhood. As adults, their lives were also marked by violence: 75 per cent of all women reported a history of physical violence as adults by intimate partners, with 35 per cent experiencing marital rape or other forced sexual activity. These women also reported severe victimization by non-intimates as well. Over three-fourths (77%) of all respondents reported that they had been a target of violence by others. Most telling is the finding that, when all forms of violence are taken together, only 6 per cent of all 150 respondents did not report at least one physical or sexual attack during their lifetime.
Connections to others
Another way women in prison are different than men in prison is in the degree of attachment to family and friends outside. About 80% of women in prison are mothers, with three-quarters having children under eighteen years of age. Women in prison are tied to the lives of their children during their imprisonment, some through close contact with phone calls, letters and visits, others through emotional attachments unrealized in actual contact. For most mothers in prison, being separated from their children is the most painful part of their prison term. Many women do not see their children because of the distance, expense and other hardships traveling to the prison may cause. In my book, In the Mix, I quote the perspective of several women. Maria, a first-timer serving a short drug-related sentence, describes how missing her children affects her:
Missing them is the hardest thing (about doing time). I have not seen them since I have been locked up because I do not trust anyone to bring my children here. I have letters and pictures to keep me going. The first fifteen months were hard, but the next ten will be easy because I know I will get out to the gate and see them.
Connections to the free world can make it much harder to "do time", particularly those who have a long time to serve. As Divine says:
You cannot do your time in here and out on the streets at the same time. That makes you do hard time. You just have to block that out of your mind. You can't think about what is going on out there and try to do your five, ten (years) or whatever in here. You will just drive yourself crazy.
The problems that lead women to prison-abuse and battering, economic disadvantage, substance abuse, unsupported parenting responsibilities-have become more criminalized as contemporary society ignores the context of these women's lives. Because many of these women are poor, from minority communities and behave in ways outside middle-class sensibilities, prison has become the uniform response to problems created by inequality and gender discrimination. These issues are best addressed outside the punitive custodial environment but the upward spiral in the number of women in prison represents a serious failure of conventional society and public policy. Women in prison have been damaged by the oppression of patriarchy, economic marginalization and the far-reaching effects of such short-sighted and detrimental policies as the war on drugs and the over-reliance on incarceration. Under current policy, these complex problems are laid at the feet of the prison by a society unwilling or unable to confront the problems of women on the margin. Women confined in US prisons are enmeshed in a criminal justice system that is ill-equipped and confused about handling their problems-the problems that brought them to prison and the problems they confront during their incarceration. The prison, with its emphasis on security and population management and its de-emphasis on treatment and programs, is unable to respond to the real needs of women victimized by criminal justice policy.
This is not to say that men are faring well under this system. But, as I say to the dismay of many of my colleagues, I can't worry about the problems of men. Social policy and the social sciences have not addressed the gendered nature of imprisonment and the consequences of public policy in any concrete fashion.
Improving the lives of children by improving the lives of women
Addressing both social and material realities of women offenders is a critical aspect of correctional intervention. The lives of female offenders are shaped by socio-economic status, as well as experience with trauma and substance abuse and relationships with partners, children and family. Most women offenders come from economic and other social disadvantage that have been compounded by trauma and substance abuse histories.
Most female offenders are poor, undereducated, and unskilled. A survey of female jail inmates in the U.S. found that over 60% were unemployed when arrested and one-third were not looking for work. Less than one-third of male inmates were similarly unemployed and less than 12% were not looking for work.. About half of the women in Owen and Bloom study of women in California prisons had never worked at any time, more than half had been unemployed in the year before this prison term. One-third of the women indicated that their on-going substance abuse problems had prohibited them from working; others said they made more money from illegal pursuits and about 12% said childcare and other responsibilities kept them at home. Less than 10% said their partners or families provided them with support.
When the educational and work experiences of women under correctional supervision are examined, the data show that these women are marginalized from the conventional world of work. In their survey of women in California prisons, Owen and Bloom (1995) found that women in prison have few skills and little education. Almost 40% reported less than a high school education. About 15% had completed high school and another 25% had some training beyond high school. The reminder had completed college and beyond. Of the women with any vocational training, clerical, medical/dental and cosmetology were the most common trades studied.
Improving outcomes for women offenders requires that women receive education and training services that prepare them to support themselves and their children. There are specific models within corrections and in the community that succeed in imparting these skills through classroom and vocation settings, on the job training and supported work environments in the community.
These detailed figures show that inadequate education and vocational preparation, particularly combined with substance abuse problems and responsibilities for children undermine women's ability to support themselves. Without targeted educational and vocation training, the processes that affect for work for all women will continue to disadvantage women under correctional supervision.
Research on prison programs for women is fairly consistent: male prisons typically provide a greater variety of education and vocational programs; training for more skilled occupations, a narrow range of stereotypical job training programs for women; fewer institutional work assignments with lower rates of pay when compared to males; and greater availability of work release programs for men over women.
While very few studies examine the effects of prison programs on post-release outcome for women separately, one conclusion about women offenders can be reached. Given our knowledge about the link between employment and crime, the gender stratification of the "free world" labor market and the minimal education and employment histories of female offenders, educational and vocation programs designed specifically for women are a critical step in improving outcomes for women offenders.
Re-integration & Community Justice
All offenders confront the problem of reintegration into the community and conventional institutions. The obstacles and barriers faced by women offenders are, however, specifically related to their status as women. In addition to the stigma attached to a criminal conviction and a likely history of substance abuse, women carry additional burdens as a result of individual level characteristics, such as single motherhood, decreased economic potential, and structural characteristics, such as the lack of services and programs targeted for women, responsibilities to multiple agencies, and lack of community support for women in general. Service systems in most communities and institutions are fragmented and lack coordination, with the goals and values incompatible among various programs.
Several organizations need to partner to assist women's reentry into the community include mental health systems; alcohol and other drug programs; programs for survivors of family and sexual violence; family service agencies; emergency shelter, food and financial assistance; educational, vocational; and employment services; health care; child welfare system; transportation; childcare; children's services; educational organizations; self-help groups; organizations concerned with subgroups of women; consumer advocacy groups; organizations that provide leisure options; faith-based organizations; and community service clubs.
Community services, including probation and post-prison reintegration often do not develop a coordinated system of support within communities that provide a comprehensive range of assistance to women (housing, job training, employment, transportation, family reunification, childcare, drug and alcohol treatment, peer support, and aftercare). Women transitioning from jail or prison to the community, and those on probation or other forms of community supervision, must navigate a myriad of systems that often provide fragmented services, and this can pose a barrier to their successful reintegration.
Community Placements
Significant numbers of women in prison could be sanctioned through community-based corrections. The level of security should be balanced between public and institutional safety and the treatment/reintegration needs of the female offender. Profile data and institutional misconduct data show that women offenders are less violent in their offense patterns and in their conduct while under correctional supervision. This lower level of violence supports supervision in a less restrictive environment. The degree of risk presented by women offenders is not accurately represented in most custody arrangements, or classification and other assessment instruments. Risk presented by women offenders in the community include risk of relapse and the experience of physical and/or sexual victimization. Rarely do women represent a risk to the safety of the community. Correctional supervision should address these risks for re-offending as a priority consistent with accurately assessed risks for violence and threats to public safety. Resources typically used to protect the community and ensure institutional safety could be redirected toward more program provision targeted at these antecedent risk factors.
Community & Restorative Justice
A recent initiative sponsored by the National Institute of Justice calls for a re-examination of the reentry process for parolees and the ways in which probationers are supervised. For parolees, the concepts of "re-structuring reentry" and "managing reentry"
reframes the purpose of community supervision. This initiative also includes a focus on community justice and the principles of restorative justice. Providing discharge planning, services and programs in the community and collaboration across corrections, law enforcement and providers will improve outcomes both for individual and communities.
The Department of Justice is also funding broad-based community coalitions to support community-reintegration efforts. These reentry partnerships should include treatment, employment services, law enforcement as well as other community providers.
The restorative justice perspective argues that the purpose of the criminal justice system to is restore or improve property and relations within the framework of correctional sanctions. This view focuses on a variety of mechanisms-mediation, victim-offender reconciliation, community service, for examples-rather than on punishment and retribution. This perspective is consistent with both the level of harm represented by women offenders and the need to target their pathways to repeat offending.
Real world solutions
Along with many other criminologists, Barbara Bloom and I have thought about solutions to these problems. I have submitted our study to the Caucus as an attachment to these remarks. These solutions challenge assumptions about the criminality and disposability of these women. These four areas of intervention can provide innovations both inside and outside prison fences:
Community Interventions: Given the less serious nature of much of female crime, appropriate community sanctions and treatment should be developed and implemented for female offenders. These community-based programs should include vocational training, substance abuse treatment and other programs that facilitate productive and self-sufficient lives. When the personal histories of women in prison are examined, it is clear that opportunities for intervention early into their criminal and substance abusing life style exist outside prison fences. Community-based programs would be economically efficient as well as more logical in terms of providing intervention rather than after-the fact sanctions.
Economic self-sufficiency: Most women in prison have few employment skills and inadequate education. Upon release, the majority of imprisoned women must support themselves and their children. The need for economic self-sufficiency is apparent to even the most casual observer. Women in prison must gain the skills and training necessary to this end. While substance abuse treatment, and other counseling, improved parenting and family reunification are also critical in addressing these problems, economic self-sufficiency is the cornerstone to success after imprisonment.
Substance Abuse Treatment: The data is clear: substance abuse and drug-related crime is the single most significant cause of the imprisonment of women. Substance abuse acts as a multiplier for other high-risk or criminogenic behavior. In-prison drug programs and community-based treatment programs are an absolute necessity. These programs should be grounded in a "continuum of care", including institutional assessment and aftercare upon release in the community.
Family and Personal Issues: There is also a critical need for family based-interventions that address parenting, family reunification, family violence and other personal concerns. Prison programs need to address these family issues given the importance of children in the lives of imprisoned women. Individual and group counseling is also needed to address a wide variety of personal and emotional issues: the need for counseling dealing with physical, sexual and emotional abuse is particularly acute. The over-representation of women of color also requires sensitivity to cultural and ethnic implications in service provision.
Women in prison represent a very specific failure of conventional society-- and public policy-to recognize the damage done to women through the oppression of patriarchy, economic marginalization and the wider reaching effects of such short-sighted and detrimental policies as the war on drugs and the over-reliance on incarceration as social control. The story of the women in prison, however, is not hopeless. Many women have survived circumstances far more damaging than a prison term and most will continue to survive in the face of insurmountable odds.
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