The relation of women with the Justice system is a much talked about the topic which raises concern several times. When a woman is accused or charged with doing something wrong a different type of fight comes forward. Particularly if a woman commits something serious that results in incarceration. The situation turns absolutely hostile for her as she has to go through life in incarceration as there might be tough conditions that are even hard to imagine.
The rate of women staying in incarceration is increasing unfortunately and particularly the women of color make up a disproportionately high percentage among them. A huge population of women of color stay in utter poverty and are exposed to harsh living conditions. They are often victimized due to unavoidable circumstances. Whatever may be the cause, when a woman gets incarceration as a punishment the trail of misfortune never leaves them in her life (Scraton and McCulloch 2008).
There are different reasons for which the rate of incarceration as a whole has increased. But the rate of women getting imprisonment has surpassed the rate of men. The war on drugs, tough on crime initiatives, equity sentence guidelines, changes in Welfare Reform Act, Family Law, laws regarding prenatal drug use are some of the reasons. All these initiatives have drastically increased the number of female prisoners, especially women of color in the jails where they suffer inhuman agonies. They are victimized in different ways, abused, and left with severe trauma, both physically and mentally.
War on drugs implemented cracking down on street–level drug traders and punishing them with mandatory and harsh sentences. This increases disproportionately the rate of African American women getting “caught in the net”. These are mainly poor women who had no other choice than to accept plea bargains and face minimum mandatory punishments. Narcotic-related arrests are so high among women of color that almost 1 in 3 women are facing incarceration (Tregea and Larmour 2009).
Another reason for the increasing rates of women facing incarceration is the “tough on crime” policies. These policies include zero tolerance for crime, mandatory punishments, three strikes, truth in sentencing, quality of life policing, and several other policies which resulted in a lot of victimization of a large number of women of color. These women become victimized in cases of violent crimes, but they themselves are quite vulnerable against them. This victimization often occurs due to the equity sentencing guidelines also. Equity sentencing involves fair sentencing, irrespective of anybody’s social or economic status or gender. Women of color get involved in the cases and lead harsh jail life afterward (Rennie 2009).
The Welfare Reform Act, enacted to ensure social security benefits, underwent some changes in 2009. It should have been helpful to women of color to fight against poverty. Instead, getting involved in low-wage jobs after being denied basic income support or being left with no income at all imparts a huge effect on the women of color living in poverty. Sometimes there is no way out except indulging in illegal activities to support their homes and children. Hence, the rate of incarceration shot up.
Another law undergoing change is the Family Law. As a result of pressure from the fathers’ rights groups, the law has introduced the shared parental responsibility after separation which has an impact on women greatly. The wish of the father to take responsibility for the child jointly with the mother is not the same for all and unwilling or violent fathers will have more reasons for violence. Hence victims of violence won’t be able to escape as they would have fear of not being able to prove that the family violence is reasonably fearful which means imposing false allegations. And, anybody making a false allegation would be subjected to penalties (Rennie 2009).
One unique reason for the incarceration of women, especially the poor women of color is prenatal drug abuse. Any woman found using drugs like cocaine during pregnancy can be subjected to Imprisonment. The fetus in the woman’s womb is considered to be a child and any act, such as taking drugs during pregnancy that can harm the fetus is considered to be child abuse. Though it is really harmful to the fetus if drug abuse is done during pregnancy but taking such punitive measures is never going to bring any solution. Instead, the right of the woman is violated and that leaves a trauma on the mind (Lambropoulou 2008).
The life of incarcerated women is extremely traumatizing. They fall victim to poverty outside the prison and victims of violence inside the prison. More than half of the women population in jails suffers physical and sexual abuse. The abuse is so severe that it can change the course of the life of a girl or woman leaving in incarceration forever. Moreover, their link with their families gets disrupted and relationships either change or get broken. Post incarceration lives of poor women of color are also full of agonies. They have to face certain barriers like legal and social barriers. They already live in poverty and after incarceration, they are not able to avail of subsidized housings, food stamps, social assistance, student aid, etc. They are also kept in disenfranchisement (Kratcoski 2004).
Punitive incarcerations cannot be abolished because it is necessary to keep crimes at bay. But for minor offenses, especially for women of lower income group, there should some better productive measures. First of all women or girls, mainly the women of color should be prevented from committing crimes by providing them accessible services which can address their problems, be it domestic violence, sexual abuse or prostitution and support them by counseling and providing advocacy. If they are already into crimes then they should be subjected to rehabilitation as an alternative to incarceration (Rennie 2009). This can give them a second chance to re-enter the society and stop them from getting stigmatized for ever. Punitive incarcerations can only be counterproductive, so it is necessary to decrease it whenever and wherever possible.
References
Kratcoski, P. (2004). Correctional counseling and treatment. Ed 5. Boston: Waveland Press.
Scraton, P., and McCulloch, J. (2008). The Violence of Incarceration. Vol 5. London: Taylor & Francis.
Tregea, W., and Larmour, L. (2009). The prisoners’ world: portraits of convicts caught in the incarceration binge. NY: Lexington Books.
Rennie, C. (2009). The future is offender health: evidencing mainstream health services throughout the offender pathway. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health 19(1), 1-8.
Lambropoulou, E. (2008). The sociology of prison and the self-referential approach to prison organization and to correctional reforms. Systems Research and Behavioral Science 16(3), 239-252.