Prison Issues in the Criminal Justice Field : Women Offenders

Just how feministic are female offenders? What social norms do they live by?

Peggy L. Ritchie — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:37:00 GMT

The University of California at Irvine just published a major research project called "Understanding the Female Offender". The project focuses on female offender behavior patterns: When do they persist and when do they desist? Read to find out:

Is marriage a factor in criminal behavior or changes in behavior for females?

Who are the "conventional men" in these marriages?

Does working in the home versus outside the home make a difference? Why?

Do homemaking and motherhood halt criminal behaviors? How can this be?

Read to discover research conclusions.

Are you guilty?

Peggy L. Ritchie — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:45:00 GMT

The Council of State Governments has released a brief called, " Violence against Women with Mental Illness", a Consensus Project. The brief outlines challenges to agencies based on these factors:

Mental health providers often do not get information from a client about potential recent crime victimization
Criminal Justice staff often do not determine the mental illness of an offender
Perceptions among people in criminal justice question the credibility of crime victims with mental illnesses
Lack of understanding laws related to confidentiality of mental illness
High rates of co-occurring substance abuse disorders among women with mental illness and crime are often not identified

The brief also provides information on effective programming. Policy recommendations from this project will be forthcoming in 2007, so stand by.

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) website has numerous documents related to this topic. Click here.

To discuss these issues on NIC's online forum called Women Offenders, click here.

Deal or No Deal:"People, Places, and Things: The Social Process of Reentry for Female Ex-Offenders"

Peggy L. Ritchie — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 17:33:00 GMT

The U.S. Department of Justice released the grant report, "People,Places and Things: The Social Process of Reentry for Female Ex-Offenders" by Andrea Leverentz, University of Chicago, Department of Sociology. The main goal was to "learn about the complex social lives of female ex-offenders and how their release from prison impacts and is impacted by their relationships."

The majority of women interviewed were African American with children and the primary offenses were drug related. To read more about their developmental relationships, marriages, and social bonds, take a look at this report. The reentry issues are provided in detail.

BBC of the United Kingdom had a series on female prisoners; what are the similarities and differences from the US. population?

Have you done similar studies? Are these outcomes of any value to your programming and treatment for reentry? Let us know with a quick response below.

"Hard Hit: The Growth in the Imprisonment of Women, 1977-2004"

Peggy L. Ritchie — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 18:51:00 GMT

This new study: "Hard Hit: The Growth in the Imprisonment of Women, 1977-2004" by the New York Women's Prison Association, demonstrates the disparities among sentencing and treatment of women in different states. Other highlights include:

Reduction of over reliance on incarceration as a sanction has disproportionately benefited women
Women's incarceration rate climbed by 1,600 % in Central US and the West
Click here to view a US map to take a look at your state/regional statistics
The drug war has accounted for the majority of increases in sentences
The toll on families and children is great. Link here for NIC documents on families
Gender-responsive specific treatment and reentry programming is recommended. See NIC's website for resources on gender-responsive documents

Please share with us any innovations for women offenders you have implemented. You can add a document to our File Library, for example, or simply share as a response to our blog. Thanks.

Looking for the Latest Resources on Women Offenders?

Peggy L. Ritchie — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 00:51:00 GMT

The female incarceration rates are out pacing male offenders in most jurisdictions. NIC 's Information Center has an updated "Annotated Bibliography on Women Offenders: Prisons, Jails, Community Corrections, and Juvenile Justice". The resource list includes references from 2001-2006 that are available online. The links are not activated within the documents, however, just type them into your URL address and you can download them. Statistics are available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs.

NIC has just published the curriculum "How to Be More Effective Supervising Women Offenders in the Communitiy." The instructor's guide is on CD, the participant guide is in print format. http://info.nicic.org/RMS/myAccount/?myDocs=021454.