Corrections Community

The female offenders' recidavism rate is so high because society doesn't hold them to the same accountability as men with the same crimes so there is no deturant. Even while in prision some states choose to treat the female offender in a manner which makes the prision setting/ enviornment structured more like a very casual hotel setting than a correctional facility complete with gardens and household pets. The supporters of this casual living enviornment even tried to go as far as to have them be addressed as "residents" as opposed to "inmates". In addition these same supporters would have the officers dressed in shirts, ties, and black shoes in place of the BDU's (battle dress uniform) that is worn in all of the mens facility in one state (true story). I have to add that black militay style boots were not to be worn because "it might offend the offender" .  This tactic of handling the female offender was tried in one state and proven to be unsuccessful and the Director of Prisions of that state has scence resigned for unrelated reasons however her administration has left a bad taste in the mouths of the overwelming majority in the afore reffered state.

While a prison enviornment is a prison......it is most beneficial to take a trauma informed approach. Although not every women entering prison has a trauma history...and all of them are there because they committed a crime, there is a large enough percentage to justify the use of trauma informed principles. It doesn't hurt those who do not have a trauma history and it makes management safer and easier for corrections staff. With proper screening and assesment offenders can re-learn coping skills that may prevent them from re-offending . However, an evidence based approach is key. What is effective and what makes us "feel good" may be two different things. Structure and accountability is key and extremely beneficial to these populations. I would hate to see evidence based practices with women offenders abandoned because one admistration's interpetation and application of them was off the mark.

After working with men for over 17 years, I recently started working at the Tennessee Prison for Women. I sometimes have to remind myself that it is a prison because they are so much easier to handle than the men. We have two women with a death sentence. One of whom could pass for anyone's grandmother. The other is pure evil. Nevertheless, all of these women are convicts. We, as a society have been conditioned to look upon women as the fairer sex, and society is reluctant to view them any other way. Having reviewed the crimes of our death row inmates, especially Crista Pike, I have no problem looking at them as criminals. Our female inmate population does get a lot of things that the men don't. Such as knitting needles and craft scissors. We have never had an inmate harmed with any of these items. If these were issued at any of our male institutions, we would have a murder within the first day. We also have a K-9 training program, that allows the dogs to stay in the cells while being trained. All of these help reduce our recidivism rate to well below that of our male population. But as far as having different uniforms or calling them anything other than "inmate", that doesn't happen in Tennessee.

 I somewhat agree with Highjoker about the uniform issue and the Resident name thing, but the rest i disagree. They are women and not men and therefore we need to have a different approch than men. I dont mean hug them or cry with them but simply attempt to try to Rehabilitate them with programs that suite them best. In California we Utilize the Gender Responsive Strategies; we call them Inmates; We train our staff to listen "not just hear them"; and continue to hold them accountable for their actions. Yes we do have dog programs and knitting needles and scissors, but not once in the 50 years have they been used as a weapon. hhmmmmm I wonder if they are different than men.!!!????The fact is we have a better chance of keeping a female inmate from coming back to prison than we do a male. Currently our female population in California is about 11,500 and climbing. mostly the offenses are drug related so we are concentrating on that very issue. I have to admit, I have learned a lot from these Forums so keep em coming.