Blog 15

Men’s prisons started out as institutions meant to punish criminals with intermediate times of rehabilitative pushes in-between. While women had been in prisons before the time that official women prisons were established, they were few in number and seen as abnormalities that were of great inconvenience to the prison system as a whole thus many of them were immediately pardoned of their crime so that they could be set free (as was the case in Arizona’s beginning jails as well). When women’s prisons were established they had a greater push to rehabilitate women so that they could function properly once released through different job training programs and educational programs. Women as inmates goes against our socialized views of women as being gentle, caring and frail thus that is why they were so ignored during the beginning years of prisons.
Women are growing in their presence in the prison system which is of great concern due to the added private responsibilities that many women are charged with handling such as child care. With the rise in women in prisons there is also a trickle effect of different rises in such areas as social services for children and their care since their mothers are stuck in prisons and unable to take care of them. This rise in women and decrease in motherly care for their children is why many prisons and research are trying to once again focus their resources on rehabilitative efforts so that the women are better equipped to take care of their children and stay out of jail upon their release. This difference in the private sector of women is an advantage when they are inmates because it allows for them to receive more resources such as education that will allow them to better achieve a crime free life once released compared to men who due to their lack of responsibilities in their private sector and their huge numbers are often not afforded such helpful resources.