Women’s prisons have a reputation for being less violent and more humane environments than men’s prisons. However, the conditions in women’s prisons are still often quite poor and fail to meet basic human rights standards. This article will examine the main problems and issues within women’s correctional facilities.
Overcrowding and Lack of Resources
One of the biggest challenges faced by women’s prisons is overcrowding and a lack of resources. The female prison population has grown rapidly in recent decades, even faster than the already ballooning male prison population. Between 1980 and 2019, the number of incarcerated women increased by more than 700% in the United States.
This has led to serious overcrowding issues. Women’s prisons are now operating at 14% above their maximum capacity on average. Overcrowded facilities put additional strain on critical resources like healthcare, education programs, and recreational activities. The lack of adequate resources also leads to increased tensions and conflict among the inmate population.
How Overcrowded are Women’s Prisons on Average?
| Year | % Over Maximum Capacity |
|---|---|
| 1980 | 2% |
| 1990 | 7% |
| 2000 | 18% |
| 2010 | 13% |
| 2019 | 14% |
As the table shows, overcrowding grew significantly in women’s prisons during the 1980s and 1990s prison boom. While overcapacity rates have stabilized somewhat in recent years, they remain very high compared to earlier decades. Most facilities still operate well over their intended capacities.
Inferior Healthcare
Another major issue is the lower standard of healthcare in women’s prisons compared to the free world. Women inmates have a constitutional right to medical and mental health treatment while incarcerated, but care is often inadequate.
Some key healthcare problems include:
- Shortages of doctors, nurses, medications, and medical equipment
- Long wait times to access medical and dental treatment
- Lack of gender-specific services, like OB/GYN care
- Failure to accommodate disabilities and chronic conditions
- Poor hygiene, nutrition, and prenatal care for pregnant inmates
In fact, pregnancy-related complications are the leading cause of death for women in U.S. prisons. Many facilities lack proper maternal healthcare and nutrition to support healthy pregnancies.
There is also a high rate of mental illness among incarcerated women, with 68% qualifying as mentally ill. Prisons often fail to provide proper psychiatric counseling and therapy to address these needs.
Higher Rates of Abuse
Physical and sexual abuse unfortunately still occurs against female inmates, despite supposed safeguards:
- It is estimated that nearly 10% of incarcerated women are sexually violated during their imprisonment. This abuse comes from both staff and other inmates.
- Women are also subject to excessive use of force and physical violence from guards. Instances include beatings, unreasonable body cavity searches, and the use of restraints during childbirth.
- Isolation and restraints are disproportionately used to discipline female inmates, including the seriously mentally ill, which takes a psychological toll.
- Transgender women housed in female prisons are at an especially high risk of assault and abuse from guards and other inmates. Prisons often fail to protect them.
There remains a culture where female inmates are seen as “less than” by some guards and staff. More oversight is needed to protect against physical and sexual violence.
Greater Effects on Family
Women in prison are also more likely to be primary caregivers, so their incarceration directly impacts children and other family who depended on them.
- Over 75% of incarcerated women are mothers, and 5-10% are pregnant at any given time.
- 2.3 million children in the U.S. have an incarcerated parent; the majority are parents in prison rather than jail.
- Children of inmates are much more likely to suffer adverse outcomes like dropping out of school, substance abuse, and future incarceration.
Women’s prisons are less accommodating to family needs compared to men’s prisons. Visitation policies are often stricter, making it harder for mothers to see their children. Some facilities limit physical contact with children during visits. Phone calls are prohibitively expensive. All of this weakens the mother-child bond.
How Can Women’s Prisons Be Improved?
Women’s prisons clearly have many systemic problems that negatively impact the lives of female inmates and their families. But how can we actually improve conditions in tangible ways? Here are some reform ideas that could help strengthen women’s prisons:
Reduce Overcrowding and Increase Funding
The most direct solution is to reduce prison overcrowding by decarcerating more women who pose little public safety risk. Non-violent drug and property crime offenders, for example, would be better served by alternative rehabilitation programs. Downsizing prisons would free up funding that can be invested into improving conditions.
Expand Gender-Specific Medical Services
Women have unique health needs compared to male prisoners, so providing gender-specific care is crucial. Hiring more OB/GYNs, nurses, and female doctors would enable better medical and prenatal treatment tailored to women. Accommodating disabilities and chronic conditions is also important.
Strengthen Mental Healthcare
With the high rates of mental illness among female inmates, increased funding for comprehensive psychiatric counseling, therapy, and access to medications is vitally needed. This includes care for serious disorders and trauma recovery.
Enhance Oversight and Training Against Abuse
Strict oversight and accountability for all prison staff could help curb sexual assault and excessive use of force. Better training programs focusing on unconscious bias and de-escalation tactics would also benefit both guards and inmates. Removing vulnerable populations like transgender women from general housing could better protect them.
Support Mother-Child Relationships
More accommodating visitation policies, child-friendly visiting areas, discounted phone calls, and access to parenting classes could help incarcerated women maintain family ties. Some facilities have pilot programs allowing children to live with their mothers.
Prepare Women for Re-Entry
Expanded vocational training, education programs, counseling, and transitional services help prepare women to find jobs and reintegrate into society after release. This facilitates recovery and lowers recidivism.
Increase Community-Based Alternatives
For many non-violent female offenders, alternative rehabilitation outside of prison through probation, diversion programs, addiction treatment, and home confinement may be the best solution. Community-based options are cheaper and allow women to work and care for family.
Are Reforms Realistically Achievable?
The reforms proposed to improve women’s prisons will certainly face challenges:
What obstacles stand in the way of achieving meaningful reform?
- Public Apathy – The public has limited awareness about prison conditions and limited political will for reform. Incarcerated women have little political capital or public sympathy.
- Budget Limitations – Upgrading facilities and services requires increased government expenditures that cash-strapped states may be unwilling or unable to provide. Prisons are low budget priorities.
- Powerful Prison Guard Unions – Influential prison guard unions and private prison interests often oppose decarceration and other reforms that may reduce jobs or profits.
- Entrenched Tough-on-Crime Attitudes – Despite growing bipartisan support for criminal justice reform, there is still resistance to major systemic changes to prisons based on tough-on-crime attitudes.
However, the fact that women are the fastest growing yet least violent segment of the U.S. prison population strengthens the case for reform. And several states have successfully implemented smart decarceration strategies for non-violent female offenders. With continued advocacy, research, and policy proposals, improving conditions for this vulnerable population should remain an important goal. Progress, even if incremental, is possible over time.
Conclusion
Women’s prisons have long been ignored in larger discussions about mass incarceration, but they are in equally dire need of reform. Female inmates face overcrowding, poor healthcare, heightened vulnerability to abuse, and family separation. But there are opportunities to enact achievable, evidence-based improvements–from alternative sentencing and community-based rehabilitation to gender-responsive medical care and strengthened family policies. While the obstacles are real, there are also compelling moral, fiscal, and public safety arguments for creating more humane conditions for justice-involved women. With greater awareness and political will, women’s prisons can become places of rehabilitation rather than just punishment. The well-being of thousands of marginalized women, and the children who depend on them, hangs in the balance.