. Women and men have not always been equal in the history of the United States and their experiences in prisons are no different. Men usually committed the crimes so most prisons were just for males. In early women’s prisons they were more rehabilitation centers. Many saw women who committed crime must worse than male criminals because women were not supposed to be dominant. It was believed that women need more rehabilitation than men because they were more emotional and more susceptible. Women are more open to personal treatment and can be influenced easily by kindness (Britton 38). In some sense they saw females as easily influenced and though they could be changed through rehabilitation.
A prison or rehabilitation center called Bedford Hills had the female inmates “gardening, raising livestock, and institutional construction projects” and this was called the family system. The prison was set up like a cottage and were supposed to be as home like as possible. Women’s prisons were often less crowded and not overpopulated. They were also more laidback and relaxed in nature. It should be noted that back then most prison workers were male so there was sexual assault and abuse towards the female inmates.
Men’s prisons have stayed the same but the types of criminals in prison has not changed. Prisons now are filled with some severe criminals and mostly non-violent drug offenders. A huge reason of why prison are overpopulated are because of marijuana laws. Male prisons have always been strict and still are today.
Arizona has been different because our state is relatively new compared to the rest of the country. Arizona always had a lot of women inmates which makes us different from other states. Arizona is similar to other states because as the number of men going to prison is going down the number of females being imprisoned is going up. We are seeing more and more women commit crimes all over the country.
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After the segregation of female and male inmates in separate institutions, the female institutions were structured as reformatories. I felt as though the NBC documentary portrayed this image. Do you think it is beneficial for women to serve prison sentences is a minimum security prison? I understand that women represent only a small portion of the prison population; however some women commit serious offenses. Do you think it is fair that the majority of women are not subjected to the life in a maximum security prison? Further, do you think the belief that women criminals are worse than males? I personally think this has a lot to due with cultural stereotypes of women. Are women supposed to be domestic, reserved and docile? It seems that even today, women are intended to reform into the ideological standards of what a female is supposed to be.
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