Thanks to JPI Intern Madeline Titus for both authoring this blog post and creating an incredible podcast, Mothers in Prison, where she interviews three women all deeply connected to this issue.
While millions will be celebrating
Mother’s Day this Sunday across the country, many of those celebrations will be
limited due to the impact of the criminal justice system. Sixty-two percent of
women in prison and 80
percent of women in jails are mothers, and more often than not, they are
their children’s primary caretaker.
Even as criminal justice reform has gained momentum
in the U.S., women and various gender identities are often not included in the
conversations. The history of mass incarceration is deeply tied to identities
of race, age, gender, and socioeconomic status. While justice policy has traditionally
taken a ‘one-size fits all’ approach, current reforms need to be tailored to
the unique needs of different identities are their experiences, including many
women’s experience in prison as mothers.
Before we can effectively tackle
needed reforms, we must first understand the historical context of women in
prison. Historically, incarcerated women were often treated in
exile and in harsh conditions. For example, in Auburn
State Prison in New York, in the 1820s women were often confined to the attic
with their only interactions being with other incarcerated men and male prison
guards who were known to be physically and sexually abusive. Many of these
horrific conditions led to the push for separate female facilities, resulting
in the first facility for women
at Mount
Pleasant Prison Annex in Ossining, New York in 1839; and the first female only prison
in 1873, in Indiana.
With the rise of female only prisons, a new field
of scholarly work began emerging in 1895, female criminology, which examined
women, prison, and deviance largely through existing societal gender norms
steeped in the sexism of the era. Scholars such as Cesare Lombroso published
research arguing that, ‘women who engage
in criminal behavior are at different levels of sinfulness, and that they are
more masculine in appearance, cold, calculating and have manipulative
personalities.’ W.I. Thomas argued in the early 1900s that ‘women were morally inferior’. And in the
1920s Sigmund Freud’s theories of
sexuality lead him to conclude that, ‘women
who are deviant are doing so to become more masculine in an attempt to make up
for their biological inferiority.’
Although
these theories seem ridiculous now, they established the basis for policy and practice
in corrections systems throughout the country. As a result of limited research
on women’s experiences combined with the ever-present Jim Crow laws of the
south, two distinct corrections institutions for women emerged in the 20th
century: “reformatories” and “custodial institutions.” White women were often
sent to reformatories for rehabilitation where they received vocational
training in cooking, sewing, and cleaning, so they would be able to reenter
into society with workforce skills. Women of color, however, were more likely
to be sent to custodial institutions, which were often seen simply as
warehouses, and reserved for those not amenable to rehabilitation. In addition,
women from custodial institutions were often sent to work on state-owned
plantations in horrible conditions, reminiscent of slavery.
As time progressed, racialized
policies resulting in extreme sentencing and the targeting of people of color
as part of the ‘War on Drugs’ resulted in the mass incarceration that has
emerged in late 20th and early 21st century. Today, drug
and property offenses are more than half the charges for which women are incarcerated,
while violent offenses account for only about a quarter of incarcerated women. As criminal
justice policy reform is taking hold around the country, women are too often being
left out of the reform conversation and ultimately left behind, with many
states experiencing historic growth in female incarceration while male
incarceration rates are declining.
Similar to what was seen in the
early 20th century, women today are still being compared to men,
when in reality they have different lived experiences and are incarcerated for
different reasons. Effective policy needs to take into consideration men, women
and other gender identities, in addition to race and socioeconomic status.
There still remains a significant lack of academic and political interest in
researching women’s involvement in the justice system, and the research that is
being done, often makes broad generalizations and fails to acknowledge gender
as an important factor. This results in policy recommendations that are largely
based on male experiences and simply applied to women and other gender
identities, regardless of their effectiveness.
Many justice system-involved women
have experienced violence, trauma, and mental and physical health issues that have
contributed to their situations and life choices. They often struggle with
finding housing, employment and stability as a parent, facing limited
programming and stigmatization. With women currently the fastest growing
segment of the prison population, it is time we start thinking differently
about women in prison.
As we seek reforms to address mass
incarceration in the United States, it is critically important to keep in mind
what it means to be a woman caught up in the justice system, and especially a mother.
As Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboys Industries stated that, “the ultimate measure of health in any community might well
reside in our ability to stand in awe at what folks have to carry rather than
in judgement of how they carry it.”
On this
Mother’s Day let’s stand in awe of mothers, and recommit ourselves to ensuring
that incarcerated mothers and all
women are treated with the dignity, respect, and fairness in the justice system
that they deserve.
Interested in learning more? Listen to our podcast on Mothers in
Prison where
we talk to three women all deeply connected to this issue.
