Female Prisoners Research Articles

Peer mentoring and identity transformation in a women’s prison

Purpose This study examined the impact of peer mentoring on identity transformation amongst women in prison, exploring how peer mentoring roles develop non-offender identities, contributing to the desistance process. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative, interpretative approach was adopted. The research was undertaken at a female prison in England and Wales. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with peer mentors, mentees, project workers and prison officers, alongside focus groups. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the findings. Findings Being a peer mentor contributes positively to identity transformation for women in prison, fostering a legitimate, non-offender identity critical to the desistance process. Mentors view their role as a desistance signal through their interactions with prison staff. However, it can lead to role conflict and tension with other women in prison and prison staff. Research limitations/implications Future studies should consider longitudinal approaches to capture the long-term effects of peer mentoring upon desistance. Practical implications Recommendations include leveraging peer mentoring as a rehabilitative intervention, providing ongoing support for mentors and educating prison staff on programme benefits to foster a supportive environment. Social implications Enhancing peer mentoring programmes can improve the well-being of women in prison and support their reintegration into society. Originality/value This study examined identity transformation in female peer mentors in prison through the lens of social identity and group membership. To the author’s knowledge, no previous studies have focused centrally on identity or applied social identity theory to explore the psychological mechanisms behind these transformations.

Incarceration Postpartum: Is There a Right to Prison Nurseries?

Rising rates of female incarceration within the United States are incompatible with the lack of federal standards outlining the rights of incarcerated mothers and their children. A robust body of evidence demonstrates that prison nurseries, programmes designed for mothers to keep their infants under their care during detainment or incarceration, provide essential and beneficial care that could not otherwise be achieved within the current carceral infrastructure. These benefits include facilitation of breastfeeding, bonding during a critical period of child development, and decreased recidivism rates for participants. Legal precedent exists to support the rights of the mother to continue to parent their child but remains in stark opposition to current prison infrastructure that could allow them to do so. Existing state policies also have inconsistent mechanisms for determining child eligibility and should move to centre decision-making on a case-by-case basis. This work will demonstrate that a just society, supported by law and ensuring maternal-child welfare supports the establishment of prison nursery programmes as a part of the existing right to healthcare for incarcerated individuals.

‘Shultsloze Ferpeynikte Neshomes’ – ‘Vulnerable, Tormented Souls’: Gendered Wounds, Sexualized Violence, and Jewish Masculinity in the Yiddish Testimonies of the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz-Birkenau

ABSTRACT This article focuses on an eyewitness account titled ‘Di 3000 Nakete’ – ‘The 3000 Naked Ones’ by Leyb Langfus, which is part of the Yiddish testimonies of the Sonderkommando. My case study aims to engage with the issues of gendered violence (sexualized, physical, psychological, and spiritual) and the male gaze. The article explores the dynamics between the male Sonderkommando members and the female prisoners, arguing that the men responded to the tormented women within the context of their Jewish masculinity. This response was ambiguous and contradictory, communicating their power as well as their despair and powerlessness. Narratives of Jewish masculinity during the Khurbm often neglect to evaluate the range of Jewish male victims’ responses and choices. In his text, Langfus aims to comprehend the mental and emotional conditions in which the Sonderkommando prisoners and the female prisoners found themselves, illustrating the interactions between the two groups. I argue that the Yiddish Sonderkommando testimonies exemplify the intricate and ambivalent nature of Jewish masculinity. They provide a complex example of how gender influences one’s understanding of acts of violence, including the roles of both perpetrators and victims. The responses of the Jewish male Sonderkommando challenge our current perceptions and assumptions about Jewish masculinity during the Khurbm.

CRIMINOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF FEMALE IMPRISONMENT FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING

This article aims, as the proposed theme suggests, to analyze the crime of drug trafficking committed by women, critically verifying the conditioning factors of female criminality. The research question that guides this research is: what factors condition the entry of women into the practice of the crime of drug trafficking? Based on the question presented, the phenomenon of female criminality in drug trafficking was analyzed from a critical perspective, seeking to understand, through studies of marginal feminist criminology and theories that justify entry into criminal activity, the main motivations that influence women's entry into the crime in question. Once the research problem was overcome, alternatives capable of producing positive effects regarding the reduction of female incarceration for drug trafficking were sought, highlighting that decarceration measures present themselves as a possible solution to the problem, since the current prohibitionist drug policy is ineffective. Thus, to achieve the results obtained in this research, the following methodological techniques and procedures were used: i) bibliographic review in works of social sciences, criminal law and criminology, as well as authors who focus on women's relationships with crime from a feminist theoretical framework; ii) analysis of quantitative and qualitative data extracted from official bodies, paying attention to the limitations they present, since there is a great restriction of information.

Специфика психических состояний осужденных женщин, содержащихся в местах лишения свободы с малолетними детьми

Introduction. The aim of the empirical study was to research the mental states of convicted women with young children. The study sample consisted of 153 convicted women with young children serving their sentences in a correctional institution. The study was conducted on the basis of the State Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Kemerovo Region, the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Moscow Region, the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Vladimir Region, the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Republic of Mordovia. The scientific problem is to study the mental states of convicted women with young children. Research methods and techniques. The following set of methods was used to study mental states: ‘16-factor personality questionnaire - 16 PF’, form C (R. Kettell), “Depression scale” (A. Beck), clinical questionnaire for identification and assessment of neurotic states (K. K. Yakhin, D. M. Mendelevich), methodology for determining the dominant mental state “Dominant state” (L. V. Kulikov), questionnaire for studying the level of aggression (A. Bass and A. Darkey). The results of the conducted research were the identification of mental states of convicted women in prison with young children. It was established that negative mental states (tension, emotional instability, frustration, anxiety, irritation, depression, anxiety) prevail among these women.They are expressed fatigue, hysteria, vegetative disorders, which are manifested in unpleasant or painful somatic sensations. A high level of aggression and hostility has been diagnosed. The revealed negative mental states need timely psychological correction.

The Islamic religion in prison and Moroccan women prisoners in Spain

The main aim of this paper is to investigate how Moroccan women prisoners interpret and practice their religion in prison and the consequences of this in their lives, on an individual level and on a group level, in short the role religion plays for them in prison. Based on the qualitative method, and by using in-depth interviews as the investigative technique, the results show that, in general, religion brings important benefits such as psychological well being, helping the women prisoners to adapt to prison life, alleviating the pain of separation from their children and giving them hope for the future. However, the Islamic religion is the principal point of difference among the Moroccan women prisoners, according to the degree of influence that they exercise over each other which is influenced by various factors: where they come from, their socialization process and for the time that they have spent in prison. Based on these factors three distinct profiles for Moroccan women prisoners have been identified which differentiate them as women and as prisoners. In short, our results show that religion is key to understanding the identity of these women in prison. Our work opens a new line of investigation that encompasses religion, gender, nationality and prison not addressed until now.

Lithuanian women in Ravensbrück concentration camp

In the Lithuanian historical memory, imprisonment in Nazi concentration camps (the best known to Lithuanians is Stutthof concentration camp) is entrenched as a largely male experience. This led to the fact that not only the experience of women prisoners has faded, but also the memory of other concentration camps. The most important of these, in researching women’s experiences in Nazi captivity, is Ravensbrück concentration camp. The aim of this paper is to analyse the information available in the memorial’s internal database and online archives about Lithuanian women in Ravensbrück, not only on the basis of statistical data but also by presenting at least partially reconstructed biographies. The results of the research showed that most women of Lithuanian and Polish origin (often this origin was difficult to distinguish) related to Lithuania, the majority of whom were imprisoned in Ravensbrück, were young workers, born between 1920 and 1926, voluntarily or forcibly deported to Germany for works, having committed a certain offence. Also, women of Jewish (9), East Slavic (5), German and (2) Latvian (1) origin, born or having Lithuanian citizenship were imprisoned in Ravensbrück. Thus, a large number of women were brought to Ravensbrück not directly from Lithuania or another place of residence, but already while being in Germany. The fate of only a few women whose records of death from alleged exhaustion or murder at the end of the war have survived is known. Many women survived not only Ravensbrück but also other concentration camps and prisons, where the remaining information (prisoner cards) and post-war documents of German authorities about foreigners who came to Germany during the war have already helped to reconstruct the biographies of some women and can be used in the future while conducting research on prisoners from Lithuania and in other concentration camps.

Short report: Prison-reported rates of autism in female prisons in England

Short report: Prison-reported rates of autism in female prisons in England

The ubiquity of gender and the hiddenness of agency: looking inside women’s prisons in England

In the United Kingdom (UK), individuals in women’s prison account for only 4% of the total prison population. Existing research stresses the detrimental consequences of institutionalisation that, in female prison spaces, seems to employ femininity as a primary mode of social control. Through document analysis, this study investigates 75 governmental and non-governmental documents related to women’s prisons in England, where most UK women’s prisons are located, to identify recurring themes associated with women’s imprisonment. The two themes that emerged point to, on the one hand, the ubiquity of binary gender differences, through which healthcare, education and vocational opportunities reproduce notions of subordinate femininity, and, on the other hand, the hiddenness of agency, as prisoners’ autonomy over their body and their space is concealed by the institution to ensure their docility. Although geographically specific, the results of this study contribute to existing criminological research on women’s prisons by emphasising how the institutional refeminisation and the responsibilising agenda that permeate female prison spaces normalise a unidimensional display of femininity, one that is subjugated, passive and bound to the domestic. The consequences of this can have detrimental effects not only for gender non-conforming individuals, but for all those who experience imprisonment.

Challenges Faced by Female Inmates and the Effects of Inadequate Women's Prisons

Challenges Faced by Female Inmates and the Effects of Inadequate Women's Prisons

Drivers of adult educational engagement in Ecuadorian prisons: A gender perspective

This research paper reports an investigation on the determinants of educational engagement among the whole Ecuadorian prison population as collected in the penitentiary census conducted in 2022. By employing a probit regression model, the analysis reveals distinct patterns: while age and ethnicity significantly influence participation among male inmates, environmental factors like overcrowding play a pivotal role for female prisoners. Moreover, higher levels of formal education negatively correlate with educational engagement across both genders. These findings underscore the need for targeted policies that address both individual and environmental barriers to educational participation within Ecuadorian prisons. By understanding these dynamics, policymakers can develop effective interventions to improve prison conditions and enhance rehabilitation outcomes, contributing to broader societal goals of justice and sustainable development.

Behind Bars and Beyond: Navigating the Terrain of Gender Justice in Indian Prison

The research aims to compile data on the challenges faced by women in prison and the available legal remedies for their plight. To guarantee women prisoners' protection and provide a non-custodial degree of punishment, the Bangkok Rules was established in 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly. Overcrowding, inadequate sanitation and cleanliness, poor nutrition, a lack of education, violence, and the hazards of pregnancy and child care are merely some of the physical and mental difficulties that women confront in prisons in India. Women are safeguarded against exploitation and granted access to essentials by a multitude of laws, regulations, and standards. In reaction to human rights violations against such convicts, the Indian judiciary has vigorously interpreted Articles 19, 21, 22, 37, and 39 A of the Indian constitution. What options does a woman have when "caretakers" are turned into abusers? Their predicament is exacerbated by the prevailing state of prisons, gender bias, abuse while incarcerated, harsh treatment of children, inadequacy of fundamental human rights, and restricted availability of prison resources. The research envisages the pressing need for improvements by addressing women's rights, challenges, and variables in prison.

Impulsivity, trauma history, and interoceptive awareness contribute to completion of a criminal diversion substance use treatment program for women.

In the US, women are one of the fastest-growing segments of the prison population and more than a quarter of women in state prison are incarcerated for drug offenses. Substance use criminal diversion programs can be effective. It may be beneficial to identify individuals who are most likely to complete the program versus terminate early as this can provide information regarding who may need additional or unique programming to improve the likelihood of successful program completion. Prior research investigating prediction of success in these programs has primarily focused on demographic factors in male samples. The current study used machine learning (ML) to examine other non-demographic factors related to the likelihood of completing a substance use criminal diversion program for women. A total of 179 women who were enrolled in a criminal diversion program consented and completed neuropsychological, self-report symptom measures, criminal history and demographic surveys at baseline. Model one entered 145 variables into a machine learning (ML) ensemble model, using repeated, nested cross-validation, predicting subsequent graduation versus termination from the program. An identical ML analysis was conducted for model two, in which 34 variables were entered, including the Women's Risk/Needs Assessment (WRNA). ML models were unable to predict graduation at an individual level better than chance (AUC = 0.59 [SE = 0.08] and 0.54 [SE = 0.13]). Post-hoc analyses indicated measures of impulsivity, trauma history, interoceptive awareness, employment/financial risk, housing safety, antisocial friends, anger/hostility, and WRNA total score and risk scores exhibited medium to large effect sizes in predicting treatment completion (p < 0.05; ds = 0.29 to 0.81). Results point towards the complexity involved in attempting to predict treatment completion at the individual level but also provide potential targets to inform future research aiming to reduce recidivism.

Prevalence of mental illness among Australian and New Zealand people in prison: A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies published over five decades.

The higher rate of mental illness, including severe psychotic disorders, among people in prisons compared to the general community is well-established. However, there have been no reviews or attempts to pool data on the reported prevalence of mental illness across prisons in Australia and New Zealand. A systematic search of electronic databases from 1966 to the end of 2020 was conducted to identify studies reporting rates of 'any' mental illness, and separately rates of psychotic illness, among adult men and women in Australian and New Zealand prisons. A meta-analysis was performed according to PRISMA guidelines (PROSPERO ID: CRD42021241946), with separate analyses conducted for lifetime and current prevalence rates. Seventeen studies, with a total of 10,209 people in prison, met inclusion criteria. The pooled lifetime prevalence of 'any' mental illness was 69.0% (95% confidence interval = [0.56, 0.79]), and the pooled lifetime prevalence for psychosis was 9.1% (95% confidence interval = [0.07, 0.12]). Meanwhile, the pooled prevalence for 'any' current mental illness was 54.0% (95% confidence interval = [0.39, 0.68]) and for any current psychosis was 6.4% (95% confidence interval = [0.04, 0.10]). There was substantial heterogeneity between studies, with evidence that lifetime rates of psychosis have increased over time, with true prevalence estimates in 95% of all comparable populations falling between 2.7% and 26.4%. The prevalence of mental illness, including severe psychotic illness, is high in Australian and New Zealand prisons. Furthermore, there is evidence that the prevalence of psychosis may be increasing over time, indicating more effort is needed to ensure diversion of people with mental illness away from the criminal justice system and into healthcare pathways.

The Relationship of Menstrual Hygiene Behavior with Menstrual Cycle Disorders in Female Prisoners: A Sequential Explanatory Analysis

Menstrual hygiene behaviors, such as using clean sanitary napkins, washing the body with soap, and disposing of used sanitary napkins properly, play an important role in preventing menstrual disorders. This quantitative study aims to examine the relationship between menstrual hygiene behavior and menstrual cycle disorders in female prisoners in class II B women's prison in Padang city. Qualitative research aims to explore more deeply the behavior of inmates who experience menstrual cycle disorders in class II B women's prison in Padang city. This research used a combination method with a sequential explanatory design from November 2023 to March 2024, the research sample consisted of 73 female prisoners selected by purposive sampling. Quantitative data analysis using the chi-square test showed a significant association (p-value &lt;0.001) between menstrual hygiene behavior and menstrual cycle disorders, while qualitative data through in-depth interviews identified two main themes: menstrual hygiene behavior and menstrual cycle disorders. In conclusion, poor menstrual hygiene behavior is associated with menstrual cycle disorders, so it is recommended that prison authorities increase supervision and provide better information on menstrual hygiene to prisoners.

The Attitudes of Muslims Towards Muslim Women In Prisons

The Prisons across the world are meant to serve the interest of the human society. This is to help the society punish its non-law abiding citizens. In the early societies the believed in revenge, torture, the removal of offenders from the midst of ‘good people’ and even execution were common. As civilization occurs, the idea of punishment, torture and even execution have been substituted with reform and transformation. This change was important by the rights of prisoners instituted by the United Nations. Base on the above information, the conditions of many prisons in Ghana as well as the prisoners are nothing to write home about. Prisoners’ rights and freedoms are always infringed upon of which Muslim Women Prisoners are most often the victims. This article sought to find out the attitudes of Muslims towards Muslim Women in the Prisons. It was among the main objectives of the work to find out, the attitudes of Muslims towards Muslim women in the Prisons, whether the Muslim women were accorded the right respect in society, especially after serving their prison terms, right to practice their religion, whether there was any religious education available to the Muslim women in the prisons, and find the general conditions in the Prisons. The work used qualitative methods. Questionnaires were administered to the Muslim women prisoners, Muslims, Islamic Scholars and Prison officers, in order to gather the data. The data was afterward analyzed. After the research, it was realized that Muslim women in the prisons had the chance to practice their religious duties. They also had religious education as well as visiting scholars. The conditions of the prisons were very bad and the inmates had insufficient food, water and medical care.

Exposure to Childhood Adversity and Intimate Partner Violence in a Sample of Incarcerated Women in Australia.

Women who use violence represent one of the fastest growing groups within the Australian prisoner population, including Aboriginal women who are more likely to be incarcerated than non-Aboriginal women for violent crimes. Many incarcerated women report histories of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and intimate partner violence. This exploratory study examines baseline data from a sample of 167 women in 3 Western Australia women's prisons enrolled in a gender-specific violent behavior program. It describes their exposure to intimate partner violence, head injury, and childhood adversities. Overall, 94% of women had experienced at least one childhood adversity (median 6), and 94% reported being a victim of physical violence by a current or former intimate partner. Aboriginal women were more likely than non-Aboriginal women to report that a family member was incarcerated as a child (p = .001). There was an association between an increased number of ACEs and head injury with a loss of consciousness (p = .008). Overall, these results present a harrowing picture of childhood exposure to adversity and violence in adulthood. Successful rehabilitation of women incarcerated for violent crimes should be cognizant of the histories of extreme violence endured by most of these women.

Collective Memory at Canada's Prison for Women

This essay proposes a critical phenomenology of the ontological, social, ethical, and political dimensions of collective memory. At an ontological level, the site of collective memory is not intentional consciousness but rather the lifeworld itself, understood as a historically sedimented context for meaning and mattering. The social dimension of collective memory is structured around an antagonism between hegemonic public memory and insurgent countermemory. The ethical dimension issues a command to anyone to listen and respond to the countermemory of the oppressed. And the political dimension of collective memory asks us to commit to building a world that refuses to repeat past oppression; it calls for the reclamation and (re)invention of a collective procedural memory of how to care for a common world. This analysis of collective memory unfolds in the context of a proposed memorial garden on the grounds of Canada's first prison for women, which is in the process of being redeveloped into luxury condominiums.

Surviving domestic and state violence: Women's prison organising and the gendered politics of solidarity

AbstractTracing the organising efforts of criminalised survivors inside the California Institution for Women during the 1990s, this article explores the social and political history of Convicted Women Against Abuse (CWAA). Members built communities of self‐affirmation and care within institutions designed to stamp out their humanity during an age otherwise marked by punitive legislation, prison expansion and growing incapacitation. How these women fostered collectivity and became political advocates fighting for joint clemency complicates conventional and gendered understandings of the punitive 1990s as a low point in the American prison movement. Narrated from the perspective of incarcerated women organisers who stewarded elaborate care networks and undertook significant political organising, this article restores women's prison organising during the 1990s to the prison movement record, while also showcasing the limits and harms of mainstream anti‐violence policies in the lives of incarcerated survivors. Drawing upon incarcerated women's writings, testimonies and oral histories, I examine the politics of mutual care, solidarity and resistance that incarcerated women developed in response to a prison regime that was and remains actively hostile to collectivity of any kind. I argue that care work nurtured sustained political engagement from inside prison.

Prevalence of sexually transmitted infections and human papillomavirus in cervical samples from incarcerated women in São Paulo, Brazil: a retrospective single-center study.

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) cause considerable morbidity worldwide and, depending on the specific pathogen, may lead to serious complications in the female reproductive tract. Incarcerated women are particularly vulnerable to health problems with a disproportionate high rate of STIs, including infections with human papillomavirus (HPV). Here, cervical swab samples collected from 299 women (18 to 64 years) living in one of the women's prisons of São Paulo, Brazil were submitted for liquid-based cytology to determine the prevalence of precancerous lesions. Furthermore, direct detection of 30 genital HPV genotypes (18 high-risk and 12 low-risk types) and 11 additional STIs (Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Herpes simplex virus 1 and 2, Haemophilus ducreyi, Mycoplasma genitalium and hominis, Treponema pallidum, Trichomonas vaginalis, Ureaplasma parvum and urealyticum) were performed by molecular typing using two PCR-based DNA microarray systems, i.e., EUROArray HPV and EUROArray STI (EUROIMMUN), respectively. The overall prevalence of cytological abnormalities was 5.8%, including five women with low-grade and five women with high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions. The overall prevalence of HPV was 62.2, and 87.1% of the HPV-positive women were infected with oncogenic high-risk (HR) HPV types. HPV types 16 (24.1%), 33 and 52 (both 10.4%) were the most frequently detected. The prevalence of the other STIs was 72.8%. Up to four different pathogens were found in the infected women, the most frequent being Ureaplasma parvum (45.3%), Mycoplasma hominis (36.2%) and Trichomonas vaginalis (24.8%). The high number of HR-HPV infections and other STIs described here highlights the fact that the Brazilian female prison population requires more attention in the country's health policies. The implementation of screening programs and treatment measures might contribute to a decrease in the incidence of STIs and cervical cancer in this vulnerable population. However, for such measures to be effective, further studies are needed to investigate the best practice to get more women to engage in in-prison prevention programs, e.g., through offering further sexual health education and self-sampling.