Search

The purpose of this study was to explore the organizational climate in a women's prison from the shared perceptions of correctional staff. This study was part of the Prison Research and Innovation Network (PRIN) project, which began in the fall of 2020. Forty-two correctional staff from a low-medium security women's prison in the Midwest were interviewed in spring 2021. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify staff's perceptions of organizational climate in the women's correctional facility. The themes identified as most important to staff were mental health, correctional practices, job satisfaction, and workplace culture. An item pool was developed from the themes identified, and a newly developed organizational climate survey was administered to 80 correctional staff. Qualitative data point to the issues of staff shortages and mandated overtime work impacting the mental health of staff. In addition, organizational climate and its impact on mental health were examined through multiple logistic regressions. The results indicated that having job promotion opportunities, having daily communication between staff and administration, and staff's knowledge and awareness of correctional policies were positively associated with mental health. This mixed-methods study contributes to understanding the unique challenges correctional staff face working in women's correctional facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, sexuality and sexual relationships were foundational concepts for understanding women's prisons that generally receded from carceral research as the nation's incarceration rates climbed. This study reevaluates classic themes of sexuality and women's prison informal organization using social network and health data collected in two Pennsylvania women's prison units (n = 118). Sampled women perceived a high prevalence of prison-based sexual relationships and overwhelmingly endorsed the rights of sexual minorities. Additionally, network analyses found that sexual minority women had similar friendships, social status, and self-reported health as their heterosexual peers across both units, suggesting an absence of sexual stigmatization or group segregation processes. However, older, longer-term incarcerated women were more likely than their peers to hold unfavorable views toward prison sex. This was particularly evident in a "good behavior" unit holding many older, long-term residents where overt sexual behaviors could jeopardize the unit's stability and privileges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When issues emerge in women's imprisonment, criminology often responds with narratives of 'difference'. In this article we respond to the call of Barbara Hudson, and generate a 'criminology of diversity' instead. We present the case of Vietnamese women in Victoria, Australia, whose incarceration is increasing at an alarming rate. According to government discourse, this increase occurs because Vietnamese women in Victoria have a distinct 'problem gambling' pathway to crime that is supported by Vietnamese lending arrangements. Seeking to disaggregate and denature this essentialist and reductionist narrative, we draw on the accounts of specialist Vietnamese community workers to explore the various meanings and significance of gambling in the lives of Vietnamese women in Victoria. We further engage with the work of Paul Gilroy on diasporic identities and Ghassan Hage on vacillations to illustrate what is gained by recognizing the overlaps, parallels and points of divergence that form within and between 'different' groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper emphasises the importance of locating contemporary abolitionist social movements within a continuum of broader struggles against structural injustice. Previous decades have seen the re-emergence of women’s penal reform programmes framed as progressive solutions for alleviating the structural disadvantages and harms associated with imprisonment. Abolitionists have provided fierce critiques of the risks these pose in reinforcing the legitimacy and scale of imprisonment. However, we have yet to articulate a clear vision regarding the utility of reform in relation to decarceration strategies. In presenting a critical exploration of anti-carceral feminist campaign work in Victoria, Australia, this paper advocates the need to move beyond the simplistically conceived dualism of reform and abolition. The analysis explores how anti-carceral feminists have used reform as a resistance strategy within Victorian anti-discrimination campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s. Placed in historical context, these campaigns demonstrate the transformative possibilities and risks associated with the necessary navigation and pursuit of reformist strategies that is fundamental to a politics and practice of abolition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examines U.S. prison programming availability and participation by gender on a national level. The authors build upon previous literature by using national-level data, something that has been done in very limited cases previously. The main concern of this study is gender and its effects on programming availability and participation. The U.S. corrections field has undergone major changes in regard to population trends, fiscal constraints, policies, and research over the last few decades without a large-scale examination of the effects of these changes on programming across the United States. In this study, multiple types of programming areas were examined and results indicated that often female prisons (i.e., prisons housing only females) were more likely to offer programs (e.g., mental health options) and women were more likely to participate in many programming options compared with male prisons and men, respectively. We discuss the possible reasons for this and implications for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing a “layered” account that overlies personal experience with feminist, sociological, and pedagogical theory, this article explores the material reality of student mentors assisting in college-level courses offered in a prison site to incarcerated women. The authors present analyses of their developing understandings of theory-in-action as they engaged in symbolic interactions within the carceral environment. The authors offer reflective representations of their experiences mentoring incarcerated women and they explicate a variety of epistemological positions. The article draws attention to structural boundaries and barriers, both physical and emotional; to the construction and maintenance of “safe” classroom space; and to mirror reflections, that is, to seeing self in the “other.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The application of radio frequency identification device (RFID) technology to prevent inmate misconduct in a women’s prison in Cleveland, Ohio was evaluated. An interrupted time series design was employed to analyze administrative data. Interviews were conducted with 89 inmates and 21 correctional and investigative staff. A process evaluation found that the advanced applications of the RFID system theorized to prevent inmate misconduct were not initiated. The resulting study thus evaluates RFID when employed at its most basic level as a perimeter control device and aid in investigations. Results indicate that RFID did not deter inmate misconduct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of female inmate participation in a facilitatorled group on psychosocial (anxiety, depression, self-esteem) and spiritual well-being. A convenience sample of 36 women (21 intervention, 15 comparison) was recruited from a women's prison in the Northeast. Participants in the groups described positive outcomes in the interviews and in the quantitative measurements of anxiety, depression, and self-esteem. Trends in the data, however, indicated an additional differential effect related to program involvement for depression and anxiety scores. The spirituality scores were high at all times for both groups, with slight increases over the period of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article summarizes the findings of a larger study of factors that are associated with women's reoffending, particularly its link with substance abuse. Primary data were derived from semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 26 women who had been released from Christchurch Women's Prison, New Zealand, prior to 1999. These data were triangulated with interviews with informed experts and with secondary data from the participants' community probation records. The study found an association between substance abuse and women's reoffending, which varied according to the type and level of dependence on substances. The relationship among substance abuse, dependence, and victimization affected the women's entry into offending and ongoing recidivism. Desistance from substance abuse and offending was a process of relapse and recovery affected by different life stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food assumes enormous importance in prison: for many prisoners it conditions their life in custody and, in many respects, is symbolic of the prison experience. This article explores the complex relationship between gender, food and imprisonment through an analysis of data obtained from in-depth interviews and group discussions conducted in three women’s prisons in England. The findings indicate that, in prison, where control is taken away as the prisoner and her body become the objects of external forces, food is experienced not only as part of the disciplinary machinery, but also as a powerful source of pleasure, resistance and rebellion. The implications of such findings for health promotion in the prison context are discussed. Here, the pleasures and consolations of food may well constitute a redefinition of what it is to be healthy in this context, one that challenges the dominant meaning constructed in current health promotional discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines issues associated with the embrace of feminist ideals in Canadian attempts to restructure and rethink federal women's imprisonment. Limitations of a woman-centered model of corrections; Argument for the closure of the Prison for Women and for programs that accommodate the needs of women; Paradoxes of woman-centered corrections.

Examines the inmate needs and the nature of programming available in women's prisons in the United States. Surveys and interviews administered at five women's jails; Extent to which women's jails meet the needs of inmates who want to further their education and training, maintain and deepen bonds with their children and overcome their addictions to drugs and alcohol.

Presents the study on the effects of two disparate social environment on a group of women imprisoned in the maximum security prison for women. Two different social environments; How an affirmative educational program affect the incarcerated women; Effect of the environments on the participants of the study; Effects of the prison environment on the Alternatives to Violence Project Inc. (AVP) attempts; Results of the study.

Examines programming for women in American prisons in the 980s. Increase in the number of incarcerated women; Inadequacies in women's programming; Parity for incarcerated women; Findings; size of facility and security level; Educational programs; Work and vocational training; Medical and mental health; Access to legal expertise and materials; Parent-child relations.

At least since the Attica State Prison revolt, penologists have been exploring the racial climate of men's correctional facilities. In the tradition of criminology research, theoretical and empirical studies of female inmates have lagged behind the work concerning males; accordingly, the extent of racial turmoil in women's prisons remains unknown. Utilizing data gathered on Minnesota's correctional facility for adult female felons, this study explores white and minority inmates' perceptions of race relations within the prison. The data reveal that while the minority women perceive more racial conflict than the white women, the correctional facility cannot be characterized as a racially hostile environment. Implications of these findings for purposes of future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses various reports published within the issue including one on consumptive labor, another on mentoring in a women's prison, and another on educational inequality among pregnant and mothering parents.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one by Elaine Lord on humanizing women's prisons and another by Fred Cohen on corrections law.