In six pages this essay examines incarcerated women in an overview that illustrates a trend not toward rehabilitation but rather domestication. Three sources are cited in the bibliography.
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is the plight of women who end up in prison. Although women make up a small percentage of the overall prison population, more and more women are being incarcerated for
crimes. They are placed in overburdened facilities that are unable to cope with an exploding male prison population, let alone one that includes women.
This paper will examine some aspects of women in prison including the crimes women prisoners have committed, as well as a profile of the typical womens prison. Why
Women are Incarcerated Female prisoners are incarcerated in 141 institutions for women; 162 coed facilities, and approximately 3,400 local and county jails
(Clear and Cole). Yet women make up only 6.4 percent of the U.S. prison popluation and only 11 percent of the jail population (Clear and Cole).
According to Nancy Kurshan, prisons serve the same purpose for women as they do for men - they are instruments of social control (Kurshan, 2002). Imprisonment
of women, however, tends to take place within a patriarchal society (Kurshan, 2002). According to statistics from prisonactivist.org, women are arrested and
placed in prison primarily for economic crimes (Anonymous, 2002). These crimes can include check forgery and illegal credit card use (Anonymous, 2002). It is conjectured that deteriorating economic conditions tends
to drive these women - who are single mothers many times - to the brink of desperation faster than men (Kurshan, 2002).
Of the women convicted of violent crimes, the majority were done so for defending themselves or their children from abuse - in other words, self defense or the defense of