LIFE IN PRISON

1. LIFE IN PRISON Female Inmates’ Adaptation and/or Subscription to Inmate Code (prisionization)

2. PRISIONIZATION: “the taking on, in greater or lesser degree, of the folkways, mores, customs and general culture of the penitentiary.” – Donald Clemmer

3. The Invisible Criminal • Historical implications • Gender was secondary • Imprisonment followed male guidelines • Different type of care than male convicts • Imprisoned and then forgotten • No programs • No medical attention • No supervision • Few opportunities to work • Today there is more parity in policy but is there equality?

4. PRISON CULTURE • Subjugation • Institutionally paternalistic • Systematically repressive/arbitrary • Symbolizes oppressive authority • Intensifies powerlessness • Strips away identity • Dysfunctional environment

5. PAINS OF IMPRISONMENT • Separation from family • Freedom of choice and activity limited • Apprehension • Stigma • Lack of experience Ward & Kassebaum, 1964

6. FOUR RESPONSES TO PAINS OF IMPRISIONMENT • DEATH • INSTITUTIONALIZATION • SELF-MUTILATION • MADNESS

7. INSTITUTION EFFECTS • Below quality of men’s prisons • Provide fewer programs/reinforce traditional roles • Less access to lawyers & outside contacts • Unspecialized prison • More severe impact • Experience two emotions • Surprise • Fear • Look to staff • Information • Material goods

8. INSTITUTION EFFECTS (cont) • Inmate Code • Not as salient for females as for male prisoners • Reaction to deprivation • Identity as women • Internalization of delinquent subcultures • Importation vs. deprivation: direct effect on subscription to code • Importation: criminal history and personal characteristics • Deprivation: situational or prison-specific variables • Low subscription • End of term ??? • 1st arrest after age 25 • High subscription • Middle of sentence ??? • Younger and urban inmates • Prior imprisonments • More serious convictions (verbally) • Married • Short-timers/early phase • End of term???

9. INSTITUTION EFFECTS (cont) • Also… • Low subscription indicated by little role playing • Merchants • Politicians • Gorilla • Reflects male needs for status, independence, and masculine self-image • Less predatory inmate population • More like medium security men’s prison • Less tense • Less violent • Subculture: Men vs Women • Men’s exist to protect from each other • Neutralize rejection • Emotional support

10. Gender • Women experience incarceration differently • Likely to be rule-breakers • Gender-based frameworks • Less social capital • Subverts mother-child bond • Do not maintain group solidarity • Informing on others characteristic • Not relevant for women • Roles differentiated along sexual lines • Emotional/ manipulative coping strategies • Dramatically different from men’s • Perpetuate gender stereotypes inside • Engage in self-aggression • Suicide • Self-mutilation • Seen as less respectful to authority • Willing to argue • Written up twice as much as men • For less serious infraction

11. OTHER OBSERVATIONS • Jenson and Jones • Examines prisonization during 1970s • Studies career phase • No issue of overcrowing addressed • Did not consider “other” impact of “public institutions” • Social services experiences • Foster care • Welfare recipients • Continue to use male oriented questions • Women’s need’s not considered

12. McCorkel’s article suggests • View of women prisoners have changed • Redefining of dependency • Marriage of welfare and criminal justice policies- maybe more to come • Reform efforts replaced with punishment • Different internal and external pressure for change • Solution to overcrowding • Replace penal paternalism • Made prisonlike • Treat women like men – masculine • More punitive

13. CONCLUSION Inmates tend to undergo some degree of prisonization irrespective of race, education, urban-nonurban status, prior prison experience, legal status and offense. (Jensen & Jones, 1976) However, the deceptive nature of women’s prisons… while subtle, is stronger than in men’s institutions. (Chapter 1, p.20)