Custom term papers on Women in Prison and Children of Imprisoned Mothers

Depression, self-harm and suicide. Depression is diagnosed more often in women than in men (even when they have similar scores on standardized measures of depression) and more likely to prescribe mood altering psychotropic drugs to women than to men. Men in outside prison are more likely to commit suicide than women but the position is has inside prison, and self-harm in prison is a big problem and more prevalent among women in prison.
7. Violence and vulnerability. In those countries where all prisoners are vulnerable to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment, women (and juvenile female) prisoners are particularly at risk, both from male prisoners and from male prison guards. The power imbalance between prisoners and guards together with the closed nature of prisons provide opportunities for harassment, exploitation, abuse, prostitution, rape and indecent assault of female prisoners by staff, both male and female.
They may also be subjected to abuse and exploitation from other prisoners, both male and female (Ghimire. 2000).
Even in countries where this is not the case, such as in the UK, women prisoners are vulnerable to other prisoners. A high proportion of UK women prisoners tell that they feel unsafe.
The issues about safety and security of female prisoners include:
– Location of female cells in mixed prisons.
– Location and use of shared facilities, in particular showers and toilets.
– Whether male prison guards hold ‘contact positions’ over female prisoners (posts which permit or require them to be in physical proximity to the prisoners, sometimes unsupervised by other, female, staff).
– Strip searches: women prisoners as a group are more likely than other women generally and/or male prisoners to have experienced sexual assault: this makes strip-searching especially traumatic for them.
– The existence or lack of effective supervision and complaints mechanisms which enable prisoners to complain without exposing them to intimidation or further abuse – for example, seeing a doctor in the presence of guards means that violence towards and abuse of prisoners by guards is less likely to be reported by the prisoner.
– Women who are subject to sexual abuse or exploitation face the added problems relating to the risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, the questions of pregnancy and child-birth or abortion, and all the associated physical, mental and emotional health issues (Mauer. 1999).
8. Mothers in prison. Most women in prison around the world are mothers. Women are more likely to be the sole or primary carrier for children and this thing makes the prison experience even more different for women. The effects of maternal imprisonment on their families are generally more disruptive than the effects of paternal imprisonment. This is not adequately recognized by the criminal justice system.
Since the numbers of women who are sent to a prison are rather low and the tendency to send women to prison for lesser nonviolent offences is increasing, so the woman herself can not understand the possibility of imprisonment as the outcome of her deeds. That is why the woman doesn’t have the opportunity to make any preparations or provision for her kids before being taken into custody. Such fact can be a cause of additional stress for her and her kids (Morash. 2002).custom term paper
Prison visits from children. Visiting prisons can be a difficult and frustrating experience for children. So, traveling for a long distance, entering a grim building, being searched, spending time in a harsh adult environment with a mother that one might not even be able to touch may be extremely distressing to a child. This in turn may make the child’s carer less inclined to undertake this arduous task, as well as leaving the mother distraught and reluctant to have further visits from the child.
Furthermore, the new carers may have their own family responsibilities, as well as financial constraints, which put strains on taking in additional children (leading to children moving from one carer to another) and in particular adding to the financial, time and emotional burdens of taking children to visit their imprisoned mother.
Evidence suggests that the children of imprisoned mothers, and particularly those who are taken into state care during the mother’s imprisonment, are at significantly greater risk of developing criminal behavior in adulthood than other children (Banks. 2003).
9. Children of imprisoned mothers. The rights and best interests of the children of women prisoners are rarely considered during criminal justice processes, even though parental imprisonment has a major impact on their lives. There are three options:
– The child has to go to prison with the mother, and the consequence of that.
– The child is separated from the mother, and the consequence of that.
– Where there is more than one child and they are treated differently; i.e. one goes to prison with the mother, the other is separated, and the consequences of that.
Within each of these, there are then a number of matters to be considered which are encapsulated in the table overleaf (Faith. 2005).
Children separated from their mother. Children left in the community may be looked after by their father, grandparents, other relatives or friends of the family, taken into state care or left without carers.
Siblings may be separated from each other in order to make the situation not to difficult, or they may be taken into State institutions.
A prisoner living in insecure or rented accommodation will usually lose this when s/he enters prison and getting accommodation when released is often difficult. A mother whose kids have been sent in the care of the state or another person usually cannot reclaim custody without appropriate accommodation, so even a short prison term may lead to permanent separation of families.
Registering details of prisoners’ children is not part of the reception procedure in many countries. Some prisoners may not disclose this information voluntarily for fear that their children will be permanently taken away from them. As a result, governments do not make social provision or policies which address the problem of children with incarcerated parents (Immarigeon. 1992).
The imprisonment of the mother has a great impact on the children; it affects every aspect of their lives and not just the relationships with their mother. It feels the same as while the bereavement, but with less support, from the new carer, teachers, and other people. Children of imprisoned parents have an increased tendency to exhibit aggressive and anti-social behavior compared to the general population.
Researchers have found that the effects of parental imprisonment can be serious. Studies of prisoners’ children consistently report that children experience a range of psychosocial problems during the imprisonment of a parent, including: depression, hyperactivity, aggressive behavior, withdrawal, regression, clinging behavior, problems with sleeping and eating, running away, truancy, low school grades and delinquency. The impact on the children will, of course, vary according to their age, surrounding family and community response, environment and individual character.