I think it is ridiculous that over the past century women's involvement in the criminal justice system has increased extremely. Due to the fact that this is because of more expansive law enforcement efforts. I don't know who came up with these solutions but when you see that this hasn't helped, and a portion of incarceration is going up then why not change it or make adjustments! I really feel like some of this stuff is really common sense, and if there is anyone working on lower incarceration rates they aren't the people who are locking them up. I feel like these high rates come from officers, which for the most part gets backed up by judges then when they enter the jail or prisons they don't want to release them because of the revenue they receive for their bodies. Women's prison populations are eight times higher than it was in 1980. I think this may be when people realized that the more prisoners they keep the more revenue they earn. I really can't see any other effects to result in such a high jump in incarceration for women. More than 60 percent of women in state prisons have a child under the age of 18. I understand violent or serious crimes some women need to be in jail not alone that away from their children. I just don't understand how a mother with a minor offense can be put in jail or prison. If anything its going to be a continuous cycle of criminal behavior and poverty. Your taking away someone's mother, someones only source of survival and improvement. This happens because if the mother doesn't have anyone they go to the system, and become bitter, upset, struggling, and possibly criminally driven adults. In some situations sending a child with even another family member will cause this too because the child will feel as if they are unwanted and nowadays you cant even trust your uncle that used to watch you when you were a child. This topic really upsets me because its almost as you've taken a child's source of discipline as well as their guide. I believe even if you have a really bad mom, that's your source of learning life because when you get older, it'll be something you look back on and say i will never let my children experience that. Everyone isn't the same but if your a strong individual coming from a broken home will make you a stronger individual. I just think your automatically eliminating a productive member of society when you take a child away from their mother especially when you don't have to! Its not fair to the child and our children are the future, so this exemplifies to me that our Criminal Justice system is not showing enough concern towards our future by taking children's mothers. It even seems as if racially profiling is even the case with African American women. There are way more African American women in incarceration than white women, even with the fact that the African American women's imprisonment rate decreased 47 percent. The whole little article made me a little upset as well because the numbers don't match their claims. I guarantee that a few of those graphs are way off. I assumed this because nationally we cant have the highest and lowest incarceration rate it has to be one or the other, unless i read the graph wrong but i still don't agree and i think we should all make an approach to condense incarceration period because it doesn't seem as if its the individuals its the government with all these harsh laws. America may be called the land of the free but I promise we are not free. McBrightyalife456
Women have harder times in prison. Some women are pregnant going into incarceration. Girls have parents in a fearful state and the drug policy is heavy among them as well. For women and girls leaving prison have a low return rate then men. Drug policy on women is not so much. Women do use and sale drugs but not at the rate of men. The prisoners in women facillities feel mpre intemidated by others. For a mother incarcerated for drugs was probably poor. She needed the money to provide food, clothes, shelter, etc. Then being sentenced because she was trying to make a way of servival. Her kids end up in foster care. Getting out on parole trying to get her kids back is another hell. Where is her money coming from now? Leaving the mother with no choice. Girls in prison fall victim to these women and are workers in many ways. They have a better chance when they get out to not return. -Detective Stabler
Reading this article made us both confused and disturbed just because all of the crazy statistics and us both being young women we can only imagine how painful it would be to actually be incarcerated. We agree that women do have a tougher time in prison than males do for the simple fact that women require more attention and losing their freedom can really break their character. Also reading and watching the videos and realizing how bad prisons are women suffer more than men which is very sad. I also agree with the racial profiling because both statistics that stood out to me dealing with the Hispanic and African American women how are the minorities being incarcerated at a higher rate than white women? The only two explanations we could possibly think of dealing with that is that is it a racial thing or it has to deal with those two groups and their financial problems which forces them to live in the poorer areas of cities which when they are locked up police are cleaning up those areas and the prisons get money for having all of these inmates. Overall it is disturbing looking at all these numbers and realizing the reality of what truly happens in prison and knowing some of those women are mothers so all the pain they go through is just overall sad. swaggyy456 & savage456
Honestly being pregnant while going into prison should not be a key determination fact. We should know what they did and why? IS Their innocent pregnant women in prison? yes. Are their guilty pregnant women in prison? yes. should the innocent ones be let go? absolutely. Now what about the guilty ones? no they should stay in prison. should babies have to be born in prisons? ABSOLUTELY NOT! regardless. This is something else we need to look at. how many pregnant mothers say "oh this baby is my get out of jail free card I am going to change my ways" just to make themselves look good at a parole hearing? We cant guarantee the best life for these babies, all we can do is try. ~myhearseisnotafuneralcar456~
This article blows me away, and at the same time confuses me tremendously. The numbers have changed drastically since 1980, and especially 2000. I just can't really figure out why from this article. I can just ask questions on points that pop out to me.
A few things stuck out to me as I read this article. One of them being how there has been a major rise in incarcerated women; which I had no idea that was even a thing happening. I could have suspected the opposite since that is how it is going in male prisons. The amount of African American women in prison in 2000 out ot 100,000 was 209 inmates. It decreased 47% precent, to make it 109 women inmates. White women rised from 34 to 53. Which doesn't seem like a huge jump, but mathematically speaking it rised by 56%.
What confuses me about the statement above is that incarcerated people have sky rocketed since 1980. There only used to be a few hundred thousand people locked up, now there are 2.3 million. How is that jump so possible if African American females are taking such a decrease, and white females are only jumping there numbers by 20 more people out of 100,000?
Another thing that stuck out to be like a sore thumb is, there are over 54 thousand youths in residential placement. Only 8 thousand of those are young girls. That is a huge difference for boys, and girls. Now why? Back in 2001 there were 15,000 young females in residential living, and it took a huge decrease down to where it is now. I understand that they all get in there for different things, such as running away. And I understand that boys are more likely to do such a thing. But why are there more white girls being placed, than African American? What is going on in the white females lifes? What are they doing?
There are a lot of graphs and information in this article. But none of it really explains why and how the information comes to how it is. I can't really make opinions on this article. I can just wonder and ask questions on certain points in this article that pokes out to me the most. Rugby_456
I definitely agree with your statements. These numbers are thought provoking, but they don't really solve any of those thoughts. One of the most compelling differences between the charts was the difference in crime rates between genders as they age. Boys commit 88% of all juvenile caused violent crimes, compared to only 12% of girls committing the same crimes. However, in the adult statistics, the number for males decreases to 54% and the female percentage increases to 37%. Adults generally commit less crime as they age, which makes sense. These statistics are a juxtaposition in the case of females yet it doesn't give a reason for the difference.
I do agree with what you are saying. I am also confused on what is going on by the rise in incarceration of women, especially the years between 1980 to 2014. Also, I believe the reason for more women who are in state prisons than men are being involved in property or drug offense. In the decrease of African American women versus the increase of white women who are being incarcerated, I think that in 2014 the imprisonment of African American women was twice than white women, and I think that they learn from others. To youths in residential placement, I think they substantial decline for some reason probably that there are more organizations and programs that taught them how to be a responsible children and part of the community. -M.Scott456
I also found this article confusing. Like you said all you can do is ask questions on what stands out the most. The incarceration rate also made me think how it went up so fast as well. Now that we have rehabilitation centers when are these number becoming so drastically changed? a question I thought to my self was, “is there more white women then African American and Hispanics women being locked up?”, “To my knowledge the population of white people is more than African Americans and Hispanics.” I think there are more white people being incarcerated because there are more white people then there are African Americans and Hispanics. Thunder456
As a group, I think we all came to a very similar general concensus as you. The article itself did not meet the expectations that we had. It was cram packed full of information, yet there was little reasoning as to why it was happening. As the above reiterated, all this article did was make us question why incarceration was raising as it has. It doesn't make a bit of sense to us because they don't explain why. I'm sure that Professor White gave us this article to get us thinking before we learn more about the reasons. Another thing we fail to really understand and we can not comprehend is why so many men are arrested as youth when they nearly double the women being arrested during their youth. We also agree with M.Scott’s idea that maybe the reason for the decline in rates is the fact that youth in residential areas have much more opportunity than someone growing up in the burbs. Schools that are involved in their children’s lives give a better future for the children. Outside of school, there are summer sports, daycares, and camps that keep children safe and out of trouble. When kids are having fun and staying busy, they don’t have the time to run the streets and get in trouble. All in all, we aren’t very proud of this article as it leaves to many why’s and not enough answers. Just numbers. NightTrain456, Shark456, LowAndSlow456
Incarceration rate in women just keeps doubling as years go by. We have also known or at least looked at the prison system as just if only men are incarcerated for crimes, but studies over time says that’s not the case as women rates go up. Majority of the women that entered the system in 2014 were White, African-American, and Hispanic. White women were at a 53 percent, African-Americans were 109 percent, while Hispanic’s were a 64 percent. Of course depending what state you are from those numbers would be different, but it just shows that women are making their way into the system and not at a slow pace either. For women, incarceration can be upsetting because most systems were not designed for them in the first place. Women are being incarcerated for crimes that would not be punishable for them back in the older days. Now women are being punished for violent behaviors, property, drugs, public order, and much more. In the graph on this article it states women in 2014 exceeded in two categories. Women passed up the men in property crimes and drug crimes, while placing very close to them in public order. The only one women did not pass up or stay close to were violent offenses, but they still had their numbers which weren't low because they are guilty as well for committing violent offenses. The article states that in 1986, 24 percent of women in state prisons were incarcerated for a dug offense; by 2014, 24 percent were incarcerated for a dug offense. That comparison let alone says that we are incarcerating women on drug offenses which is stereotyped as a male crime. Women have become part of this because there are less suspected but they are fully capable of putting themselves at risk of being caught for their actions as well. But as women enter the system and become incarcerated they are also going through other transitions. Between 1980 and 2014 women are being incarcerated at a faster rate then men. Of these African American women, white women, and Hispanic women that are incarcerated, the imprisonment for African American women have been on the decrease and on the rise for White women. A majority of these women that are incarcerated are because they have been abused. Once they have been abused they turn to substance abuse, because of this substance abuse felony convictions result trying to obtain drugs, mostly related to low income. When these women are in prison they are unable to protect their children from their abusers, and if they tried to save them they become in prison because they allow something to happen to their child/children. Most of these women entered the justice system as young girls, the numbers have been on the rise for two decades now. Because of abuse and home-life when younger, have more mental health and serious mental illness then men. Also, eighty-two percent of women had a lifetime of substance use. Oregon has a program called "Women in Prison Project and Reentry Law Project" which is used their prisons to help those inmates returning to the community to be able to be successful when released. Due to poor self image after being abused, in order to help these incarcerated women have any recovery, programs need to be put into place in our judicial system to help these women develop a strong sense of self. Women when incarcerated don't get benefits when released, leaving children behind, visitations when locked away, how they become more intense with criminal behavior over time because they can't meet the community needs (paying for things, contributions to society). Everything leads back to the revolving door method and re-evolving door leads to prison funding which is what people want because a body in a sell is money for them. Foxracing456 Unknowzeeha456
We totally agree with everything you guys have said in your comment. Having programs like Oregon is what all prisons need because not only would it keep people from returning to prison, it would also get them on the right foot when they finally get released, not just in females, in men too. It could also help all the violence that happens inside the walls of prisons that not everyone knows about. We agree that abuse is the number one or close to the number one reason why the rate for women incarcerated has sky rocketed. Being abused takes a toll on yourself and it is hard to come back from that, so women do tend to lead towards drugs and substance abuse, but why is that? Why do women lead towards drugs when trying to recover from being abused? Could it be that they think it will take away the pain they received, so they will not have to suffer, kind of like self- harm in a way. Also causes mental and health issues, which need treated, but they do not receive help in prison. Some women are not as violent as men which could be why men still take the lead in violent crimes. Women are more defensive and men are more aggressive, so that could also be a part of why men are higher than women in violent crimes. While in prison it might explain why women argue over things and men have it out and fight one another. We also agree with you guys on that the crime laws were not as harsh as they are now, so you were not incarcerated for drugs so you can say. Low income is a major factor in why prison population is high in general. Yes, there are other factors, but we think that low income is close to number one. It is nice to see the African- American rates have gone down by 47 percent; it is a possibility that it could be people as individuals or even some of our society is starting to see who people truly are and not judge them based off their skin color and more of the hatred of the crime they committed.. Parts of some hope that racism will go away some day, but only society as a whole can change that. -Bears456 and CarlBaconWho456
I agree that the incarceration has officially become an issue. They are even over incarcerating women. It is just ridiculous that women are being incarcerated. I could see if more women were committed more violent crimes but that's not even the case. Women are being incarcerated for the pettiest offenses. I don't think it is fair for children to be stripped from their mothers because that is basically what they are doing by incarcerating females with children. Now our young men don't know how to treat a lady, now our daughters are not learning to carry themselves as a lady, society just doesn't realize this is deeper than just incarceration. They are definitely affecting our future generations. McBrightyalife456
Statistically speaking, it’s clear that the female prisoner population has exploded. The records from The Sentencing Project are explicit on that subject. My instinct is to ask ‘Why?’ and ‘What conclusion should we draw from that?’ I believe I can divine what conclusion The Sentencing Project wishes us to draw from these statistics, as the Project has as its explicit goal the support of the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, a 2015 bill introduced with the primary aim of reducing the severity of punishments, and for applying these standards to prisoners currently confined in American prisons. Therefore, the aims of journalism published by the Sentencing Project are likely aimed at garnering support for this bill. This bias ought to be properly taken into account when viewing articles such as these, in the interests of fairness to the involved parties.
These increases do seem to be very much in line with the mass criminalization that has sprung up since 1980, and as such, I find little in this report surprising. These statistics are, in this author’s opinion, the results of a national trend towards over-criminalization, largely stemming from the escalation of the War on Drugs in the 1980s. Women in prison are less likely to have been convicted for violent crimes than men (37% for women, 54% for men), but more likely to have been convicted of drug offenses (24% for women, 15% for men), which I have stated previously to be laws that I hold to be unjust. I hold that first and foremost, citizens have sovereignty over their own bodies, and that criminalizing what they choose to put in their bodies runs contrary to the very foundational principles of the United States. I don’t think it made sense when it was alcohol in the 1920s, and I still don’t think it makes sense now. I espouse the view that alcoholics and drug addicts alike need assistance breaking their habit far more than they deserve to be imprisoned for the non-violent use of chemical substances that have been deemed mala prohibita.
A peripheral issue is the problem of reintegrating female convicts back into normal society, which is a quandary that affects women more than it does men. I believe this results more from the general trend in female career paths than it does from prejudice against convicts Women, generally speaking, choose career paths that are different from men, and usually require more interpersonal communication skills. These careers are often closed to women with criminal histories, out of the concern of employers. For instance, my parents run a home health care business, and as such, many convicts are, by necessity, not eligible for hire by our company. It is also an industry that is dominated by women, as more people are comfortable with a female caregiver. In instances like ours, the intersection of the two problems is inevitable.
Furthermore, according to nine years of UCR arrest tables from 2006 until 2015, arrest rates have dropped across the board for men averaging a 25.6% decrease in total arrests apart from larceny-theft, which has risen a marginal 1.6%. However, the case is not the same for women. Arrest rates for most crimes are down, averaging an 11.8% decrease except for larceny-theft and property crimes, which are up 25.9% and 20.2% respectively. Due to the due date of this post, I don’t have enough time to thoroughly investigate the details of the property and larceny-theft crimes committed by women as compared to the same crimes committed by men. However, using my opinion and common sense, I can come to a safe conclusion that they aren’t so similar. When men commit these crimes it seems to be crimes of a violent mental intention. For example, when you hear of a string of arsons being committed and they finally capture the offender, they’re more often than not male. In November of 2015, two people went on a property crime spree by shooting out windows of cars and residences, causing tens of thousands of dollars according to the Peoria Journal Star. When these offenders were finally caught, it was revealed to be two men from Havana. When I think of women committing a property crime, I think of a woman keying her partner’s car after finding out that he or she cheated on her. I was watching Dr. Phil a few months ago and the guest for the day was a woman who had an obsession with shoplifting. My point is that women generally aren’t susceptible to committing violent-intention crimes or crimes that involve damaging property, but if you read the statistics out of context it would be easy to come to that conclusion.
Of the 37% of violent crimes that women do commit, I believe that I also have an interesting angle on this statistic as well. According to the NCVS, men are twice as likely to experience violence committed by a stranger than women are. However, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, women are five times more likely to experience violence at the hand of an intimate partner. I believe that of the 37% of violent crimes committed by women, most are provoked by the domestic violence inflicted by their spouse. Having grown up in a family with a father who was an aggressive alcoholic, I can understand this aspect. When you’ve been imprisoned, essentially, in your own home, with the certainty of catching a fist if you do the littlest thing wrong, it can cause you do take dire actions. Such actions didn’t occur in my household, but they happen regularly in others. For example, in 2014, Chamari Liyanage who is a doctor bludgeoned her husband to death. She endured physical, sexual, and emotional abuse for five years when the abuse started to increase in intensity. So in order to preserve her life, she killed him. She was charged and convicted of manslaughter and served two and a half years before being released. Men however, when they commit violent crimes, tend to do so by robbing someone at gunpoint, getting into a bar fight, or by violently abusing their spouse. Women generally aren’t of such a violent nature. There are exceptions, but not many.
In conclusion, I think these statistics are too broad and need to be more detailed. Sure, we know how many women have been convicted of certain crimes. However, we don’t know what the punishments were for those convictions or why the crimes were even committed. Further research is required before we can gaze upon the entire picture.
We agree that it is ridiculous how fast the women incarceration rate is growing. Times are changing and by that we mean that they systems are now incarcerating women for criminal behavior that we would normally not incarcerate them for in the older days. As laws get stricter and enforcement gets tougher on crimes, we have a system that is put into place to help people fail vs helping like most people think they are placed for. We believe that officers back a percentage behind the incarceration rate but not a high percentage rate because for them to take actions, there's a reason for their reaction. There's many reasons for that as there isn't proof but for incarceration rate is rising due to crime which that is why they are placed into our system to stop crime. We have officers that are not on the same page as organizations mission statement, but we also have officers that are the best example of the organizations mission statement. With women being incarcerated and your viewing on a women being taken away from children if that person has them we understand, but also view that subject differently. We agree with you that we shouldn't be taking families away from each other for petty crime but at some point we think the higher-ups have to look at how often they are committing crimes because at some point you have to draw the line if they aren't learning from fines and punishment. We also have different views on line where you said “removing a productive person from society.” We have people that contribute to society but we also have people that just let society contribute to them. If we have people that say they contribute to society but yet keep committing petty crimes, what is their exact role in society and what are they teaching their kids that are constantly watching them.
After reading this article it was shocking to see the stats on women being incarcerated. One thing that go to me was it more than 60% of women in state prison who had children under the age of 18. I think it’s unfair that to their children that can’t be around their mother for some time. It’s even more sickening if they were incarcerated because of a petty crime offense that they could of let them go. What was very shocking to me is when between 1980 and 2014 the number of incarcerated women increased by more than 700% rising from a total of 26,378 in 1980 to 215,332 in 2014. Like how did we let the population of women getting incarcerated rise like that ? Honestly, that number shouldn’t be that high at all but it all comes from petty offenses. Women shouldn’t even be incarcerated like that because in my opinion women isn’t as dangerous to our community more than men. But when it comes to comparing men and women with the rate for imprisonment, women outran them by 50%. When it came to race and ethnicity in 2014 the African American women the rate of imprisonment was more than twice of the rate of white women imprisonment. Also, for the Hispanic women they were incarcerated 1.2 times the rate of white women. So when it came to these statistics I question it because I wonder what did African American women do to have a high rate of imprisonment than any other woman in the year of 2014. Furthermore in the article it later states how in the state and federal prisons, the imprisonment rate for black women declined by 47% and for white women it rosed by 56 in the years between 2000-2014. No i’m not being discriminatory I was stating these stats so we can see the differences of women being incarcerated in different races and how things can go wrong that quick and what did the different race of women do for their numbers to rise. Lastly, when it comes to women and men offense type in state prisons they’re pretty accurate. When it came to who were more violent men has a higher bar than the woman which is very true because women aren’t that violent like men because majority of women isn’t as brave to do anything males do. When it comes to being incarcerated for property women is definitely before males. The reason they’re bar is higher on property because women like to damage someone's property especially when it comes to relationships. In conclusion, women being incarcerated has been more in affect is because the system is starting to crack down on everyone for any type of offenses. So with that being said women really don’t get left off the hook like they use to. savage456
After reading this article, I was confused and surprise about the increased of female in prison population from 1980 to 2014. The women who are incarcerated went up from 26,378 in 1980 (Federal Prison: 1,399 State Prison: 11,859 Jail: 13,120) to 215,332 in 2014 (Federal Prison: 12,560 State Prison: 93,672 Jail: 109,100) that was more than 700% increased. Also, more than sixty percent of women in state prisons have child under the age of eighteen. I cannot think of the things that women do that get them convicted and don’t think about the children they may end up leaving behind when they get imprisonment. Like where will my child stay? With some relative? Or they may end up in foster homes? There are still more men who are in prison than women, but the rate of growth of female imprisonment increases faster than men. That was more than fifty percent between 1980 to 2014. Based on the chart system included in the article under “Women Under Control of the U.S Corrections System, 2014” there are 106,232 in Prison, 109,100 in Jail, 966,029 are under Probation, and 102,825 on Parole, which total to more than 1.2 million of women who are under the supervision of the criminal justice system. That was unexplainable, I wonder what will be the total to the next upcoming years. As of 2014, there are 109 African American women per 100,000 goes to prison, 64 Hispanic women per 100,000, and 53 White women per 100,000. My thoughts of the rate of imprisonment based on race and ethnicity was unexpected, is this how the justice system works? Well, between 2000 to 2014, the rate of imprisonment for white women continue to rise in state and federal prisons and on the other hand African American women has been declining since then and that is great. Then state by state, the rate of which women imprison varies. On average at the national level as of 2014, 65 of 100,000 women were in prison. Which I think was still high. 44 per 100,000 in IL vs 142 per 100,000 in OK, I believe our state is doing alright so far. In 1986, there are 12% of women in state prisons were incarcerated for drug offense, and by 2014 there were 24% who were incarcerated for a drug offense, compared to 15% of men. Now, I can tell why there are more likely women in state prison than men. As of 2013, I believe the number of girls who are being confined in residential placement is dropping down, probably because of a reason that there are more programs and organizations that encouraging and educating youth about different kinds of offenses. That committing a crime will not do them good at all, especially drugs. Even such small thing like skipping school or running away will not do at all. M.Scott456
After reading this article much of this information was very shocking to me. The fact that women and girls are getting sent to prison and jail more now for drug usage then men are to me is very surprising. More so then not, I feel as if I hear more about men doing drugs then women or girls. According to the article America has had to change our criminal involvement due to the number of women now being incarcerated. Sounds to me like this changed after the war on drugs. We are putting more and more people in prison or jail for drug use than anything else. By the charts state themselves that we are putting more women than men behind bars for drug usage. More likely than not, the drugs these people are being put behind bars for I would not consider an act of crime. These people are not going out killing people or doing dangerous things. Twelve percent of women were being incarcerated in 1986. Nixon declared the war on drugs in 1971 so not very long after the war on drugs started we had many people behind bars for such acts. The amount of drugs that you had in your possession at the time of war on drugs you were being sent behind bars. Most people would think that more African American and Hispanic women would be looking through the bars for drug possession or use. Shockingly we have had a steady climb in white women being locked up for drug use. A lot of the women that are being sent to jail have children under the age of 18. Some might ask were these kids are going. Sadly, the children of these women have no other option then to be sent to a foster home, or orphanage. To me this is very sad. These women are letting drugs take over their lives there for they are losing their children to people that they do not even have the slightest idea on who they are or where their child/ children are going to be placed. However, if president Nixon would not have made the war on drugs, there could be some very dangerous drugs out there today. Thunder 456 (part 2)
After reading this article, we thought that it was crazy that just because there is more expansive law enforcement, and stiffer drug sentencing laws that women now comprise a larger proportion to the prison population than ever before. It was sad and kind of shocking that the population count of the prisons multiplied by nearly eight times than what is was in the 1980. What is even crazier is that more than 60 percent of women in state prisons have a child or maybe even more under the age of 18. Why would you think that in between 1980 and 2014 the number of women incarcerated increased by more than 700 percent? It rose from 26,378 in 1980 to 215,332 in 2014. How many more laws are then now compared to back in 1980’s? You could say there are a lot more crime laws than before, which makes there a lot of things you could do to get incarcerated? Even though there are more men than women in prison, the rate growth for female imprisonment has dramatically by paced men by more than 50 percent. If you also look at the chart on the article it is just shocking that in 2014 the number of women in jail is at its all-time high, but the women in federal prison, and state prison are not at their highest points, they are still extremely high almost too high but not the most that have been in those prisons. We feel like a question we all would have is, why are the numbers of women getting incarcerated so high, but federal and state prisons are not as high as some would think? What could be the cause of this? Once you get further into the article you see another chart of the women under control of the U.S corrections system in 2014 what shocked us from this chart is the number of women in jail, prison, and parole are nearly all the same but the women on probation is like 10 times the amount of the women in the other 3 categories. Could this be because the so-called crimes the women are committing are not worth locking them away for? Or could it be the financial stability the families of the women have, so they could afford a private attorney? We would also like to point out that 109 per 100,000 women that went to prison were African American and 53 of the 100,000 women were white women so is it safe to say that our criminal justice system is still racist or at least slightly? -Bears456 and CarlBaconWho456 part 1
It could be that it is not about the color of their skin, it could be due to how they were raised and their financial stability. We tend to think that a lot of things come into play when looking at whose incarcerated. We personally think there is a bit of a racial issue in our prisons, but then you see that between 2000 and 2014 the rate of imprisonment in state and federal prisons declined by 47 percent for black women, and increased by 56 percent to white women so is it really as racist as it once was or is our criminal justice system actually starting to go “color blind” so to speak, and is this is true they are going “color blind” why can’t the rest of our society just do the same? We also noticed the other chart that is imprisonment rated by gender, race, and ethnicity per 100,000 from 2000 to 2014, and what shocked us in this chart was that white women had a 56 percent increase going from 34 to 53, while white males had a 4 percent increase going from 449 to 465 so yes, the increase in women is rather large but you must notice the amount of men that are already in prison, so the increase shows nothing since there are already that many men in prison compared to women. Some could say men tend to have this thought stuck in their heads that they are bigger and better than everyone else, so then they might tend to think that they cannot get caught by the police. Also, there is a rumor going around stating that men are smarter than women, so men could possibly think they know what law enforcement would do or they know how to get out of situations easier due to being “smarter.” Some think that women use their brains when it comes to going to jail, like maybe thinking about their children if they have any or even family. Also that women have more feelings, so they can think of the right thing to do before men could. So, in the end this article shows a lot about how women are getting put in jail and prison more but look how many men are already in there compared to them and notice they don’t have it nearly as bad. -Bears456 and CarlBaconWho456 part 2
I think that the first sentence of this article is completely true. I believe that the incarceration population can be drastically reduced without endangering everyone else. I think that it is interesting that Harvard reported that they think they could cut the number of people controlled under probation in half in the next decade. The fact that if probation would be cut in half it could impoverish Americans tells me how much we are dependant on the incarceration population and the money that it brings in. I agree with the article that the system we have in place is very poor and do agree that it produces a cycle with incarceration. Many cities have their crime rate decreasing, but a heavy incarcerated population which doesn’t make sense. How could that even happen is what I find myself asking the most. I feel like the five approaches that the report took were fairly solid. The one I think would work the best is evidence based practice requirements. If there was more evidence within these cases wrongful convictions could be lessened which could lead to the population being lowered. Obviously reducing the probation terms could definitely affect the population and how it grows. Graduated response for violations could deter many people from reoffending. The fact that in 2012 two states experimented with this idea and saw a twenty percent decrease blows my mind. If all of the states could adopt this the incarceration population would be diminished in a span of a decade or two. Many lessons and ideas can be learned from this article if there was more research done on ways to control the population of incarcerated people I think we would see a bigger impact on the population as a whole.
In the past quarter century women incarcerated have increased in huge numbers varying from many convections. Women are now out running the mens statistics for incarcerated. I believe this is due to the stiffer laws in the criminal justice system towards women. The numbers have increased by 50% for women to be in jail and prison. Women are being watched as closely as the men there are so many advances in the criminal justice department and they are catching women just as much as men. I believe that they could help populations in the criminal justice system be a healthy rate with women and men. Womens levels vary from state to state Oklahoma had the largest amount of women incarcerated and Rhode Island has the lowest. This is also because each state has different laws depending on the different crimes. Women are more found to be convicted of drugs and property crimes rather than violent crimes men still hold the top for that. Women aren’t as likely to be violent due to men are known to have more anger issues than women. Women are agent to increase more in the future less there are better programs for women even men so both sex’s don’t increase. From reducing probation for women it could even affect the population to help women not be repeat offenders. but the problem is that not every state is going to except the fact that they would have to help the inmates in order for the inmates not to come back which a lot of prisons are private and they profit from more inmates means more money in their pockets and they don’t have any programs for inmates so they keep coming back. NightTrain456, Shark456, LowAndSlow456 Part 1
I am absolutely astonished about the information that I learned from this article. In my CRJ 110 class last year, Professor Graff had told us that in recent years the rate of woman being incarcerated was soaring, and that more woman were locked up now than ever before. Of course that shocked me, but after reading this article the numbers are even higher than I had thought. In the last thirty five years, the number has increased by seven hundred percent. That alone is an incredibly high number. The statistic that really blew my mind was reading that sixty five out of every hundred thousand women are incarcerated. As most people know, it’s no surprise that the reasons for incarceration are very different between men and women. In nature, men are known to be the more violent sex, as they are the ones who were expected to be the “hunters.” Men are raised to be tough. Boys are taught from a young age to fight and not to cry. Although I believe this is changing, it is shown in the offense type stats. The difference in men and women for violence is fifty five percent to around thirty five percent. What blows my mind is the amount of women that are bing locked up for drug offenses. I feel as if when watching tv or reading the news, it’s men that are being arrested hand over fist for drugs. The last bit of information that is surprising to me is the amount of men that are being arrested during youth compared to women. I guess I don’t understand why it is that women tend to grow into crime. It seems as if men are most likely arrested at a young age due to puberty, changing emotions, and short tempers. This article has really opened up my mind about the corrections field. I was so blind to the amount of women that are being arrested day in and out as I think of hardened men when I think of prison. Women are on the rise and I think that I need to open my eyes to that as I plan on moving into corrections. NightTrain456, Shark456, LowAndSlow456
When reading this our group had a few different opinions, knowing that women prison population have risen by more than eight times since 1980 was mind baffling to some of us and the no surprise to the rest of us. Also, seeing that over sixty percent of the women incarcerated had a child under the age of eighteen is ridiculous. If these women are in prison or jail then who is looking after their children? If they have a daughter, then most likely the daughter will want to look up to their mother for leadership and knowing what to do, but if their mother is in prison then they may follow her footsteps and be in the same place as her. Some of these children with mothers may not have a father too, so they may have to spend a lot of their time in foster homes waiting for a chance to get a mother that will care for them. Seeing the growth rate of women getting imprisoned is now outpacing men by more than fifty percent is insane. Naturally, we think that men are committing more crimes and that they would have a higher imprisonment rate. When reading about race and ethnicity seeing that black women were twice as likely to go to prison as white women, really didn’t surprise some of us. We see this in almost every case whether it be women, men, or juveniles. What really surprised me about the race and ethnicity was that black women imprisonment rates were steadily declining while white women imprisonment rates were steadily increasing. When looking at the type or crime that women were in prison for really surprised some of us and didn’t surprise the rest of the group. Women were more likely than men to be arrested and imprisoned for a drug crime. Seeing that the percent of women imprisoned for a drug crime has doubled shows that drugs are now becoming a problem not just for men, but for all genders and for all ages. Reading that the number of juvenile girls has been cut in half since 2001 has to give the nation some hope that we are heading in the right direction with young women, which we believe we need to be heading in this direction for all ages and for all genders. Even though white juvenile girls’ rate of imprisonment has decreased by eight percent while black juvenile girls have only decreased by three percent it is better than having one increase and the other decrease or having them both increase. part1 illini456, country456, ~myhearseisnotafuneralcar456~
Some of us was neutral on this subject, only because we do need to be tough on women when it comes to them committing crimes that men would get in trouble for It’s no real surprise to us that the laws and punishments caught up to women over the last quarter century. At one-point women were basically getting a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again, when a man that committed the same crime would face jail or prison. If you are going to be tough on a law than it should not matter if it is a man or woman that committees the crime the punishment should be the same. With that being said, it would only make since that the percentages would go up for women being incarcerated. The other side of this is that it is the same as men and that the laws and punishments themselves need to be looked at and changes be made. In this instance, not only would the percentage of women lower some and level out but the men would as well. People do pity women and think that we should be more lenient on women because they have kids and they take care of the home and so on. Well What about the single dads out there taking care of their kids and the home, they don’t get any breaks because they are a single parent. The fact that laws and punishments have become more equal on both fronts should not be the issue, the real issue should be what to do to help lower the percentage rates of both women and women being incarcerated, and how to solve the recidivism problem that has continued to grow. once we can figure out how to solve these problems then we can focus on more individual problems like the rate of women being incarcerated. part2 illini456, country456, ~myhearseisnotafuneralcar456~
Lastly we need to look at the time lines when the crimes were being committed. Back in the 1980’s we were less likely to hear about women on men crimes being reported. We always heard the men on women crimes being reported. Women can beat, rape, and kill men just as men did the same to women. Men were less likely to report a crime when it came to them being degraded by women only because they were afraid of the embarrassment and the negative attention it would draw to them. Back then it was important to look manly. Now it’s not manly to beat, rape, or kill women either, the point is men and women are both capable of the same crime. They should both serve the same amount of time for their crimes. As for drug charges being an increase rate what is the amount of drugs that is on the women what type of citizens were they? Where they prostitutes working for a pimp that had drugs on them, High school kids trying to be cool? Drugs have always been a rise throughout the world regardless if you’re trying to make money, get high or just take the edge off. Also, with juveniles going to jail what was their story behind why they did what they did or do what they do? Was it learned behavior? Was it girls being girls thinking that they are tougher than sally or mad at sally for stealing their crush? Did they get into a fight with another student at school because the other student said something about how someone’s dad died and that he deserved it. We should look into the root causes of these crimes. Also, being a parent should not be a factor on the amount of time you serve in prison, unless you killed the person who was actively raping or molesting your child. Yes your children needs to have their parents in their lives but also why punish a child with a negligent parent who couldn’t keep their nose clean let alone not put food on the table for them. Children always face some type of broken home system. Some we hear about others we don’t. Last point what if the parent we are defending about having children was the one who harmed their children to be in prison the first place. There has to be a bigger or yet smaller picture that we are not seeing . part3 illini456, country456, ~myhearseisnotafuneralcar456~
I think it is ridiculous that over the past century women's involvement in the criminal justice system has increased extremely. Due to the fact that this is because of more expansive law enforcement efforts. I don't know who came up with these solutions but when you see that this hasn't helped, and a portion of incarceration is going up then why not change it or make adjustments! I really feel like some of this stuff is really common sense, and if there is anyone working on lower incarceration rates they aren't the people who are locking them up. I feel like these high rates come from officers, which for the most part gets backed up by judges then when they enter the jail or prisons they don't want to release them because of the revenue they receive for their bodies. Women's prison populations are eight times higher than it was in 1980. I think this may be when people realized that the more prisoners they keep the more revenue they earn. I really can't see any other effects to result in such a high jump in incarceration for women. More than 60 percent of women in state prisons have a child under the age of 18. I understand violent or serious crimes some women need to be in jail not alone that away from their children. I just don't understand how a mother with a minor offense can be put in jail or prison. If anything its going to be a continuous cycle of criminal behavior and poverty. Your taking away someone's mother, someones only source of survival and improvement. This happens because if the mother doesn't have anyone they go to the system, and become bitter, upset, struggling, and possibly criminally driven adults. In some situations sending a child with even another family member will cause this too because the child will feel as if they are unwanted and nowadays you cant even trust your uncle that used to watch you when you were a child. This topic really upsets me because its almost as you've taken a child's source of discipline as well as their guide. I believe even if you have a really bad mom, that's your source of learning life because when you get older, it'll be something you look back on and say i will never let my children experience that. Everyone isn't the same but if your a strong individual coming from a broken home will make you a stronger individual. I just think your automatically eliminating a productive member of society when you take a child away from their mother especially when you don't have to! Its not fair to the child and our children are the future, so this exemplifies to me that our Criminal Justice system is not showing enough concern towards our future by taking children's mothers. It even seems as if racially profiling is even the case with African American women. There are way more African American women in incarceration than white women, even with the fact that the African American women's imprisonment rate decreased 47 percent. The whole little article made me a little upset as well because the numbers don't match their claims. I guarantee that a few of those graphs are way off. I assumed this because nationally we cant have the highest and lowest incarceration rate it has to be one or the other, unless i read the graph wrong but i still don't agree and i think we should all make an approach to condense incarceration period because it doesn't seem as if its the individuals its the government with all these harsh laws. America may be called the land of the free but I promise we are not free. McBrightyalife456
ReplyDeleteWomen have harder times in prison. Some women are pregnant going into incarceration. Girls have parents in a fearful state and the drug policy is heavy among them as well. For women and girls leaving prison have a low return rate then men. Drug policy on women is not so much. Women do use and sale drugs but not at the rate of men. The prisoners in women facillities feel mpre intemidated by others. For a mother incarcerated for drugs was probably poor. She needed the money to provide food, clothes, shelter, etc. Then being sentenced because she was trying to make a way of servival. Her kids end up in foster care. Getting out on parole trying to get her kids back is another hell. Where is her money coming from now? Leaving the mother with no choice. Girls in prison fall victim to these women and are workers in many ways. They have a better chance when they get out to not return.
Delete-Detective Stabler
Reading this article made us both confused and disturbed just because all of the crazy statistics and us both being young women we can only imagine how painful it would be to actually be incarcerated. We agree that women do have a tougher time in prison than males do for the simple fact that women require more attention and losing their freedom can really break their character. Also reading and watching the videos and realizing how bad prisons are women suffer more than men which is very sad. I also agree with the racial profiling because both statistics that stood out to me dealing with the Hispanic and African American women how are the minorities being incarcerated at a higher rate than white women? The only two explanations we could possibly think of dealing with that is that is it a racial thing or it has to deal with those two groups and their financial problems which forces them to live in the poorer areas of cities which when they are locked up police are cleaning up those areas and the prisons get money for having all of these inmates. Overall it is disturbing looking at all these numbers and realizing the reality of what truly happens in prison and knowing some of those women are mothers so all the pain they go through is just overall sad.
Deleteswaggyy456 & savage456
Honestly being pregnant while going into prison should not be a key determination fact. We should know what they did and why? IS Their innocent pregnant women in prison? yes. Are their guilty pregnant women in prison? yes. should the innocent ones be let go? absolutely. Now what about the guilty ones? no they should stay in prison. should babies have to be born in prisons? ABSOLUTELY NOT! regardless. This is something else we need to look at. how many pregnant mothers say "oh this baby is my get out of jail free card I am going to change my ways" just to make themselves look good at a parole hearing? We cant guarantee the best life for these babies, all we can do is try. ~myhearseisnotafuneralcar456~
DeleteThis article blows me away, and at the same time confuses me tremendously. The numbers have changed drastically since 1980, and especially 2000. I just can't really figure out why from this article. I can just ask questions on points that pop out to me.
ReplyDeleteA few things stuck out to me as I read this article. One of them being how there has been a major rise in incarcerated women; which I had no idea that was even a thing happening. I could have suspected the opposite since that is how it is going in male prisons. The amount of African American women in prison in 2000 out ot 100,000 was 209 inmates. It decreased 47% precent, to make it 109 women inmates. White women rised from 34 to 53. Which doesn't seem like a huge jump, but mathematically speaking it rised by 56%.
What confuses me about the statement above is that incarcerated people have sky rocketed since 1980. There only used to be a few hundred thousand people locked up, now there are 2.3 million. How is that jump so possible if African American females are taking such a decrease, and white females are only jumping there numbers by 20 more people out of 100,000?
Another thing that stuck out to be like a sore thumb is, there are over 54 thousand youths in residential placement. Only 8 thousand of those are young girls. That is a huge difference for boys, and girls. Now why? Back in 2001 there were 15,000 young females in residential living, and it took a huge decrease down to where it is now. I understand that they all get in there for different things, such as running away. And I understand that boys are more likely to do such a thing. But why are there more white girls being placed, than African American? What is going on in the white females lifes? What are they doing?
There are a lot of graphs and information in this article. But none of it really explains why and how the information comes to how it is. I can't really make opinions on this article. I can just wonder and ask questions on certain points in this article that pokes out to me the most. Rugby_456
I definitely agree with your statements. These numbers are thought provoking, but they don't really solve any of those thoughts. One of the most compelling differences between the charts was the difference in crime rates between genders as they age. Boys commit 88% of all juvenile caused violent crimes, compared to only 12% of girls committing the same crimes. However, in the adult statistics, the number for males decreases to 54% and the female percentage increases to 37%. Adults generally commit less crime as they age, which makes sense. These statistics are a juxtaposition in the case of females yet it doesn't give a reason for the difference.
Delete-TheTurk456
I do agree with what you are saying. I am also confused on what is going on by the rise in incarceration
Deleteof women, especially the years between 1980 to 2014. Also, I believe the reason for more women who
are in state prisons than men are being involved in property or drug offense. In the decrease of African
American women versus the increase of white women who are being incarcerated, I think that in 2014
the imprisonment of African American women was twice than white women, and I think that they learn
from others. To youths in residential placement, I think they substantial decline for some reason
probably that there are more organizations and programs that taught them how to be a responsible
children and part of the community. -M.Scott456
I also found this article confusing. Like you said all you can do is ask questions on what stands out the most. The incarceration rate also made me think how it went up so fast as well. Now that we have rehabilitation centers when are these number becoming so drastically changed? a question I thought to my self was, “is there more white women then African American and Hispanics women being locked up?”, “To my knowledge the population of white people is more than African Americans and Hispanics.” I think there are more white people being incarcerated because there are more white people then there are African Americans and Hispanics. Thunder456
As a group, I think we all came to a very similar general concensus as you. The article itself did not meet the expectations that we had. It was cram packed full of information, yet there was little reasoning as to why it was happening. As the above reiterated, all this article did was make us question why incarceration was raising as it has. It doesn't make a bit of sense to us because they don't explain why. I'm sure that Professor White gave us this article to get us thinking before we learn more about the reasons. Another thing we fail to really understand and we can not comprehend is why so many men are arrested as youth when they nearly double the women being arrested during their youth. We also agree with M.Scott’s idea that maybe the reason for the decline in rates is the fact that youth in residential areas have much more opportunity than someone growing up in the burbs. Schools that are involved in their children’s lives give a better future for the children. Outside of school, there are summer sports, daycares, and camps that keep children safe and out of trouble. When kids are having fun and staying busy, they don’t have the time to run the streets and get in trouble. All in all, we aren’t very proud of this article as it leaves to many why’s and not enough answers. Just numbers. NightTrain456, Shark456, LowAndSlow456
DeleteIncarceration rate in women just keeps doubling as years go by. We have also known or at least looked at the prison system as just if only men are incarcerated for crimes, but studies over time says that’s not the case as women rates go up. Majority of the women that entered the system in 2014 were White, African-American, and Hispanic. White women were at a 53 percent, African-Americans were 109 percent, while Hispanic’s were a 64 percent. Of course depending what state you are from those numbers would be different, but it just shows that women are making their way into the system and not at a slow pace either. For women, incarceration can be upsetting because most systems were not designed for them in the first place. Women are being incarcerated for crimes that would not be punishable for them back in the older days. Now women are being punished for violent behaviors, property, drugs, public order, and much more. In the graph on this article it states women in 2014 exceeded in two categories. Women passed up the men in property crimes and drug crimes, while placing very close to them in public order. The only one women did not pass up or stay close to were violent offenses, but they still had their numbers which weren't low because they are guilty as well for committing violent offenses. The article states that in 1986, 24 percent of women in state prisons were incarcerated for a dug offense; by 2014, 24 percent were incarcerated for a dug offense. That comparison let alone says that we are incarcerating women on drug offenses which is stereotyped as a male crime. Women have become part of this because there are less suspected but they are fully capable of putting themselves at risk of being caught for their actions as well. But as women enter the system and become incarcerated they are also going through other transitions. Between 1980 and 2014 women are being incarcerated at a faster rate then men. Of these African American women, white women, and Hispanic women that are incarcerated, the imprisonment for African American women have been on the decrease and on the rise for White women. A majority of these women that are incarcerated are because they have been abused. Once they have been abused they turn to substance abuse, because of this substance abuse felony convictions result trying to obtain drugs, mostly related to low income. When these women are in prison they are unable to protect their children from their abusers, and if they tried to save them they become in prison because they allow something to happen to their child/children. Most of these women entered the justice system as young girls, the numbers have been on the rise for two decades now. Because of abuse and home-life when younger, have more mental health and serious mental illness then men. Also, eighty-two percent of women had a lifetime of substance use. Oregon has a program called "Women in Prison Project and Reentry Law Project" which is used their prisons to help those inmates returning to the community to be able to be successful when released. Due to poor self image after being abused, in order to help these incarcerated women have any recovery, programs need to be put into place in our judicial system to help these women develop a strong sense of self. Women when incarcerated don't get benefits when released, leaving children behind, visitations when locked away, how they become more intense with criminal behavior over time because they can't meet the community needs (paying for things, contributions to society). Everything leads back to the revolving door method and re-evolving door leads to prison funding which is what people want because a body in a sell is money for them. Foxracing456 Unknowzeeha456
ReplyDeleteWe totally agree with everything you guys have said in your comment. Having programs like Oregon is what all prisons need because not only would it keep people from returning to prison, it would also get them on the right foot when they finally get released, not just in females, in men too. It could also help all the violence that happens inside the walls of prisons that not everyone knows about. We agree that abuse is the number one or close to the number one reason why the rate for women incarcerated has sky rocketed. Being abused takes a toll on yourself and it is hard to come back from that, so women do tend to lead towards drugs and substance abuse, but why is that? Why do women lead towards drugs when trying to recover from being abused? Could it be that they think it will take away the pain they received, so they will not have to suffer, kind of like self- harm in a way. Also causes mental and health issues, which need treated, but they do not receive help in prison. Some women are not as violent as men which could be why men still take the lead in violent crimes. Women are more defensive and men are more aggressive, so that could also be a part of why men are higher than women in violent crimes. While in prison it might explain why women argue over things and men have it out and fight one another. We also agree with you guys on that the crime laws were not as harsh as they are now, so you were not incarcerated for drugs so you can say. Low income is a major factor in why prison population is high in general. Yes, there are other factors, but we think that low income is close to number one. It is nice to see the African- American rates have gone down by 47 percent; it is a possibility that it could be people as individuals or even some of our society is starting to see who people truly are and not judge them based off their skin color and more of the hatred of the crime they committed.. Parts of some hope that racism will go away some day, but only society as a whole can change that.
Delete-Bears456 and CarlBaconWho456
I agree that the incarceration has officially become an issue. They are even over incarcerating women. It is just ridiculous that women are being incarcerated. I could see if more women were committed more violent crimes but that's not even the case. Women are being incarcerated for the pettiest offenses. I don't think it is fair for children to be stripped from their mothers because that is basically what they are doing by incarcerating females with children. Now our young men don't know how to treat a lady, now our daughters are not learning to carry themselves as a lady, society just doesn't realize this is deeper than just incarceration. They are definitely affecting our future generations. McBrightyalife456
DeleteStatistically speaking, it’s clear that the female prisoner population has exploded. The records from The Sentencing Project are explicit on that subject. My instinct is to ask ‘Why?’ and ‘What conclusion should we draw from that?’ I believe I can divine what conclusion The Sentencing Project wishes us to draw from these statistics, as the Project has as its explicit goal the support of the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, a 2015 bill introduced with the primary aim of reducing the severity of punishments, and for applying these standards to prisoners currently confined in American prisons. Therefore, the aims of journalism published by the Sentencing Project are likely aimed at garnering support for this bill. This bias ought to be properly taken into account when viewing articles such as these, in the interests of fairness to the involved parties.
ReplyDeleteThese increases do seem to be very much in line with the mass criminalization that has sprung up since 1980, and as such, I find little in this report surprising. These statistics are, in this author’s opinion, the results of a national trend towards over-criminalization, largely stemming from the escalation of the War on Drugs in the 1980s. Women in prison are less likely to have been convicted for violent crimes than men (37% for women, 54% for men), but more likely to have been convicted of drug offenses (24% for women, 15% for men), which I have stated previously to be laws that I hold to be unjust. I hold that first and foremost, citizens have sovereignty over their own bodies, and that criminalizing what they choose to put in their bodies runs contrary to the very foundational principles of the United States. I don’t think it made sense when it was alcohol in the 1920s, and I still don’t think it makes sense now. I espouse the view that alcoholics and drug addicts alike need assistance breaking their habit far more than they deserve to be imprisoned for the non-violent use of chemical substances that have been deemed mala prohibita.
A peripheral issue is the problem of reintegrating female convicts back into normal society, which is a quandary that affects women more than it does men. I believe this results more from the general trend in female career paths than it does from prejudice against convicts Women, generally speaking, choose career paths that are different from men, and usually require more interpersonal communication skills. These careers are often closed to women with criminal histories, out of the concern of employers. For instance, my parents run a home health care business, and as such, many convicts are, by necessity, not eligible for hire by our company. It is also an industry that is dominated by women, as more people are comfortable with a female caregiver. In instances like ours, the intersection of the two problems is inevitable.
-TheTurk456 and Arsenal456 Part 1
Furthermore, according to nine years of UCR arrest tables from 2006 until 2015, arrest rates have dropped across the board for men averaging a 25.6% decrease in total arrests apart from larceny-theft, which has risen a marginal 1.6%. However, the case is not the same for women. Arrest rates for most crimes are down, averaging an 11.8% decrease except for larceny-theft and property crimes, which are up 25.9% and 20.2% respectively. Due to the due date of this post, I don’t have enough time to thoroughly investigate the details of the property and larceny-theft crimes committed by women as compared to the same crimes committed by men. However, using my opinion and common sense, I can come to a safe conclusion that they aren’t so similar. When men commit these crimes it seems to be crimes of a violent mental intention. For example, when you hear of a string of arsons being committed and they finally capture the offender, they’re more often than not male. In November of 2015, two people went on a property crime spree by shooting out windows of cars and residences, causing tens of thousands of dollars according to the Peoria Journal Star. When these offenders were finally caught, it was revealed to be two men from Havana. When I think of women committing a property crime, I think of a woman keying her partner’s car after finding out that he or she cheated on her. I was watching Dr. Phil a few months ago and the guest for the day was a woman who had an obsession with shoplifting. My point is that women generally aren’t susceptible to committing violent-intention crimes or crimes that involve damaging property, but if you read the statistics out of context it would be easy to come to that conclusion.
DeleteOf the 37% of violent crimes that women do commit, I believe that I also have an interesting angle on this statistic as well. According to the NCVS, men are twice as likely to experience violence committed by a stranger than women are. However, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, women are five times more likely to experience violence at the hand of an intimate partner. I believe that of the 37% of violent crimes committed by women, most are provoked by the domestic violence inflicted by their spouse. Having grown up in a family with a father who was an aggressive alcoholic, I can understand this aspect. When you’ve been imprisoned, essentially, in your own home, with the certainty of catching a fist if you do the littlest thing wrong, it can cause you do take dire actions. Such actions didn’t occur in my household, but they happen regularly in others. For example, in 2014, Chamari Liyanage who is a doctor bludgeoned her husband to death. She endured physical, sexual, and emotional abuse for five years when the abuse started to increase in intensity. So in order to preserve her life, she killed him. She was charged and convicted of manslaughter and served two and a half years before being released. Men however, when they commit violent crimes, tend to do so by robbing someone at gunpoint, getting into a bar fight, or by violently abusing their spouse. Women generally aren’t of such a violent nature. There are exceptions, but not many.
In conclusion, I think these statistics are too broad and need to be more detailed. Sure, we know how many women have been convicted of certain crimes. However, we don’t know what the punishments were for those convictions or why the crimes were even committed. Further research is required before we can gaze upon the entire picture.
-TheTurk456 and Arsenal456 Part 2
We agree that it is ridiculous how fast the women incarceration rate is growing. Times are changing and by that we mean that they systems are now incarcerating women for criminal behavior that we would normally not incarcerate them for in the older days. As laws get stricter and enforcement gets tougher on crimes, we have a system that is put into place to help people fail vs helping like most people think they are placed for. We believe that officers back a percentage behind the incarceration rate but not a high percentage rate because for them to take actions, there's a reason for their reaction. There's many reasons for that as there isn't proof but for incarceration rate is rising due to crime which that is why they are placed into our system to stop crime. We have officers that are not on the same page as organizations mission statement, but we also have officers that are the best example of the organizations mission statement. With women being incarcerated and your viewing on a women being taken away from children if that person has them we understand, but also view that subject differently. We agree with you that we shouldn't be taking families away from each other for petty crime but at some point we think the higher-ups have to look at how often they are committing crimes because at some point you have to draw the line if they aren't learning from fines and punishment. We also have different views on line where you said “removing a productive person from society.” We have people that contribute to society but we also have people that just let society contribute to them. If we have people that say they contribute to society but yet keep committing petty crimes, what is their exact role in society and what are they teaching their kids that are constantly watching them.
ReplyDeleteunknownzeeha,foxracing456
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article it was shocking to see the stats on women being incarcerated. One thing that go to me was it more than 60% of women in state prison who had children under the age of 18. I think it’s unfair that to their children that can’t be around their mother for some time. It’s even more sickening if they were incarcerated because of a petty crime offense that they could of let them go. What was very shocking to me is when between 1980 and 2014 the number of incarcerated women increased by more than 700% rising from a total of 26,378 in 1980 to 215,332 in 2014. Like how did we let the population of women getting incarcerated rise like that ? Honestly, that number shouldn’t be that high at all but it all comes from petty offenses. Women shouldn’t even be incarcerated like that because in my opinion women isn’t as dangerous to our community more than men. But when it comes to comparing men and women with the rate for imprisonment, women outran them by 50%. When it came to race and ethnicity in 2014 the African American women the rate of imprisonment was more than twice of the rate of white women imprisonment. Also, for the Hispanic women they were incarcerated 1.2 times the rate of white women. So when it came to these statistics I question it because I wonder what did African American women do to have a high rate of imprisonment than any other woman in the year of 2014.
Furthermore in the article it later states how in the state and federal prisons, the imprisonment rate for black women declined by 47% and for white women it rosed by 56 in the years between 2000-2014. No i’m not being discriminatory I was stating these stats so we can see the differences of women being incarcerated in different races and how things can go wrong that quick and what did the different race of women do for their numbers to rise. Lastly, when it comes to women and men offense type in state prisons they’re pretty accurate. When it came to who were more violent men has a higher bar than the woman which is very true because women aren’t that violent like men because majority of women isn’t as brave to do anything males do. When it comes to being incarcerated for property women is definitely before males. The reason they’re bar is higher on property because women like to damage someone's property especially when it comes to relationships. In conclusion, women being incarcerated has been more in affect is because the system is starting to crack down on everyone for any type of offenses. So with that being said women really don’t get left off the hook like they use to. savage456
After reading this article I was very disturbed first off because I am a young female therefore it truly hit home. I know if you do something wrong that yes you do belong in jail or prison but at the same time reading and learning how prisoners are treated it makes me nervous knowing that women are also treated as bad. Females require a lot more attention than males do therefore if they are not being rehabilitated while in prison that can truly destroy her and cause her to not get better and can cause her to not be able to be trusted being back on the streets living a normal life. Also if a female is pregnant and is sent to prison that can cause a lot of issues because once again she would require a lot of attention and some prisons may not give this woman the proper attention that she truly needs and mothers that are being locked up can cause a lot of damage too because children need their mothers to feed and nourish them especially in their early years. Reading the article the statistics really opened my eyes and knowing that in 2014 the imprisonment rate for African American women was more than twice the rate of white women and of course that stands out to me the most because I am a young African American female but it makes me wonder why that is though. I know a lot of people believe that the African American rate is higher due to racism which in some cases is true but it I also believe this is because African Americans tend to live in poorer areas therefore they are bigger targets for prisons to get money. Also I believe my last statement to be true because as I kept reading it also stated that Hispanic women were incarcerated at 1.2 times the rate of white women which makes sense because they are also a minority that tend to live in the poorer and rougher parts of cities. This entire article just threw me off because I feel as if they are targeting more females because another statistic stated that 14% of youth incarcerated are females. I believe locking up young females can cause a lot of problem for a long term standpoint because jail messes with peoples heads therefore as a child how would you expect them to react? swaggy456
DeleteAfter reading this article, I was confused and surprise about the increased of female in prison population from 1980 to 2014. The women who are incarcerated went up from 26,378 in 1980 (Federal Prison: 1,399 State Prison: 11,859 Jail: 13,120) to 215,332 in 2014 (Federal Prison: 12,560 State Prison: 93,672 Jail: 109,100) that was more than 700% increased. Also, more than sixty percent of women in state prisons have child under the age of eighteen. I cannot think of the things that women do that get them convicted and don’t think about the children they may end up leaving behind when they get imprisonment. Like where will my child stay? With some relative? Or they may end up in foster homes? There are still more men who are in prison than women, but the rate of growth of female imprisonment increases faster than men. That was more than fifty percent between 1980 to 2014. Based on the chart system included in the article under “Women Under Control of the U.S Corrections System, 2014” there are 106,232 in Prison, 109,100 in Jail, 966,029 are under Probation, and 102,825 on Parole, which total to more than 1.2 million of women who are under the supervision of the criminal justice system. That was unexplainable, I wonder what will be the total to the next upcoming years. As of 2014, there are 109 African American women per 100,000 goes to prison, 64 Hispanic women per 100,000, and 53 White women per 100,000. My thoughts of the rate of imprisonment based on race and ethnicity was unexpected, is this how the justice system works? Well, between 2000 to 2014, the rate of imprisonment for white women continue to rise in state and federal prisons and on the other hand African American women has been declining since then and that is great. Then state by state, the rate of which women imprison varies. On average at the national level as of 2014, 65 of 100,000 women were in prison. Which I think was still high. 44 per 100,000 in IL vs 142 per 100,000 in OK, I believe our state is doing alright so far. In 1986, there are 12% of women in state prisons were incarcerated for drug offense, and by 2014 there were 24% who were incarcerated for a drug offense, compared to 15% of men. Now, I can tell why there are more likely women in state prison than men. As of 2013, I believe the number of girls who are being confined in residential placement is dropping down, probably because of a reason that there are more programs and organizations that encouraging and educating youth about different kinds of offenses. That committing a crime will not do them good at all, especially drugs. Even such small thing like skipping school or running away will not do at all. M.Scott456
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article much of this information was very shocking to me. The fact that women and girls are getting sent to prison and jail more now for drug usage then men are to me is very surprising. More so then not, I feel as if I hear more about men doing drugs then women or girls. According to the article America has had to change our criminal involvement due to the number of women now being incarcerated. Sounds to me like this changed after the war on drugs. We are putting more and more people in prison or jail for drug use than anything else. By the charts state themselves that we are putting more women than men behind bars for drug usage. More likely than not, the drugs these people are being put behind bars for I would not consider an act of crime. These people are not going out killing people or doing dangerous things. Twelve percent of women were being incarcerated in 1986. Nixon declared the war on drugs in 1971 so not very long after the war on drugs started we had many people behind bars for such acts. The amount of drugs that you had in your possession at the time of war on drugs you were being sent behind bars. Most people would think that more African American and Hispanic women would be looking through the bars for drug possession or use. Shockingly we have had a steady climb in white women being locked up for drug use. A lot of the women that are being sent to jail have children under the age of 18. Some might ask were these kids are going. Sadly, the children of these women have no other option then to be sent to a foster home, or orphanage. To me this is very sad. These women are letting drugs take over their lives there for they are losing their children to people that they do not even have the slightest idea on who they are or where their child/ children are going to be placed. However, if president Nixon would not have made the war on drugs, there could be some very dangerous drugs out there today. Thunder 456
ReplyDelete(part 2)
After reading this article, we thought that it was crazy that just because there is more expansive law enforcement, and stiffer drug sentencing laws that women now comprise a larger proportion to the prison population than ever before. It was sad and kind of shocking that the population count of the prisons multiplied by nearly eight times than what is was in the 1980. What is even crazier is that more than 60 percent of women in state prisons have a child or maybe even more under the age of 18. Why would you think that in between 1980 and 2014 the number of women incarcerated increased by more than 700 percent? It rose from 26,378 in 1980 to 215,332 in 2014. How many more laws are then now compared to back in 1980’s? You could say there are a lot more crime laws than before, which makes there a lot of things you could do to get incarcerated? Even though there are more men than women in prison, the rate growth for female imprisonment has dramatically by paced men by more than 50 percent. If you also look at the chart on the article it is just shocking that in 2014 the number of women in jail is at its all-time high, but the women in federal prison, and state prison are not at their highest points, they are still extremely high almost too high but not the most that have been in those prisons. We feel like a question we all would have is, why are the numbers of women getting incarcerated so high, but federal and state prisons are not as high as some would think? What could be the cause of this? Once you get further into the article you see another chart of the women under control of the U.S corrections system in 2014 what shocked us from this chart is the number of women in jail, prison, and parole are nearly all the same but the women on probation is like 10 times the amount of the women in the other 3 categories. Could this be because the so-called crimes the women are committing are not worth locking them away for? Or could it be the financial stability the families of the women have, so they could afford a private attorney? We would also like to point out that 109 per 100,000 women that went to prison were African American and 53 of the 100,000 women were white women so is it safe to say that our criminal justice system is still racist or at least slightly?
ReplyDelete-Bears456 and CarlBaconWho456
part 1
It could be that it is not about the color of their skin, it could be due to how they were raised and their financial stability. We tend to think that a lot of things come into play when looking at whose incarcerated. We personally think there is a bit of a racial issue in our prisons, but then you see that between 2000 and 2014 the rate of imprisonment in state and federal prisons declined by 47 percent for black women, and increased by 56 percent to white women so is it really as racist as it once was or is our criminal justice system actually starting to go “color blind” so to speak, and is this is true they are going “color blind” why can’t the rest of our society just do the same? We also noticed the other chart that is imprisonment rated by gender, race, and ethnicity per 100,000 from 2000 to 2014, and what shocked us in this chart was that white women had a 56 percent increase going from 34 to 53, while white males had a 4 percent increase going from 449 to 465 so yes, the increase in women is rather large but you must notice the amount of men that are already in prison, so the increase shows nothing since there are already that many men in prison compared to women. Some could say men tend to have this thought stuck in their heads that they are bigger and better than everyone else, so then they might tend to think that they cannot get caught by the police. Also, there is a rumor going around stating that men are smarter than women, so men could possibly think they know what law enforcement would do or they know how to get out of situations easier due to being “smarter.” Some think that women use their brains when it comes to going to jail, like maybe thinking about their children if they have any or even family. Also that women have more feelings, so they can think of the right thing to do before men could. So, in the end this article shows a lot about how women are getting put in jail and prison more but look how many men are already in there compared to them and notice they don’t have it nearly as bad.
Delete-Bears456 and CarlBaconWho456
part 2
I think that the first sentence of this article is completely true. I believe that the incarceration population can be drastically reduced without endangering everyone else. I think that it is interesting that Harvard reported that they think they could cut the number of people controlled under probation in half in the next decade. The fact that if probation would be cut in half it could impoverish Americans tells me how much we are dependant on the incarceration population and the money that it brings in. I agree with the article that the system we have in place is very poor and do agree that it produces a cycle with incarceration. Many cities have their crime rate decreasing, but a heavy incarcerated population which doesn’t make sense. How could that even happen is what I find myself asking the most. I feel like the five approaches that the report took were fairly solid. The one I think would work the best is evidence based practice requirements. If there was more evidence within these cases wrongful convictions could be lessened which could lead to the population being lowered. Obviously reducing the probation terms could definitely affect the population and how it grows. Graduated response for violations could deter many people from reoffending. The fact that in 2012 two states experimented with this idea and saw a twenty percent decrease blows my mind. If all of the states could adopt this the incarceration population would be diminished in a span of a decade or two. Many lessons and ideas can be learned from this article if there was more research done on ways to control the population of incarcerated people I think we would see a bigger impact on the population as a whole.
ReplyDeleteIn the past quarter century women incarcerated have increased in huge numbers varying from many convections. Women are now out running the mens statistics for incarcerated. I believe this is due to the stiffer laws in the criminal justice system towards women. The numbers have increased by 50% for women to be in jail and prison. Women are being watched as closely as the men there are so many advances in the criminal justice department and they are catching women just as much as men. I believe that they could help populations in the criminal justice system be a healthy rate with women and men. Womens levels vary from state to state Oklahoma had the largest amount of women incarcerated and Rhode Island has the lowest. This is also because each state has different laws depending on the different crimes. Women are more found to be convicted of drugs and property crimes rather than violent crimes men still hold the top for that. Women aren’t as likely to be violent due to men are known to have more anger issues than women. Women are agent to increase more in the future less there are better programs for women even men so both sex’s don’t increase. From reducing probation for women it could even affect the population to help women not be repeat offenders. but the problem is that not every state is going to except the fact that they would have to help the inmates in order for the inmates not to come back which a lot of prisons are private and they profit from more inmates means more money in their pockets and they don’t have any programs for inmates so they keep coming back.
NightTrain456, Shark456, LowAndSlow456
Part 1
I am absolutely astonished about the information that I learned from this article. In my CRJ 110 class last year, Professor Graff had told us that in recent years the rate of woman being incarcerated was soaring, and that more woman were locked up now than ever before. Of course that shocked me, but after reading this article the numbers are even higher than I had thought. In the last thirty five years, the number has increased by seven hundred percent. That alone is an incredibly high number. The statistic that really blew my mind was reading that sixty five out of every hundred thousand women are incarcerated. As most people know, it’s no surprise that the reasons for incarceration are very different between men and women. In nature, men are known to be the more violent sex, as they are the ones who were expected to be the “hunters.” Men are raised to be tough. Boys are taught from a young age to fight and not to cry. Although I believe this is changing, it is shown in the offense type stats. The difference in men and women for violence is fifty five percent to around thirty five percent. What blows my mind is the amount of women that are bing locked up for drug offenses. I feel as if when watching tv or reading the news, it’s men that are being arrested hand over fist for drugs. The last bit of information that is surprising to me is the amount of men that are being arrested during youth compared to women. I guess I don’t understand why it is that women tend to grow into crime. It seems as if men are most likely arrested at a young age due to puberty, changing emotions, and short tempers. This article has really opened up my mind about the corrections field. I was so blind to the amount of women that are being arrested day in and out as I think of hardened men when I think of prison. Women are on the rise and I think that I need to open my eyes to that as I plan on moving into corrections.
ReplyDeleteNightTrain456, Shark456, LowAndSlow456
When reading this our group had a few different opinions, knowing that women prison population have risen by more than eight times since 1980 was mind baffling to some of us and the no surprise to the rest of us. Also, seeing that over sixty percent of the women incarcerated had a child under the age of eighteen is ridiculous. If these women are in prison or jail then who is looking after their children? If they have a daughter, then most likely the daughter will want to look up to their mother for leadership and knowing what to do, but if their mother is in prison then they may follow her footsteps and be in the same place as her. Some of these children with mothers may not have a father too, so they may have to spend a lot of their time in foster homes waiting for a chance to get a mother that will care for them. Seeing the growth rate of women getting imprisoned is now outpacing men by more than fifty percent is insane. Naturally, we think that men are committing more crimes and that they would have a higher imprisonment rate. When reading about race and ethnicity seeing that black women were twice as likely to go to prison as white women, really didn’t surprise some of us. We see this in almost every case whether it be women, men, or juveniles. What really surprised me about the race and ethnicity was that black women imprisonment rates were steadily declining while white women imprisonment rates were steadily increasing. When looking at the type or crime that women were in prison for really surprised some of us and didn’t surprise the rest of the group. Women were more likely than men to be arrested and imprisoned for a drug crime. Seeing that the percent of women imprisoned for a drug crime has doubled shows that drugs are now becoming a problem not just for men, but for all genders and for all ages. Reading that the number of juvenile girls has been cut in half since 2001 has to give the nation some hope that we are heading in the right direction with young women, which we believe we need to be heading in this direction for all ages and for all genders. Even though white juvenile girls’ rate of imprisonment has decreased by eight percent while black juvenile girls have only decreased by three percent it is better than having one increase and the other decrease or having them both increase.
ReplyDeletepart1 illini456, country456, ~myhearseisnotafuneralcar456~
Some of us was neutral on this subject, only because we do need to be tough on women when it comes to them committing crimes that men would get in trouble for It’s no real surprise to us that the laws and punishments caught up to women over the last quarter century. At one-point women were basically getting a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again, when a man that committed the same crime would face jail or prison. If you are going to be tough on a law than it should not matter if it is a man or woman that committees the crime the punishment should be the same. With that being said, it would only make since that the percentages would go up for women being incarcerated. The other side of this is that it is the same as men and that the laws and punishments themselves need to be looked at and changes be made. In this instance, not only would the percentage of women lower some and level out but the men would as well. People do pity women and think that we should be more lenient on women because they have kids and they take care of the home and so on. Well What about the single dads out there taking care of their kids and the home, they don’t get any breaks because they are a single parent. The fact that laws and punishments have become more equal on both fronts should not be the issue, the real issue should be what to do to help lower the percentage rates of both women and women being incarcerated, and how to solve the recidivism problem that has continued to grow. once we can figure out how to solve these problems then we can focus on more individual problems like the rate of women being incarcerated. part2 illini456, country456, ~myhearseisnotafuneralcar456~
DeleteLastly we need to look at the time lines when the crimes were being committed. Back in the 1980’s we were less likely to hear about women on men crimes being reported. We always heard the men on women crimes being reported. Women can beat, rape, and kill men just as men did the same to women. Men were less likely to report a crime when it came to them being degraded by women only because they were afraid of the embarrassment and the negative attention it would draw to them. Back then it was important to look manly. Now it’s not manly to beat, rape, or kill women either, the point is men and women are both capable of the same crime. They should both serve the same amount of time for their crimes. As for drug charges being an increase rate what is the amount of drugs that is on the women what type of citizens were they? Where they prostitutes working for a pimp that had drugs on them, High school kids trying to be cool? Drugs have always been a rise throughout the world regardless if you’re trying to make money, get high or just take the edge off. Also, with juveniles going to jail what was their story behind why they did what they did or do what they do? Was it learned behavior? Was it girls being girls thinking that they are tougher than sally or mad at sally for stealing their crush? Did they get into a fight with another student at school because the other student said something about how someone’s dad died and that he deserved it. We should look into the root causes of these crimes. Also, being a parent should not be a factor on the amount of time you serve in prison, unless you killed the person who was actively raping or molesting your child. Yes your children needs to have their parents in their lives but also why punish a child with a negligent parent who couldn’t keep their nose clean let alone not put food on the table for them. Children always face some type of broken home system. Some we hear about others we don’t. Last point what if the parent we are defending about having children was the one who harmed their children to be in prison the first place. There has to be a bigger or yet smaller picture that we are not seeing . part3 illini456, country456, ~myhearseisnotafuneralcar456~
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