Personally, as I have not read up on it too much, I am not too familiar with the #MeToo movement in the civilian world as of right now. From what I gather, it is a movement for women who are sexually abused or have been sexually harassed or assaulted by someone. If this is true, then I fully agree with the message sent in the article that I just read about the movement not being represented in the female prison population. This movement for women is who have faced these assaults and abuses and nowhere else in the world can more victims of these heinous crimes be found than in the United States’ correctional system and in its facilities. In the article, Mr. Bourgeois explains the statistics of females in the correctional system and uses a very creative way of doing it by placing himself in the shoes of a woman in the juvenile and adult correctional system. He explains things such as the fact that if he were a woman, he would be eight times more likely to face sexual abuse and become an avid heroine abuser, six times more likely to use cocaine and its other variants, five times more likely to have some sort of STD or some other STI, and twice as likely to stay in a group home before being committed to a lengthy stay at a juvenile correctional facility as a child. He also goes on to state that these negatively affecting traits and actions were likely to carry over into adulthood. These are very shocking numbers to say the least and I will not shy away or pretend I knew these numbers. These numbers are completely new to me and while I did know that there were some discrepancies in the numbers compared to their male counterpart, I did not know that it was a problem to this extent. The sheer volume of the number and the frequency of it is staggering to say the least. Mr. Bourgeois goes on to state these facts and then finishes up by saying that he is blessed to be a male in our society. He is right in saying that because he is correct in his assumption that males are usually treats better in our society today and even though the United States is moving toward a more equal stance in the field of gender, it still has the remnants of the more patriarchal society and its subsequent feelings and thoughts. He states that women are still getting the short end of the stick when It comes to crime and punishment and I agree with his summary of the correctional system on women. It is hard to be a woman in the United States in general so in prison and jails, I am sure it is just as hard if not harder. Hopefully, as the United States become more equal socially, it will continue to get better for the women in corrections and for all women in the US as a whole. –TheMarshall789
This article showed the direct effect that women have developing these skills as these become necessary to ensure that this individual suffered so much emotional and psychically over the years that they have resorted to violence to be able to survive the environment that these people have came from which has had numerous number of effects on the growth and development emotional for many of these individual’s. The sad truth of this article showed that when these young women often went through these circumstances this is due to the fact that these individuals went through having to use their bodies in order to the fact that they may have a warm place to sleep at night they also will use drugs such as crack and heroin in order to adapt to what emotionally turmoil they have suffered due to their background factors. This also exposes these women to factors of distrust as well as many are exploited by adults allowing them to have many problems expressing the ability to trust authority figures as these people may resemble charactertics that resemble the same as the people who had used and abused them in the past. Its also said to see that we criminalize these women but passed on this tactics in this young individual that stands to say that if this young woman went through this then the only option this woman, is to resort to violence to feel as if she will make it out of the sitition. These women have already feeling worthless, guilty, are then being revictimized by the correctional system as they lack any skills, also due to the certain social roles that both men and women play in society their roles even go through the criminal justice system allowing more visits to be grantee to men then there are to women this being a factor as both need to be able to have effected to ties to family in any given circumstances. If these young women have a daughter then she will be exploited by the same people who took advantage of her if she is sent to prison as for the man of the women she will mostly likely be messing around with another women as shown with women they will remain loyal to the male through most of this criminal sentence. With 37% of victims being rape victim in jail this needs to stand as a fact for doing rehabilitation for these individual’s, to revoke their minds to understanding what reality is to help them be able to get back and make the most of what they can with society to be functioning in order to not help deploy this cycle. This also has to be a culture change as well because sexual exploitation of these people comes from them being used by men if men no longer desire to use people for selfish benefits this prevents the cycle from existing as instead of doing selfish tasks that bring down the morals of these individual’s they will do tactics to raise them up. Eagle789
This article was interesting and quite honestly, I did not know a lot of these statistics that were given about women in prisons and jails. It was a really cool way to look at it as Jeremiah, being a man, and then taking the role as what it would be like if he was a women. I feel this gives a different outlook on what it could have been like for him. One of things mentioned is that Jeremiah was selling crack as a means to get food and have a place to sleep. He then mentioned that if he was a women it would have look more like selling her body and sleeping in a bed next to a grown man. This is so crazy to think about. Grown men sleeping with young girls even though they know it is illegal and they need help. Yet they go through with it anyways. Due to this abuse, a stat given in the article says that women are eight times more likely to use heroin to self medicate than men. This is due mostly to them being abused, all while just trying to survive. Now switching to prison, it stated that women have less visiting allotments and more likely to be sexually abused in prison. The reasoning behind the more visiting rights is not an excuse in my books. To allow men to have more visits from their family just because there are more values placed on men in families? It just does not make any sense to me and quite honestly is terrible to place a value on mens position in a family more valuable than womens. The article mentions and asks the question of why there is such little interest in women in prisons. I think part of this is some individuals just plain do not care. Some people believe it is just part of what happens in prisons. I think this is messed up and they need to start paying more attention to the discrimination to women in prisons and jails. I feel as if the corrections system is paying so much attention to the men incarcerated in systems that they kind of left out women and things that would come to help them. This is sad when a statistic the article states was shown. It says that men incarceration rates have increase 7.25 times since 1960 while women's incarceration rates have increased 14.1 times since that same time. This means that there are slowly becoming a lot more women in prison, yet still they are not getting the attention they need in prisons. It is very good that the article brought up the fact that when women are marching on the streets for equality and right, that at the same time no one is saying anything about the women's rights that are currently incarcerated. There is no doubt they need to be helped in the same way. Overall, this article was a great perspective on what his life would have been like if he had been a young women on the streets and going into incarceration. - ST789
This article really opened my eyes as to how the lives of females going to jail and in jail are not as close to the men's lives as some may have thought. In fact, it is nearly the opposite of their lives. For example, the article stated that "girls are eight times more likely than boys to have been sexually abused, and to have used heroin; six times more likely to have used cocaine; five times more likely to have had a sexually transmitted disease; and twice as likely to have lived in a group home before a lengthy stay in a juvenile detention facility". These statistics blow my mind because when people think of prisoners, they tend to think of men as being a majority of prisoners and the type of people that consistently break the law. According to this stat however, it seems that women are just as likely, if not more likely to be incarcerated than men. It is just amazing to see how much harder it is to be a woman and face these problems growing up compared to a man going through the exact same situations. The article also mentioned how women get fewer visits in prison due to the different values families place on the male members as opposed to the female members. In today's world, I believe that most families tend to view males as more of the "troublemakers" while the females are viewed as the "non-troublemakers". When a female is incarcerated, they are breaking the norms and values placed on them by their family. So, this seems to lead to less visits due to what I can only guess is something along the lines of disappointment. This shows how certain norms and values from society are placed on us through our families and we are expected to conform to them. I believe that women should be visited in prison just as much as the men are, despite what they did or any other factors. A final interesting theory from the article that caught my eye was one that claimed that "there is little to no interest in women and girls in confinement". Despite how negative this statement may sound, I agree with it. I say this because like I said earlier, when someone hears the word 'prison' or 'prisoners', they think about men in prison, not women. Also, in nearly every movie I have seen involving prisons, there has been very few to absolutely no women involved at all. This goes along with the idea that men are troublemakers and women don't cause any trouble. I do believe that women receive little to no interest in confinement. However, I also believe that they should receive much more attention than they are currently receiving. I say this because from what I read in the article, it seems that women are having a much harder time with being caught doing a crime and being incarcerated than men are. More attention needs to be put on women to try and lower the chances of them being incarcerated. -Fozz789
I thought the reading was an interesting article. Honestly, I’ve heard about the #MeToo movement, but not really know too much about it. I’ve done some additional research and it’s basically a movement for those [women] who have been sexually harassed or assaulted from what I read. Personally, a woman is always a woman. I as an individual, I like to treat others the same way I want to be treated for instance being respectful, right? Now, woman should always be respected of course and I think the movement is a good push because it raises awareness. Again, nobody should be sexually assaulted or harassed; but moreover, in this instance woman are the ones who get harassed more than a guy would. I enjoyed the story line in the article, I think it gives me a view of what the person has gone through, and it seems very harsh, especially coming from a abusing family and something nobody should go through. We as individuals don’t choose in which families we are born into. In the article, states, that close to 9 out of 10 woman are being abused, harassed, using all types of common drugs, such as heroin, cocaine, and more. Now, according to the statistics, women incarcerations are rapidly going up. Also, during the #MeToo movement, their was so much mentioning about women this and woman that, but nothing about woman in the correction system whom are incarcerated. I believe that people should not be left out because now a person goes to prison; now the mindset is that the individual is a bad person automatically. Personally again, I believe the #MeToo movement should also recognizes those woman who are in prisons and jails because they are women as well and individuals. In the article states that 3 woman are sexually abused by the time they reach eighteen. Now, that is wrong because no woman should ever go through something like that, but it happens. This is the way our society has come to be sharpened. Even the article says that ones a person enters the criminal justice system, the chances are higher that the persons right to voice is now limited very low because of the way society has come to. The numbers are still high that women in prisoned are being sexually harassed. Not only the offenders, but also the women working in correctional facilities because they are getting ‘cat called’ and not taken seriously. Overall great article, but really sad to see what the incarcerations of women has come up to now. The correctional system has so much to offer still and so much to fix within time. - LILPUMP789
I enjoyed reading that article. I enjoyed it because it was very informational. I like how the author talked from not only a males side but a female's side in the world we live in today. In my opinion everything he talked about with the woman was true. When are held to a higher standard than what men are. Throughout history it always been an issue with women trying to be equal with men. Going back to the article Jeremiah said that women were worse off than men before coming in the prison and worse off being in prison. I agree but I will always hope that it is not true. I think that male inmates have it pretty bad in there to but for them it is talked about more on what happens in there. As for the women, I feel a lot happens inside jails and prisons that nobody talks about. My only question for all of it is why no one talks very much about the issues with females in jails and prisons? Could it maybe be because throughout the years women are kept at this standard and if they fall behind the standards they are “shunned” by society? I know Jeremiah asked the same question about why they’re so little interest in women and girls in confinement? He says in his opinion it was attacking drowned out or subsumed by the screams of the men who have come to defined mass incarceration in this country. Going back to the article I found it interesting how he talked about his life when he was younger and how he ended up where he is today. I also enjoyed how he added statistics in with the article. The one I really agree with is “ he so do he started by Belknap of youth conference find in Pennsylvania, girls are eight times more likely than boys to have been sexually abused, and to have used heroin; six times more likely to have use cocaine; five times more likely to have had a sexual transmitted disease; and twice as likely to have lived in a group home before enduring lengthy stay in a juvenile detention faculty“. I did not thing women were more likely to use heroin and cocaine. I have always thought males did it more. It’s really shocking being a young lady in the juvenile custody would be six times more likely than a young man to be sexually assaulted by a staff member and twice as likely to have been sexually abused by another female in custody. Throughout reading the article it said that women get fewer visits than what males do. I find it not only true but sad at the same point. I say that because women have a higher chance of committing suicide and having a higher chance of depression. It’s sad that they not many people visit them versus the male prisoners. In conclusion I found this article to be very informative and a lot of statistics that are really good and helps to show people what’s really going on behind bars for women. -jw789
I am only mildly familiar with the # me to movement going on currently. I do know that it has to do with, woman who are being sexually assaulted or harassed. It has become a way for woman to use social media to let people know the severity of these disgusting acts towards women; I do not know whether it applies to men. The author of this article, a Mr. Jeremiah Bourgeois, points out the need for incarcerated women to have a part in this movement; this I agree with whole heartedly. We do live in a patriarchal society. This can be seen by many of different statistics and cultural norms that we have come to accept. Although we continue to grow as a society, our beliefs about men and woman that are incarcerated remain relatively steady across the nation. Without the mass incarceration factored in, which has brought about the interest of our nation to decrease its size while we struggle to find the roots behind the problem, we still see an offender as an offender. These people are then marked for life and it leaves those who need our attention as second class citizens. Seeing this article proves this point and in great detail. Although it’s a man presenting this information, the experience he has had in his own life only further helps to elevate his main point. Mr. Bourgeois states that women are eight times more likely than men to be sexually abused and to have used heroin. This is one thing that stood out to me because of the correlation between these two things. A possible reason for the use of this illicit drug is the abuse they have endured; which then circles around to them being incarcerated. In theses facilities women can then have to endure further, or for the first time, sexual assault from faculty members; which they are six times more likely to be sexually assaulted then men. The # me to movement should recognize this as serious problem. The road that women walk is a rougher road then men walk in life. Women are sexualized regardless of where they are located, prison or not. Mr. Bourgeois also pointed out that at one point he sold crack to survive out on the street when he was 13 years old, and then went on to say that had he been a girl of the same age he would more than likely have to sell his body in order to survive. This statement brings some further solidity to his point in this article. Another interesting thing that Mr. Bourgeois points out is that our society values male family members and the roles they are involved in more than female roles in families. Because of this men in correctional facilities are more likely to get visited than females in correctional facilities. I was under the assumption that it was the other way around. The # me to movement should include women that are incarcerated. They are human and just like any other human deserve dignity regardless if they have done wrong or not.-pj789
I was very unfamiliar with the #MeToo movement but, I enjoyed this article very much. It was very informational and I liked learning more information on women in prisons. One stat that blew my mind was that “girls are eight times more likely than boys to have been sexually abused, and to have used heroin; six times more likely to have used cocaine; five times more likely to have had a sexually transmitted disease; and twice as likely to have lived in a group home before enduring a lengthy stay in juvenile detention facility”. This is absolutely crazy to me that all of this could all happen to a women before she enters prison. This shows how much harder it is for women when they are growing up. It also shows that women are just as likely to enter prison just as much as men. Also, a interesting thing was that women have it just as hard in the prison system. I wasn't surprised much by this thought because women are seen as sex objects much more than men are. As it says in the article, “I would have been six times more likely than a young man to be sexually assaulted by a staff member, and twice as likely to have been sexually abused by another female inmate in custody”, again there is no real surprise in this stat because women are seen as delicate humans that can be used whenever needed. That saddens me quite a bit that we as females are only seen in a certain way. To go with the idea of being used but also mistreated is that women get fewer visits in prison than men based on family values. Men have always been looked at as the prime breadwinner in families, while women are pushed to the side. So men always have someone to visit and have someone there waiting for them when they get out. An interesting twist on this is that since women are more seen as the caretakers you usually dont see them getting punished for crimes. So when they break a law they are breaking society values and norms that we have put in place. You will be viewed as a bad mom from then on out based on one mistake. Men are not seen this way, it is in a sense normal to see men go away for crimes because “they are doing whatever they can to keep their family surviving”. The thing that shocked me the most in this article was that “men’s imprisonment rates increased by 7.25 times from 1960 to 2011, and womens have increased 14.1 times. I didn't realize that so many women have been incarcerated during this time but, by a hunch I believe most of those offenders are from drugs or being addicted to drugs and not being able to get out. Based on these stats I believe we need to start focusing on how to keep women out of prisons and or how to keep it safer for them because all in all you are tearing a family apart when you take away their Momma. Hollywood789
I agree very much that the issues brought up in this article are very significant and need to be addressed. However, I feel as if the majority of these issues are not within the grasp of the United States’ criminal justice system. The biggest issues brought up in this article were the tendencies for troubled young women to abuse substances and sell their bodies for sex in order to survive. Both selling to minors and extorting minors for sex are already being dealt with by the justice system. I think that the justice system should provide more outreach to children in neglectful and abuseful households to correct this problem to the best of their ability. The problem with the hypothetical female narrator as well as the actual male narrator is that they did not turn to the correct resources to fix their problems. I do not fault these people as it is likely that they felt guilty about turning into their abusers or they feared getting into trouble themselves. I am unsure what the justice system could do to keep these people from succumbing to such pressures and turning to such terrible means of survival. I also question what societal measures could be taken to negate the frequency of these problems. People who buy drugs from minors or hire minors as sex workers generally do not conform to the ethics of common society. However, I do think that the justice system is in serious need of reform when it comes to the abuse of these people when they enter the prison system. As I mentioned in my paper, if guards had a vested interest in the well-being of prisoners, I think that the relationship would be drastically different and abuse would occur far less often even if for selfish reasons. I also found an article by IB times about sexual abuse perpetrated by correctional officers (http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/us-idaho-lawsuit-reveals-sexual-assault-by-staff-male-teens-juvenile-detention-centers-1494582). While the article is primarily about male victims, it states that over 40% of abuses are the result of officers either threatening victims with physical violence or offering drugs or alcohol in order for sexual acts. I am sure that guards are searched when they enter the facility, but I think that the searching process should be much more intense for guards in order to decrease the amount of sexual exploitation. I am not sure what could be done about the problems of guards threatening victims with physical violence in the instance of non-compliance. I know that the military has systems in place in which soldiers at basic training can anonymously report instructors for abuses of powers. I could see this being a good idea, but I could also see this kind of system being abused by inmates. The article I linked states that 90% of juvenile male victims who are abused are abused by female officers. Perhaps males are more likely to abuse female inmates. If that is the case, there should be a push for more male officers at male detention centers and more female officers at female centers. [the rest of my response will be posted as a response to this]
The article also states that there is twice as much abuse among inmates within juvenile penitentiaries holding females than there are in centers holding males. This issue also seems very difficult to correct as there are likely not enough resources to give each inmate his or her individual cell, which I believe would reduce rates of abuse. As in many of these blogs, I think that if there were more emphasis on rehabilitation, these abuse rates would drastically decrease. Many of these inmate-perpetrators are likely “paying forward” abuse much like the author’s brother did to him. If these instances abuse were addressed more readily, it is likely that these victims would be far less likely to pay forward the abuse. As for the #Metoo movement, I think that these women should definitely be a larger part of the movement. The foundation of the movement has been women speaking out about their abusers. It is likely that former inmates are less likely to speak out against abusers in the justice system, be it officers or inmates, because they feel shame for ending up incarcerated in the first place. While society cannot easily draw out these confessions, I believe that everyone has a very important responsibility to show the fullest amount of sympathy for women in these positions who do speak out. If this sympathy is seen, more confessions will follow. Overall, I think that the abuse of women in the justice system is something that should be talked about far more, as things that are spoken about more are addressed more quickly. -Rudedogg857
To be honest i am really am not into this and have no idea about any over this happening. I really should be following this but i just havnt heard of any of this but from reading this article i feel like i know a little more but really i dont think i am that caught up on any of this but i will try to get my knowledge on all of this. This article was basically about women and how they get treated by men but we dont hear about it because the men are more powerful than men. Some girls are worse than men and they think that they have no power. These girls were getting traded on the internet because they wanted to sell there verginity but were getting traded from man to man because they were trying to get the best out of them so they could make the most money. Women were getting treat like crap because they didnt want to hurt the men. Women in prison where not treated like I am really not sure what they do in prison with the women becasue we never here about how they treat the women. They only show how men are treated in there. Tthey never show if the women are being treated as fair as the men but then you look at the fact. they always say that they will give them the best opportunity in prison to get out but really they dont do anyhting and make hem work harder than.Women would not get any of there product. People were mad that they would not be able to get what they would get done. Women were treated different than me because they did not care about the women at all in this country so we put them to the side. Gator789
Personally, as I have not read up on it too much, I am not too familiar with the #MeToo movement in the civilian world as of right now. From what I gather, it is a movement for women who are sexually abused or have been sexually harassed or assaulted by someone. If this is true, then I fully agree with the message sent in the article that I just read about the movement not being represented in the female prison population. This movement for women is who have faced these assaults and abuses and nowhere else in the world can more victims of these heinous crimes be found than in the United States’ correctional system and in its facilities. In the article, Mr. Bourgeois explains the statistics of females in the correctional system and uses a very creative way of doing it by placing himself in the shoes of a woman in the juvenile and adult correctional system. He explains things such as the fact that if he were a woman, he would be eight times more likely to face sexual abuse and become an avid heroine abuser, six times more likely to use cocaine and its other variants, five times more likely to have some sort of STD or some other STI, and twice as likely to stay in a group home before being committed to a lengthy stay at a juvenile correctional facility as a child. He also goes on to state that these negatively affecting traits and actions were likely to carry over into adulthood. These are very shocking numbers to say the least and I will not shy away or pretend I knew these numbers. These numbers are completely new to me and while I did know that there were some discrepancies in the numbers compared to their male counterpart, I did not know that it was a problem to this extent. The sheer volume of the number and the frequency of it is staggering to say the least. Mr. Bourgeois goes on to state these facts and then finishes up by saying that he is blessed to be a male in our society. He is right in saying that because he is correct in his assumption that males are usually treats better in our society today and even though the United States is moving toward a more equal stance in the field of gender, it still has the remnants of the more patriarchal society and its subsequent feelings and thoughts. He states that women are still getting the short end of the stick when It comes to crime and punishment and I agree with his summary of the correctional system on women. It is hard to be a woman in the United States in general so in prison and jails, I am sure it is just as hard if not harder. Hopefully, as the United States become more equal socially, it will continue to get better for the women in corrections and for all women in the US as a whole. –TheMarshall789
ReplyDeleteThis article showed the direct effect that women have developing these skills as these become necessary to ensure that this individual suffered so much emotional and psychically over the years that they have resorted to violence to be able to survive the environment that these people have came from which has had numerous number of effects on the growth and development emotional for many of these individual’s. The sad truth of this article showed that when these young women often went through these circumstances this is due to the fact that these individuals went through having to use their bodies in order to the fact that they may have a warm place to sleep at night they also will use drugs such as crack and heroin in order to adapt to what emotionally turmoil they have suffered due to their background factors. This also exposes these women to factors of distrust as well as many are exploited by adults allowing them to have many problems expressing the ability to trust authority figures as these people may resemble charactertics that resemble the same as the people who had used and abused them in the past. Its also said to see that we criminalize these women but passed on this tactics in this young individual that stands to say that if this young woman went through this then the only option this woman, is to resort to violence to feel as if she will make it out of the sitition. These women have already feeling worthless, guilty, are then being revictimized by the correctional system as they lack any skills, also due to the certain social roles that both men and women play in society their roles even go through the criminal justice system allowing more visits to be grantee to men then there are to women this being a factor as both need to be able to have effected to ties to family in any given circumstances. If these young women have a daughter then she will be exploited by the same people who took advantage of her if she is sent to prison as for the man of the women she will mostly likely be messing around with another women as shown with women they will remain loyal to the male through most of this criminal sentence. With 37% of victims being rape victim in jail this needs to stand as a fact for doing rehabilitation for these individual’s, to revoke their minds to understanding what reality is to help them be able to get back and make the most of what they can with society to be functioning in order to not help deploy this cycle. This also has to be a culture change as well because sexual exploitation of these people comes from them being used by men if men no longer desire to use people for selfish benefits this prevents the cycle from existing as instead of doing selfish tasks that bring down the morals of these individual’s they will do tactics to raise them up. Eagle789
ReplyDeleteThis article was interesting and quite honestly, I did not know a lot of these statistics that were given about women in prisons and jails. It was a really cool way to look at it as Jeremiah, being a man, and then taking the role as what it would be like if he was a women. I feel this gives a different outlook on what it could have been like for him. One of things mentioned is that Jeremiah was selling crack as a means to get food and have a place to sleep. He then mentioned that if he was a women it would have look more like selling her body and sleeping in a bed next to a grown man. This is so crazy to think about. Grown men sleeping with young girls even though they know it is illegal and they need help. Yet they go through with it anyways. Due to this abuse, a stat given in the article says that women are eight times more likely to use heroin to self medicate than men. This is due mostly to them being abused, all while just trying to survive. Now switching to prison, it stated that women have less visiting allotments and more likely to be sexually abused in prison. The reasoning behind the more visiting rights is not an excuse in my books. To allow men to have more visits from their family just because there are more values placed on men in families? It just does not make any sense to me and quite honestly is terrible to place a value on mens position in a family more valuable than womens. The article mentions and asks the question of why there is such little interest in women in prisons. I think part of this is some individuals just plain do not care. Some people believe it is just part of what happens in prisons. I think this is messed up and they need to start paying more attention to the discrimination to women in prisons and jails. I feel as if the corrections system is paying so much attention to the men incarcerated in systems that they kind of left out women and things that would come to help them. This is sad when a statistic the article states was shown. It says that men incarceration rates have increase 7.25 times since 1960 while women's incarceration rates have increased 14.1 times since that same time. This means that there are slowly becoming a lot more women in prison, yet still they are not getting the attention they need in prisons. It is very good that the article brought up the fact that when women are marching on the streets for equality and right, that at the same time no one is saying anything about the women's rights that are currently incarcerated. There is no doubt they need to be helped in the same way. Overall, this article was a great perspective on what his life would have been like if he had been a young women on the streets and going into incarceration.
ReplyDelete- ST789
This article really opened my eyes as to how the lives of females going to jail and in jail are not as close to the men's lives as some may have thought. In fact, it is nearly the opposite of their lives. For example, the article stated that "girls are eight times more likely than boys to have been sexually abused, and to have used heroin; six times more likely to have used cocaine; five times more likely to have had a sexually transmitted disease; and twice as likely to have lived in a group home before a lengthy stay in a juvenile detention facility". These statistics blow my mind because when people think of prisoners, they tend to think of men as being a majority of prisoners and the type of people that consistently break the law. According to this stat however, it seems that women are just as likely, if not more likely to be incarcerated than men. It is just amazing to see how much harder it is to be a woman and face these problems growing up compared to a man going through the exact same situations. The article also mentioned how women get fewer visits in prison due to the different values families place on the male members as opposed to the female members. In today's world, I believe that most families tend to view males as more of the "troublemakers" while the females are viewed as the "non-troublemakers". When a female is incarcerated, they are breaking the norms and values placed on them by their family. So, this seems to lead to less visits due to what I can only guess is something along the lines of disappointment. This shows how certain norms and values from society are placed on us through our families and we are expected to conform to them. I believe that women should be visited in prison just as much as the men are, despite what they did or any other factors. A final interesting theory from the article that caught my eye was one that claimed that "there is little to no interest in women and girls in confinement". Despite how negative this statement may sound, I agree with it. I say this because like I said earlier, when someone hears the word 'prison' or 'prisoners', they think about men in prison, not women. Also, in nearly every movie I have seen involving prisons, there has been very few to absolutely no women involved at all. This goes along with the idea that men are troublemakers and women don't cause any trouble. I do believe that women receive little to no interest in confinement. However, I also believe that they should receive much more attention than they are currently receiving. I say this because from what I read in the article, it seems that women are having a much harder time with being caught doing a crime and being incarcerated than men are. More attention needs to be put on women to try and lower the chances of them being incarcerated.
ReplyDelete-Fozz789
I thought the reading was an interesting article. Honestly, I’ve heard about the #MeToo movement, but not really know too much about it. I’ve done some additional research and it’s basically a movement for those [women] who have been sexually harassed or assaulted from what I read. Personally, a woman is always a woman. I as an individual, I like to treat others the same way I want to be treated for instance being respectful, right? Now, woman should always be respected of course and I think the movement is a good push because it raises awareness. Again, nobody should be sexually assaulted or harassed; but moreover, in this instance woman are the ones who get harassed more than a guy would. I enjoyed the story line in the article, I think it gives me a view of what the person has gone through, and it seems very harsh, especially coming from a abusing family and something nobody should go through. We as individuals don’t choose in which families we are born into. In the article, states, that close to 9 out of 10 woman are being abused, harassed, using all types of common drugs, such as heroin, cocaine, and more. Now, according to the statistics, women incarcerations are rapidly going up. Also, during the #MeToo movement, their was so much mentioning about women this and woman that, but nothing about woman in the correction system whom are incarcerated. I believe that people should not be left out because now a person goes to prison; now the mindset is that the individual is a bad person automatically. Personally again, I believe the #MeToo movement should also recognizes those woman who are in prisons and jails because they are women as well and individuals. In the article states that 3 woman are sexually abused by the time they reach eighteen. Now, that is wrong because no woman should ever go through something like that, but it happens. This is the way our society has come to be sharpened. Even the article says that ones a person enters the criminal justice system, the chances are higher that the persons right to voice is now limited very low because of the way society has come to. The numbers are still high that women in prisoned are being sexually harassed. Not only the offenders, but also the women working in correctional facilities because they are getting ‘cat called’ and not taken seriously. Overall great article, but really sad to see what the incarcerations of women has come up to now. The correctional system has so much to offer still and so much to fix within time. - LILPUMP789
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading that article. I enjoyed it because it was very informational. I like how the author talked from not only a males side but a female's side in the world we live in today. In my opinion everything he talked about with the woman was true. When are held to a higher standard than what men are. Throughout history it always been an issue with women trying to be equal with men. Going back to the article Jeremiah said that women were worse off than men before coming in the prison and worse off being in prison. I agree but I will always hope that it is not true. I think that male inmates have it pretty bad in there to but for them it is talked about more on what happens in there. As for the women, I feel a lot happens inside jails and prisons that nobody talks about. My only question for all of it is why no one talks very much about the issues with females in jails and prisons? Could it maybe be because throughout the years women are kept at this standard and if they fall behind the standards they are “shunned” by society? I know Jeremiah asked the same question about why they’re so little interest in women and girls in confinement? He says in his opinion it was attacking drowned out or subsumed by the screams of the men who have come to defined mass incarceration in this country. Going back to the article I found it interesting how he talked about his life when he was younger and how he ended up where he is today. I also enjoyed how he added statistics in with the article. The one I really agree with is “ he so do he started by Belknap of youth conference find in Pennsylvania, girls are eight times more likely than boys to have been sexually abused, and to have used heroin; six times more likely to have use cocaine; five times more likely to have had a sexual transmitted disease; and twice as likely to have lived in a group home before enduring lengthy stay in a juvenile detention faculty“. I did not thing women were more likely to use heroin and cocaine. I have always thought males did it more. It’s really shocking being a young lady in the juvenile custody would be six times more likely than a young man to be sexually assaulted by a staff member and twice as likely to have been sexually abused by another female in custody. Throughout reading the article it said that women get fewer visits than what males do. I find it not only true but sad at the same point. I say that because women have a higher chance of committing suicide and having a higher chance of depression. It’s sad that they not many people visit them versus the male prisoners. In conclusion I found this article to be very informative and a lot of statistics that are really good and helps to show people what’s really going on behind bars for women.
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I am only mildly familiar with the # me to movement going on currently. I do know that it has to do with, woman who are being sexually assaulted or harassed. It has become a way for woman to use social media to let people know the severity of these disgusting acts towards women; I do not know whether it applies to men. The author of this article, a Mr. Jeremiah Bourgeois, points out the need for incarcerated women to have a part in this movement; this I agree with whole heartedly. We do live in a patriarchal society. This can be seen by many of different statistics and cultural norms that we have come to accept. Although we continue to grow as a society, our beliefs about men and woman that are incarcerated remain relatively steady across the nation. Without the mass incarceration factored in, which has brought about the interest of our nation to decrease its size while we struggle to find the roots behind the problem, we still see an offender as an offender. These people are then marked for life and it leaves those who need our attention as second class citizens. Seeing this article proves this point and in great detail. Although it’s a man presenting this information, the experience he has had in his own life only further helps to elevate his main point. Mr. Bourgeois states that women are eight times more likely than men to be sexually abused and to have used heroin. This is one thing that stood out to me because of the correlation between these two things. A possible reason for the use of this illicit drug is the abuse they have endured; which then circles around to them being incarcerated. In theses facilities women can then have to endure further, or for the first time, sexual assault from faculty members; which they are six times more likely to be sexually assaulted then men. The # me to movement should recognize this as serious problem. The road that women walk is a rougher road then men walk in life. Women are sexualized regardless of where they are located, prison or not. Mr. Bourgeois also pointed out that at one point he sold crack to survive out on the street when he was 13 years old, and then went on to say that had he been a girl of the same age he would more than likely have to sell his body in order to survive. This statement brings some further solidity to his point in this article. Another interesting thing that Mr. Bourgeois points out is that our society values male family members and the roles they are involved in more than female roles in families. Because of this men in correctional facilities are more likely to get visited than females in correctional facilities. I was under the assumption that it was the other way around. The # me to movement should include women that are incarcerated. They are human and just like any other human deserve dignity regardless if they have done wrong or not.-pj789
ReplyDeleteI was very unfamiliar with the #MeToo movement but, I enjoyed this article very much. It was very informational and I liked learning more information on women in prisons. One stat that blew my mind was that “girls are eight times more likely than boys to have been sexually abused, and to have used heroin; six times more likely to have used cocaine; five times more likely to have had a sexually transmitted disease; and twice as likely to have lived in a group home before enduring a lengthy stay in juvenile detention facility”. This is absolutely crazy to me that all of this could all happen to a women before she enters prison. This shows how much harder it is for women when they are growing up. It also shows that women are just as likely to enter prison just as much as men. Also, a interesting thing was that women have it just as hard in the prison system. I wasn't surprised much by this thought because women are seen as sex objects much more than men are. As it says in the article, “I would have been six times more likely than a young man to be sexually assaulted by a staff member, and twice as likely to have been sexually abused by another female inmate in custody”, again there is no real surprise in this stat because women are seen as delicate humans that can be used whenever needed. That saddens me quite a bit that we as females are only seen in a certain way. To go with the idea of being used but also mistreated is that women get fewer visits in prison than men based on family values. Men have always been looked at as the prime breadwinner in families, while women are pushed to the side. So men always have someone to visit and have someone there waiting for them when they get out. An interesting twist on this is that since women are more seen as the caretakers you usually dont see them getting punished for crimes. So when they break a law they are breaking society values and norms that we have put in place. You will be viewed as a bad mom from then on out based on one mistake. Men are not seen this way, it is in a sense normal to see men go away for crimes because “they are doing whatever they can to keep their family surviving”. The thing that shocked me the most in this article was that “men’s imprisonment rates increased by 7.25 times from 1960 to 2011, and womens have increased 14.1 times. I didn't realize that so many women have been incarcerated during this time but, by a hunch I believe most of those offenders are from drugs or being addicted to drugs and not being able to get out. Based on these stats I believe we need to start focusing on how to keep women out of prisons and or how to keep it safer for them because all in all you are tearing a family apart when you take away their Momma.
ReplyDeleteHollywood789
I agree very much that the issues brought up in this article are very significant and need to be addressed. However, I feel as if the majority of these issues are not within the grasp of the United States’ criminal justice system. The biggest issues brought up in this article were the tendencies for troubled young women to abuse substances and sell their bodies for sex in order to survive. Both selling to minors and extorting minors for sex are already being dealt with by the justice system. I think that the justice system should provide more outreach to children in neglectful and abuseful households to correct this problem to the best of their ability. The problem with the hypothetical female narrator as well as the actual male narrator is that they did not turn to the correct resources to fix their problems. I do not fault these people as it is likely that they felt guilty about turning into their abusers or they feared getting into trouble themselves. I am unsure what the justice system could do to keep these people from succumbing to such pressures and turning to such terrible means of survival. I also question what societal measures could be taken to negate the frequency of these problems. People who buy drugs from minors or hire minors as sex workers generally do not conform to the ethics of common society. However, I do think that the justice system is in serious need of reform when it comes to the abuse of these people when they enter the prison system. As I mentioned in my paper, if guards had a vested interest in the well-being of prisoners, I think that the relationship would be drastically different and abuse would occur far less often even if for selfish reasons. I also found an article by IB times about sexual abuse perpetrated by correctional officers (http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/us-idaho-lawsuit-reveals-sexual-assault-by-staff-male-teens-juvenile-detention-centers-1494582). While the article is primarily about male victims, it states that over 40% of abuses are the result of officers either threatening victims with physical violence or offering drugs or alcohol in order for sexual acts. I am sure that guards are searched when they enter the facility, but I think that the searching process should be much more intense for guards in order to decrease the amount of sexual exploitation. I am not sure what could be done about the problems of guards threatening victims with physical violence in the instance of non-compliance. I know that the military has systems in place in which soldiers at basic training can anonymously report instructors for abuses of powers. I could see this being a good idea, but I could also see this kind of system being abused by inmates. The article I linked states that 90% of juvenile male victims who are abused are abused by female officers. Perhaps males are more likely to abuse female inmates. If that is the case, there should be a push for more male officers at male detention centers and more female officers at female centers. [the rest of my response will be posted as a response to this]
ReplyDeleteThe article also states that there is twice as much abuse among inmates within juvenile penitentiaries holding females than there are in centers holding males. This issue also seems very difficult to correct as there are likely not enough resources to give each inmate his or her individual cell, which I believe would reduce rates of abuse. As in many of these blogs, I think that if there were more emphasis on rehabilitation, these abuse rates would drastically decrease. Many of these inmate-perpetrators are likely “paying forward” abuse much like the author’s brother did to him. If these instances abuse were addressed more readily, it is likely that these victims would be far less likely to pay forward the abuse. As for the #Metoo movement, I think that these women should definitely be a larger part of the movement. The foundation of the movement has been women speaking out about their abusers. It is likely that former inmates are less likely to speak out against abusers in the justice system, be it officers or inmates, because they feel shame for ending up incarcerated in the first place. While society cannot easily draw out these confessions, I believe that everyone has a very important responsibility to show the fullest amount of sympathy for women in these positions who do speak out. If this sympathy is seen, more confessions will follow. Overall, I think that the abuse of women in the justice system is something that should be talked about far more, as things that are spoken about more are addressed more quickly. -Rudedogg857
DeleteBoth the initial post and first reply were done by Rudedogg789. Sorry for any confusion-Rudedogg789
DeleteTo be honest i am really am not into this and have no idea about any over this happening. I really should be following this but i just havnt heard of any of this but from reading this article i feel like i know a little more but really i dont think i am that caught up on any of this but i will try to get my knowledge on all of this. This article was basically about women and how they get treated by men but we dont hear about it because the men are more powerful than men. Some girls are worse than men and they think that they have no power. These girls were getting traded on the internet because they wanted to sell there verginity but were getting traded from man to man because they were trying to get the best out of them so they could make the most money. Women were getting treat like crap because they didnt want to hurt the men. Women in prison where not treated like I am really not sure what they do in prison with the women becasue we never here about how they treat the women. They only show how men are treated in there. Tthey never show if the women are being treated as fair as the men but then you look at the fact. they always say that they will give them the best opportunity in prison to get out but really they dont do anyhting and make hem work harder than.Women would not get any of there product. People were mad that they would not be able to get what they would get done. Women were treated different than me because they did not care about the women at all in this country so we put them to the side. Gator789
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