Gender-responsive prisons (also known as gender-responsive corrections or gender-responsive programming) are prisons constructed to provide gender-specific care to incarcerated women. Contemporary sex-based prison programs were presented as a solution to the rapidly increasing number of women in the prison industrial complex and the overcrowding of California's prisons. These programs vary in intent and implementation and are based on the idea that female offenders differ from their male counterparts in their personal histories and pathways to crime. Multi-dimensional programs oriented toward female behaviors are considered by many to be effective in curbing recidivism.
Gender bias vs gender responsiveness When considering gender-responsive prisons, it is important to keep in mind that gender responsiveness is distinct from gender bias. Gender bias demonstrates a partiality or favoritism towards a specific gender and results in unfair treatment.Bloom, B., & Covington, S. (n.d.). Effective gender-responsive interventions in juvenile justice: Addressing the lives of delinquent girls. Gender responsiveness, on the other hand, aims at supplying gender-specific care with the hope of ultimately improving treatment under the justice system. It hopes to take into account the differences in life experiences that men and women may undergo, as well as provide strategies and practices that appropriately respond to those experiences.Covington, S., & R. T. Zaplin. (1998). The relational theory of women’s psychological development: Implications for the criminal justice system. Female offenders: Critical perspectives and effective interventions (pp. 113–128). Aspen Publishing.
What is gender-responsiveness for women offenders in the criminal justice system? According to Bloom and Covington, gender-responsiveness includes creating environments that respond to the realities of women's lives and address the issues that are specific to their lived experiences. This often includes the site selection, the selection of staff and other employees at criminal justice locations, the development of various programming and rehabilitation efforts, content, and additional materials. Gender-responsive pathways are supposed to address the multitude of pathways that women interact with the world and the criminal justice system, as well as the ways in which they enter this system. Gender-responsive approaches are aimed at addressing social, cultural, and therapeutic interventions and issues like abuse, violence, family relationships, substance abuse, and comorbid disorders. Gender-responsiveness focuses on self-efficacy, treatment, and skills-building.
There are several elements to consider when determining if a practice or approach can be deemed gender-responsive. These include:Benedict, A. (2008). The Five CORE Practice Areas of Gender-Responsiveness. CORE Associates, LLC. Retrieved from: http://www.cjinvolvedwomen.org/sites/all/documents/Five%20Core%20Practice%20Areas1-08.pdf .
Relationship-based: promote mutual respect and empathy by acknowledging the roles that relationships and connection can play in the personal and relational growth and strength of women Strengths-based: recognize and mobilize the strengths, talents, and assets of women Trauma-informed: acknowledge the history and context that violence against women and trauma play in the way that they respond to programs and services Culturally competent: understand and account for the diverse backgrounds and cultural contexts of women Holistic: acknowledge the larger context of women's lives when considering decision-making and behaviors of women.
History
The 19th century was important because instead of relying on corporal methods of punishment, incarceration was seen as the main tool of punishment. In the United States, authorities began housing women in correctional facilities separate from men in the 1870s. The first American female correctional facility with dedicated buildings and staff was the Mount Pleasant Female Prison in Ossining, New York; the facility had some operational dependence on nearby Sing Sing, a men's prison.
Unlike prisons designed for men in the United States, state prisons for women evolved in three waves. First, women prisoners were imprisoned alongside men in "general population," where they were subject to sexual attacks and daily forms of degradation. In an attempt to address these issues, women prisoners were removed from general population and housed separately, wherein they did not receive the same resources as men in prisons. In the third stage of development, women in prison were then housed completely separately in fortress-like prisons, where the goal of punishment was to indoctrinate women into traditional feminine roles.
The history of the contemporary gender-responsiveness movement can be traced back to a selection of works written by Barbara Bloom and Stephanie Covington in the early 2000s. Their case for, and articulation of gender-responsiveness, forms the theoretical backbone from which many others develop theories and/or criticisms of gender-responsive prisons. Many of the suggestions and implementation strategies forwarded in these texts were integral in constructing what we think of today as gender-responsive prisons.
The National Institute of Corrections Gender-Responsive Project In the 1990s, across the criminal justice system, more attention was paid to female offenders as their numbers increased and research suggested that there were important gender differences between offenders at various decision points in the system. Since then, the following conclusions about female offenders were made:
They engage in qualitatively different offenses than male offenders. They also engage in offenses for different reasons than male offenders They pose less of a threat of violence across criminal justice systems than male offenders They follow different pathways into criminal behavior than male offenders
Given these differences, the Prisons Division of the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) began to work alongside the University of Cincinnati to research improved strategies for identifying female offenders. The rationale behind this stemmed from the fact that female offenders were often economically marginalized, less violent than men, and more likely to experience childhood and adult victimization, substance abuse, and diagnoses of mental illness. The research aimed to investigate whether these differences required different correctional strategies.
The NIC Gender-Responsive Project (NIC GRP) started with a pilot project in Colorado in 1999. It eventually expanded into three larger projects that took place in Maui, Missouri, and Minnesota. At the project sites, female offenders’ gender-specific risk and need factors (including victimization, mental health issues, marginalization, relationship difficulties, and substance abuse) were examined to determine whether they increased the risk for institutional misconduct or community recidivism. They were also used to determine if these factors affected the classification of women in prisons.
Overall, these studies supported the use of gender-responsive frisk factors in correctional classification systems.
In general, the results indicated that female offenders with gender-responsive risk factors adapted poorly to the prison environment. They were also more likely to incur serious misconduct violations within a year of incarceration in comparison to female offenders who did not display these characteristics. Some of these gender-responsive risk factors included women who were victimized, had substance abuse or mental health problems, and victims of domestic violence. Other gender-responsive risk factors for women in the criminal justice system will be available below.
Effect on youth Gender-responsive prisons also deal with children in detention centers. According to research conducted between 1991 and 2003, the percent of girls being put in detention centers has increased by 98%. Advocates for gender-response detention centers use statistics as a form of backing. Research has also presented 35% of girls in detention centers have experience with sexual abuse and 40% have been involved in cases involving domestic abuse. A study conducted in 2015 analyzed the different effects that gender-responsive programming has on boys and girls. In the findings, it was shown that gender-responsive programming works for young girls with a history of emotional trauma or mental issues. Their needs are met more closely as a sense of trust within the prison community is built. Within gender-responsive programs, abused girls are given the chance to talk about challenges and safety issues, while they are promoting self-cultivation and accepting personal responsibility. However, for young girls that do not have these issues, rather they are more influenced by general factors, research shows that behavioral reinforcement programming or traditional based programming are better methods in preventing recidivism. Gender-responsive programming does not appear to reduce the overall rate of boys re-entering the juvenile facilities upon release because gender-responsive programming fails to consider the unique, gendered issues of young boys.
Risk factors and needs for women in the criminal justice system There are a variety of gender-informed assessment tools that aim at providing information about the risk level and needs of women in the criminal justice system. These include both gender-responsive factors that are specifically linked to adverse outcomes for women and gender neutral factors that are common to women and men. They attempt to recognize and mobilize women's strengths, in an effort to decrease the risk of negative outcomes (e.g. misconduct, recidivism, etc.). Gender-responsive tools were created to highlight the most pertinent needs and risk factors faced by women regarding the criminal justice system. By recognizing and addressing these needs, it is possible to better inform factors like case management, service delivery, release decisions, and condition setting (same NPCR.
Some examples of gender-responsive assessment tools include the University of Cincinnati's Women's Risk/Need Assessment and Orbis Partners’ SPIn-W.
Previous research has identified a variety of gender-responsive risk factors, as well as the gender-specific needs of women in the criminal justice system. These include histories of victimization or abuse, substance use, mental health problems, and traumatic relationships. A higher percentage of female offenders report receiving some form of public assistance prior to arrest, report being homeless, or report having lived in shelters at some point in adulthood.
Marital status and children Relatively few women reported being married when they were first entered into the criminal justice system, though large percentages reported having at least one child under the age of 18. Moreover, female offenders tend to score higher than men on the family and marital status domain of the Level of Service Inventory. The Level of Service Inventory is a quantitative survey of offender attributes. These results suggest that this area is a particularly important risk area for female offenders.
More female offenders are also primary caregivers of their young children immediately before and immediately after their release. Also, though these roles are important, they are often overlooked, leaving many women with little support for financial or emotional care provisions. Marital status, alongside poverty, child care, and low support may reinforce female economic marginality and financial dependence on others.
Victimization