RESOUR> ARTICLES : SOURCES: Mothers in Prison: The Gigantic Increase in the Incarceration of Women
- From: Gleason Sackmann <gleason@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: NetHappenings <nethappenings@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2003 11:40:00 -0600
**************************************************************
Net Happenings - From Educational CyberPlayGround
**************************************************************
From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thu, 3 Apr 2003 12:04:22 -0500 (EST)
The growth of the number of women serving time in prison has escalated and
issues involved are the number of minority women in prison, the number of
prison sentences given to women for drug use and the impact of pregnant
women entering prison and then receiving their children after leaving
prison and after their child is no longer a newborn.
---------------------
When the Bough Breaks: Mothers in Prison
<http://www.itvs.org/whentheboughbreaks/mothers.html>
Incarcerated Mothers
The female prison population has exploded in the past two decades, mainly
due to mandatory-sentencing laws for drug offenses. Three times the number
of women have been put behind bars in the last ten years, over 75 percent
of whom have children[1]. Nationally, most of these inmates are young,
unmarried women of color with few job skills and significant substance
abuse problems, often incarcerated on drug convictions[2]. Yet when a
mother is arrested, there is no specific public policy nor routine process
to coordinate what happens to the children, even immediately after
childbirth. Many women in prison claim that separation from their children
is the most difficult part of their punishment.
Six percent of women are pregnant when they enter prison,[3] yet most
states make no special arrangements for the care of newborns. Pregnant
inmates are often required to be shackled while giving birth, and after
delivery, mothers and babies are sometimes separated within hours. The
infant is then sent to live with a family member or is placed in the
foster care system.
What About the Children?
Extended families usually assume childcare responsibilities, though many
states do not recognize family relations as legitimate foster care, and
deny them financial support and social services[4]. Ten percent of
children with mothers in prison are sent to foster homes, while the
majority of children live with grandparents[5]. The Adoption and Safe
Families Act of 1997 will doubtless send even more children into foster
care in the future, as it allows courts to terminate parental rights if a
child is in foster care for 15 months out of any 22-month period.
Three characteristics that distinguish children of incarcerated parents
from their peers are:
1. inadequate quality of care, mainly due to poverty;
2. lack of family support; and
3. enduring childhood trauma.[6]
Studies show that kids with incarcerated mothers are more likely to wet
their beds, do poorly in school and refuse to eat[7]. Children with
mothers in prison often experience financial hardship, the shame and
social stigma that prison carries, loss of emotional support and fear for
their mother's safety[8]. The effect on society is equally chilling:
children with imprisoned parents are at increased risk for poor academic
treatment, truancy, dropping out of school, gang involvement, early
pregnancy, drug abuse and delinquency [9]. These at-risk youngsters are
most often overlooked by mainstream children's advocates.
----------------------
Criminalizing Youth & Women
>From AlterNet.org
<http://www.alternet.org/issues/index.html?IssueAreaID=42>
Young Latino and African American men and women of color, arrested for
nonviolent drug offenses represent the fastest rising segment of the
prison population. They have increasingly become the victims of the brutal
drug war waged in the streets of America for the past two decades. The
casualties: poor urban youth and women of color. The consequences:
families destroyed, young lives lost and communities on lock down.
African American women represent the largest growing segment of the prison
population (seven out of ten have a child under the age of 18). Today
200,000 children have incarcerated mothers, and more than 1.6 million have
a father in prison. African American children are nearly nine times more
likely to have a parent incarcerated than white children, and Latino
children are three times more likely to have a parent incarcerated than
white children.
The above paragraphs are continued at this URL:
<http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=14085#three>
Additional content found at this URL:
<http://www.alternet.org/issues/index.html?IssueAreaID=42>
Includes:
Orphaned By the Drug War
Bobbi Murray, AlterNet
Kemba Smith and the Failing Drug War
Phil Donahue, Donahue
Smoke a Joint and Your Future is McDonalds
Janelle Brown, Salon
Drug Housing Law Hurts Battered Women
Tom Schram, Women's ENews
New Policy with a Familiar Consequence: African Americans and the Higher
Education Act
Sharda Sekaran, Drug Policy Alliance
The War on Youth
Ryan Pintado-Vertner, Jeff Chang, ColorLines
A New Round of White Denial: Drugs and Race in the 'Burbs
Tim Wise, AlterNet
Education Not Incarceration
Sean Gonsalves, AlterNet
Caught in the Drug War
Silja J.A. Talvi, AlterNet
"Zero Tolerance" Policies Target Minority Students
Michelle Holcenberg, AlterNet
Nationwide Rally Promoting Alternatives for Women in Prison
Lea Aschkenas, AlterNet
Minority Youth Disproportionately Transferred to Adult Prisons
Scott Harris, Between the Lines
----------------------
Reconnecting Incarcerated African American Mothers with Their Families and
Communities
<http://www.grad.umn.edu/oeo/pdf/ALCReport.pdf>
----------------------
The Crisis of the Young African American Male and the Criminal Justice System
<http://www.sentencingproject.org/pubs/civilrights.pdf>
----------------------
Young African Americans and the Criminal Justice System in California:
Five Years Later
Schiraldi, Vincent, et al. Young African Americans and the Criminal
Justice System in California: Five Years Later. Report from the Center on
Juvenile and Criminal Justice; Feb 1996.
<http://www.drugpolicy.org/library/schiraldi2.cfm>
----------------------
Bibliography of Women in Prison
<http://www.twu.edu/as/wcrim/pdf/prison.pdf>
----------------------
Incarcerated Women in the United States: Facts and Figures
<http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/prisonstudy/
subpages/facts/facts.html>
The female prisoner population has more than doubled since 1990 from
44,065 to 94,336 in 2001 (BJS, 2002).
Females accounted for 6.7% of all prisoners nationwide at mid-year 2001,
up from 4.1% in 1980 and 5.7% in 1990 (BJS, 2002).
Mens incarceration rate is still 15 times higher than for women. Men are
much more likely to be serving sentences for longer than a year. Out of
100,000 citizens, 900 males and 59 females are serving sentences longer
than 1 year. (BJS, 2002).
In 2000, 22% of arrests were of women. (BJS, 2000).
Women account for approximately 14% of violent offenders -- an annual
average of 2.1 million violent female offenders (BJS, 2000).
As is the case with men, African-American and other minority women are
disproportionately represented among the prison population (BJS, 2002).
An estimated 28% of violent female offenders are juveniles (BJS, 2000).
----------------------
Women Coping in Prison: A Joint Project of the University of Virginia
and the Fluvanna Corrrectional Center for Women
<http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/prisonstudy/>
Incarcerated Women in the US: Facts and Figures
Reference List for Books, Journals and Reports
Current Research Projects Underway
Connections to Other Related Sites
Reference List for Books, Journals and Reports
<http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/prisonstudy/
subpages/references/references.html>
Hotlinks: Visit Other Related Sites
<http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/prisonstudy/
subpages/links/links.html>
----------------------
Gangstyle: Educate Elevate Empower
<http://www.gangstyle.com/pages/gs_links.htm>
----------------------
Chapter 1: Female Juvenile Delingquents
Why Are Girls' Needs Different?
<http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/pubs/principles/ch1_4.html>
----------------------
Poverty & Race
Poverty & Race Research Action Council
Criminal Justice Resources May/June 2000
<http://www.prrac.org/topics/resources/crimjustresources.htm>
----------------------
FACTSHEET #5:
Amnesty International USA
Sexual Abuse & Women in Prison: Powerlessness and Humiliation
<http://www.amnestyusa.org/rightsforall/women/
factsheets/assault.html>
----------------------
Welcome to Hell: The Patterns of the Web of Destruction: Cia and Drugs
by Charla Greene and Marcia Bunney
<http://www.sonomacountyfreepress.com/welcome/cia.html>
----------------------
Here in addition are some published sources that you may be able to find
in a library near you about this subject.
Celling black bodies: Black women in the global prison industrial complex
Author: Sudbury, Julia
Source: Feminist Review no. 70 2002 p. 57-74
Living on the outside: African American women before, during, and after
imprisonment
Author: Henriques, Zelma Weston; Manatu-Rupert, Norma Source: Prison
Journal v. 81 no. 1 March 2001 p. 6-19
Women in prison
Author: Davis, Angela Y
Source: Essence 31 no. 5 Sepember 2000 sec. 150 p. 216
The story nobody talks about: The shocking plight of Black women
prisoners
Author: Davis, Kimberly
Source: Ebony v. 55 no. 8 June 2000 p. 162-166
The Imprisonment of African-American Women: Causes, Conditions, and Future
Implications
Author: Miller, Vivien
Source: Journal of American Studies
v. 33 (Pt. 1) April 1999 p. 142-143
Inner lives: voices of African American women in prison
Author: Johnson, Paula C.
Publication: New York : New York University Press, 2003
-------------------------
The fulltext or links to the fulltext of articles Linked and Excerpted
Above May Be Found at the URLs that are provided with the article titles.
Sincerely,
David Dillard Research Librarian
david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ECP RingLeader
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ringleaders/davidd.html
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
**************************************************************
The Net Happenings mailing list is a service of
Educational CyberPlayGround - http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/
**************************************************************
If you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, or
would like to sponsor the Net Happenings service -
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/Subguidelines.html>
Subscribe | Unsubscribe | Change Email Preferences -
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/NetHappenings.html>
**************************************************************
Other related posts:
- » RESOUR> ARTICLES : SOURCES: Mothers in Prison: The Gigantic Increase in the Incarceration of Women
