BS: US women prisoners rise 750% since 70s

Subject: BS: US women prisoners rise 750% since 70s
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 14 Jan 10 - 03:57 AM

In the thread on The Quakers, someone mentioned the wonderful Elizabeth Fry, who of course was a famous British prison reformer who was also a Quaker. She did a huge amount of work for imprisoned women...and their children..and it got me thinking about a TV programme I watched the other day, in the early hours of the morning, which I found quite shocking.

It was about the state of women in US prisons, and it stated that women prisoners had risen by nearly 800% since the 70s/80s.

EIGHT HUNDRED PER CENT!

What shocked me even more though was that it dealt very much with women who were either pregnant or had not long given birth..and apparently their babies are taken away from them almost as soon as they are born. This filled me with absolute horror and disbelief.

They had a choice of either giving them over to their families, or if that wasn't possible, as often it wasn't, then the Authorities tried their hardest to take them. However, many women chose to let the Mennonites look after their babies, as Mennonite families volunteer to do this over and again, promising to look after the babies and doing it for no financial gain whatsoever, purely out of kindness, until their mothers are able to be reunited with them.

I thought the US was civilised, although their health care system leaves me reeling with disbelief, but to seperate new born babies and mothers seems utterly unreal in this day and age.

Even in Newgate Gaol, where Elizabeth visited, mothers and children were allowed to be together, albeit the conditions were terrible, but today's prisons are hardly like Newgate, although I'm sure there are some places where the inmates have to endure the same kind of terror about their lives, particularly the men...But overall, I'd imagine that most prisons in the UK and the US have humane conditions.

They said the huge increase in women being locked up was due, mostly, to the 'War on Drugs'....but that seems a damn stupid thing to do, because people who have turned to drugs to get through their lives do NOT need to be in prison, but need to be looked after, supported and helped with everything that is available in this modern world.

Anyway....it's where a programme took me, to a sad and disbelieving place..

Do prison's work?

I don't think so.

Yes, it keeps dangerous people out of society, but there are one helluva lot of people in them who shouldn't be...and as our prisons are now overflowing it must surely be time to ask why so many people are in there in the first place. Why ARE the prisons overflowing?

The answer isn't to build more and more. The answer is to build a far more caring and loving society, in my opinion...

And getting back to the TV programme, it seems to me, inhumane to take a baby away from its' mother and if I were that mother I'd have such a hatred of a society that could do that to myself and my child.

An Article on Women in Prisons

Subject: RE: BS: US women prisoners rise 750% since 70s
From: artbrooks
Date: 14 Jan 10 - 09:04 AM

There is, IMO, no question that the US imprisons people for inappropriate things - things that are (again IMO) more appropriately dealt with through medical treatment - for example, personal drug use. This has been accelerating over the past years. It may well be that the approximately double increase in the percentage of female inmates (if one gives credence to the ACLU's figures) over male since the 70s reflects the impact of the Equal Rights movement as much as anything else.

As for the issue of whether or not women should be allowed to have their children, newborn or not, in jail with them? Assuming for the sake of discussion that the mothers should be in there in the first place, and disregarding the related topic of already inadequate space and funding to maintain minimum standards, a prison cell is no place to raise a child.

Subject: RE: BS: US women prisoners rise 750% since 70s
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Jan 10 - 09:13 AM

According to the warden of the Women's Prison here, the greatest reward they can give a prisoner is a couple of hours with their children, in a nice room set up for just that purpose. This can happen as often as once a week.