Chapter 7 focuses on inmate demographics. This discussion will focus on the parenting programs prisons have for female inmates. Many prisons and jails, that hold females, offer classes and programs on how to be a good parent and take care of children. However, these type classes are almost never offered in male prisons. In no less than 300 words, draft a post on if you think that male prisons should have parenting classes. Should they be mandatory? Would they be a waste of time?
Reply:
1. Incarcerated women with children face many issues after getting arrested. Some result from their lives before imprisonment, others from their imprisonment itself. Women in prison have experienced victimization, unstable family life, school and work failure, substance abuse, and mental health problems. The reasoning for why many prisons and jails, which hold females, offer classes and programs on being a good parent and taking care of children. I believe male prisons should have a mandatory parenting class for dads. National surveys of women prisoners find that three-fourths of them were mothers, with two-thirds having children under eighteen. Children may be traumatized by their mother’s arrest, and the sudden, forced separation imprisonment brings. Emotional reactions such as anger, anxiety, depression, and aggression have been found in the children of incarcerated mothers (Muraskin,2012). However, the effects of fatherless homes are just as serious to children’s development as an incarcerated mother.
Parenting is not a gender-exclusive idea and treating male inmates who are parents as such does not help them or the children. Children whose fathers are incarcerated are more likely to struggle and become offenders themselves. Many male inmates who have children find it challenging to be decent fathers to them once they have completed their term because they lack the necessary parenting tools and do not know how to fulfill parental responsibilities. Over the last few decades, father involvement has expanded. The position of dads in their families has shifted from fathers’ views as distant breadwinners to a more holistic acknowledgment of fathers as equal co-parents. Most fathers are in jail because they were trying to provide for their families, but I believe they receive the parenting classes and see that proving is not the only thing a child needs. Fewer fathers would get reincarcerated. So, I would not believe the parenting classes would be a waste for father inmates and should be mandatory.
2. Male individuals commit the bulk of crimes while simultaneously remaining the largest group that is under correctional supervision. Data collected in the year of 2015 displays that a total of 73 percent of individuals who were arrested were male while 92.5 percent of the prison population were male. Seemingly, only 7.5 percent of the prison population at the time were women and when individuals think of prison they often think of a large/dangerous male rather than a female. Thus, male offenders are consistently associated with violence, roughness, and cruelty. Therefore, male offenders are regarded as mainly involved in violent crimes. Evidently, male offenders make up the majority of murder, non-negligent manslaughter arrests, and robbery arrests. Additionally, male offenders make up 88.1 percent of all murder/non-negligent manslaughter arrests along with 85.3 percent of all robbery arrests. I believe male prisons should definitely have parenting classes and rehabilitative services for males that are often violent in hopes of tackling their violent tendencies. Due to the large presence of male offenders in prison, many children/adolescents are left without a father figure in their life. Therefore, parenting classes need to be administered to male offenders in order to teach them parenting skills that they never had time to develop due to their incarceration. Thus, it is vital that male offenders receive the same parenting classes that women receive in order for these two groups to be even and efficient in their parenting skills. A child is not only the mother’s responsibility but the father is also responsible for the child. Parenting classes for male offenders should be mandatory as they do not cause any harm but rather these classes have an objective of assisting these male offenders in having a relationship with their current/future children. Therefore, there should be no reason that these classes shouldn’t be administered. How can we expect these individuals to learn skills that they were never taught or skills that were never displayed in their childhood through their mother and father? Thus, these classes are not a waste of time but rather beneficial in every aspect and can equip male offenders with the proper skills to garner a relationship with their current or future children.
Corrections: An Introduction
Sixth Edition
Chapter 7
The Clients of Adult Correctional
Agencies
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Overview of Adult Offenders
• Dramatic growth of adults under correctional supervision
over past three decades
– 1980—over 1.8 million
– 2015—over 6.7 million
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Table 7.1 Number of Persons under Correctional
Supervision, Selected Years 1980–2015
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Gender, Race, Ethnicity (1 of 2)
• Majority of offenders are male and of minority race
• Females under correctional supervision has grown faster
than for males
– Four jurisdictions (TX, federal system, FL, CA) hold
more than 1/3 of all female prisoners
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Gender, Race, Ethnicity (2 of 2)
• Racial disparity
– Minorities make up a greater percentage of those
under incarceration compared to general population
– Believed to be causes of disparity:
▪ Policies and practices
▪ Implicit bias
▪ Structural disadvantage
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Age of Offenders
• Three phenomena contribute to the aging of America’s
prison:
1. Overall US population is aging
2. Inmates are serving longer sentences
3. Mandatory sentencing and sentencing guidelines
take away judicial discretion to give older offenders
probation
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Figure 7.2 The Leveling Out of Prison
Population by Age
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Types of Offenses and Lengths of
Confinement
• Growth in relative number of offenders who have
committed violent crimes
• Recent reduction in number of people imprisoned for a
drug offense
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Table 7.3 Number of Sentenced Prisoners in Custody of
State Correctional Authorities by Most Serious Offense,
Selected Years 1980–2015
Year
Violent
Property
Drug
Public Order
1980
173,300
89,300
19,000
12,400
1985
246,200
140,100
38,900
23,000
1990
313,600
173,700
148,600
45,500
1995
459,600
226,600
212,800
86,500
2000
589,100
238,500
251,100
124,600
2005
687,700
248,900
253,300
98,700
2010
715,900
263,400
255,700
116,100
2013
707,500
247,100
210,200
140,200
2014
696,380
250,118
206,676
152,703
2015
707,497
233,669
197,320
150,586
Source: Data from Correctional Populations in the United States, 1997 (Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Department of Justice, 1998); Prisoners in 2002; Prisoners in 2004; Prisoners in 2007; Prisoners in
2010; Prisoners in 2013; and Prisoners in 2016 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, 2003,
2005, 2008, 2011, 2014, and 2018), p. 10, p. 21, and p. 18.
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Male Offenders
• Males made up 92.5% of the state and federal prison
population in 2015
• Males made up 79.8% of arrests for violent crime in 2015
• Majority of adult prisons hold normal, male inmates in
general population
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Table 7.4 Total Arrests of Males in
2015 for All Index Crimes
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Table 7.5 Estimated
Percent of Sentenced
Prisoners under State
Jurisdiction, by
Offense and Gender,
Year-End 2015
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Female Offenders
• Females made up 7.3% of the state and federal prison
population in 2015
• Women on probation are more likely to be white, and
women in prison/jail are more likely to be minorities
• Women are more likely to be convicted with drug/property
offenses
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Table 7.6 Characteristics of Adult Women
under Correctional Supervision
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Special Issues and Needs of Female
Inmates
• 60% of female inmates have been physically and/or
sexually abused
• 60% of incarcerated women are mothers
– Hardship on families due to separation
– Prisons often have parenting programs to help female
inmates with life and parenting skills
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Separation from Family and Children
• Parenting programs
– Prison programs to assist inmates improve their
parenting skills
• Girl Scouts Beyond Bars
– Girl Scout troops that have their chapter based in a
prison so inmates with children can participate as
Scout parents
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Alcohol and Substance Abuse
• Majority of female offenders are alcohol/drug users
– Majority were under the influence at the time of arrest
• Need for treatment is not satisfactorily met
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Need for Medical Care
• Female inmates have more serious health problems than
male inmates
• Factors hampering provision of health services:
– Not a priority
– Limited financial resources
– Difficulty recruiting staff
– No health-care policy
– Isolation of institution
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Classification Systems for Female
Offenders
• Women are often overclassified
– Placement of offenders in prisons more secure than
needed for their level of risk
– Difficult issues upon release regarding employment
and housing
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Legal Issues Regarding Female
Inmates
• Barefield v. Leach (1974)
– Disparity of programs for female inmates could not be
justified because the smaller number of female inmates
made it more costly to provide program parity
• Pargo v. Elliott (1995)
– Differences in male and female programs does not
necessarily violate equal protection clause
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Copyright
This work is protected by United States copyright laws and is
provided solely for the use of instructors in teaching their
courses and assessing student learning. Dissemination or sale of
any part of this work (including on the World Wide Web) will
destroy the integrity of the work and is not permitted. The work
and materials from it should never be made available to students
except by instructors using the accompanying text in their
classes. All recipients of this work are expected to abide by these
restrictions and to honor the intended pedagogical purposes and
the needs of other instructors who rely on these materials.
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Purchase answer to see full
attachment
