Imprisoning Feminism: Abuse of Women in the U.S. Prison System
Women’s Prisons are not the reformatory institutions promised to society back in the 1800’s when men would put their wives away for being disobedient, hoping that they’d come back well behaved. No, today prisons are buildings where everyone who society has deemed “bad” or “criminal” are locked away and mistreated. It’s a private and “acceptable” form of punishment. As long as we can’t see what happens behinds these barbed walls then our society remains clean, right?
Wrong.
Women in prison are mistreated and subject to the same kind of rape and abuse that they face in their everyday lives which make women’s prison life a direct reflection of how they are treated in society. Angela Davis, a black woman who has been in prison before, comments that a common theme in women’s literature is the physical abuse that they endure in prison. Before we dive into that though, let’s first get a quick history of women’s prisons and how they have changed into more abusive institutions over time.
The First Women-Only Prison
Until 1873, there were no women-only prisons. Women were either locked up at home or in classroom style dormitories, but still in the same facilities as men. Furthermore, white women might have gotten separate cells or rooms but women of color were lumped in with men regardless. Women were also locked away in asylums because they were considered hysterical or insane for attempting to go against the grain. Gender roles were more enforced back then so it was crucial that women obey the rules of patriarchy. They must cook, clean, and be presentable for their husbands who come home from a long tiring day of work. God forbid a woman attempt to do something for herself. Suddenly she’s disobedient and must be reformed.
Come 1873, the first women only prison was founded in Indianapolis. It came about because Rhoda Coffin and Charles Coffin both exposed the sexual exploitation of women who were kept in men’s prisons and thus, the Governor of Indiana approved the funding and building of the Indiana Reformatory Institution for Women and Girls. Reformatory. That is what prisons were meant to be, places where one can go to be reformed, places where one can change their attitude. Today, prisons are hardly anything more than a place to store the socially unwelcome.
Go in a Criminal, Come out a Housewife
Part of the reformatory practices of these older prisons were programs meant to teach women, specifically white women, how to be housewives. Women were placed in cottages or isolated rooms with kitchens and baby furniture to help hone their domestic capabilities. Classes like these still exist today in some of the more progressive women prisons. While these classes might seem like a good thing, they are only good for ensuring gender norms once these women are released from prison. Not to mention that, back then anyways, only white women were being taught how to be housewives. Women of color were given more maid or custodial positions.
It was still a reformatory process but it most likely had nothing to do with why they were in prison to begin with. Learning how to be the perfect housewife won’t exactly stop someone from being a criminal.
Prison is the New Abusive Institution
In prison, women are subject to sexual and physical abuse and denial of their rights. A lot of the sexual abuse comes from staff such as correctional officers, who oversee these women through their day to day life. Other inmates also perpetrate this violence. Angela Davis comes back to this in her book and talks about the sad fact that these women are forced to face their assailant everyday. If it was a staff member then they have to continuously take orders from them too which only furthers the emotional abuse that women deal with in prison.
Unfortunately, since all of this is happening behind prison walls we don’t actually see the violence. We assume that the prison staff is doing their jobs and we go about our days none the wiser. Media, however, is a good way to expose the abuse these women have to face. One form of media that gives us a (somewhat exaggerated) glimpse into the women’s prison system is Orange is the New Black.
Although highly criticized for it’s unjust portrayal of women of color, the show does highlight some of these issues throughout the series. We see inmates being molested or sexually assaulted by staff as well as the staff’s decisions to hide some of these allegations.
One of the shows characters I do want to highlight however is Sophia Burset who is a transgender woman played by Laverne Cox. Transgender women have arguably had to deal with the most injustice while in the prison system and not many talk about it. In the show, Sophia was denied estrogen, which she has a legal and medical right to, and sent to solitary confinement after she was assaulted. The prison staff claimed it was for her own protection. Her case wasn’t just fictional but an event that happened in real life. A Georgian woman and inmate, Ashley Diamond, had to file a law suit against the Georgia Department of Corrections because while she was imprisoned she was denied hormone therapy.
The reason I bring this is up is because abuse is not limited to cisgendered women. Many transgender women in real life are dealing with this in prisons around the country. Some of these women were not considered women at all and were forced to reside in men’s prisons which subsequently resulted in their rape or physical abuse. Solitary confinement itself is a form of punishment that isolates inmates for long periods of time and that can be extremely harmful to their mental state. In addition to being abused where no one can see you, they can’t even speak out about it.
Enough is Enough
By exposing the injustices that women have to face in prison everyday, I hope that more people can actively participate in trying to change this flawed system. Davis herself believes that prison is just a more privatized form of abuse and it doesn’t help that women still cannot escape abuse in isolation. Prison is just another patriarchal institution that perpetuates and condones violence against women. We don’t need more prisons, we need better legislation. We need actual reform and not arbitrary life sentences for theft because, as Orange is the New Black’s Taystee would say, this is some bullshit.
