The Cruel and Unusual Punishment of US Women’s Prisons
Women in US prisons face an incomparable threat of abuse and sexual assault. Mass incarceration and extreme power imbalances within the prison system has created a breeding ground for sexual abuse. This is particularly true for women of color and transgender women in prisons. These assaults often go unreported or ignored, and officials sweep investigation reports under the rug. This has led to an unimaginably high rate of sexual assault in women’s prisons, and because of the low rates of reporting, we may never know the full extent of the problem.
To understand the modern-day threat of sexual assault, we first must look into the history of female incarceration in the United States. In her article “Public Imprisonment and Private Violence: Reflections on the Hidden Punishment of Women”, Angela Davis discusses the history of domination and discrimination within women’s imprisonment in the United States. She argues that “The absolute power and control the state exercises over their lives both stems from and perpetuates the patriarchal and racist structures that, for centuries, have resulted in the social domination of women.” The history of women’s prisons stems from the desire to remove “undesirable” or “morally corrupt” women from society, following the lead of the eugenics movement. Women were often imprisoned for offenses such as adultery, which was seen as a severe moral failing for women, and their time in prison was spent being indoctrinated with sexist ideas of women’s place in society. According to Davis, early women’s reformatories aimed to teach women to cook, sew, and clean. Their living spaces often had living rooms, kitchens, and, for women with babies, nurseries to further instill their role of domesticity. Over time, however, women’s prisons began to resemble men’s prisons and their goal of incapacitation rather than so-called rehabilitation.
During the second half of the 20th century, the female prison population skyrocketed. Between World War II and the late 90s, the female incarceration rate in the United States increased from 8 per 100,000 to 50 per 100,000, higher than any other country. A large majority of women incarcerated in the United States are women of color, particularly Black and Latinx women. In 2019, the imprisonment rate of Black women was 1.7 times higher than that of white women, and the rate for Latinx women was 1.3 times higher. These racial trends closely mirror those of men’s incarceration rates.
The rise in the female prison population has brought with it a rise in prisoner abuse. As of 2014, 15% of incarcerated women reported that they were sexually assaulted by either prison staff or other inmates. Incarcerated women are 30 times more likely to be raped than non-incarcerated women. A majority of these women are Black or Latinx. Additionally, 24.1% of transgender women in prisons report being sexually assaulted by another inmate, and 16.7% by prison staff. The rate of sexual abuse in US prisons tripled between 2011 and 2015.
The power imbalances within the industrial prison complex has played a huge role in these statistics. 41% of the guards in women’s prisons are male. Putting men in a role where they can strip search women, watch them change, and watch them shower brings about a serious power imbalance and makes prisons an incredibly dangerous place for women. Male guards often threaten and intimidate women into sex, or withhold certain necessities such as feminine products and food until they have sex with them. These assaults are rarely reported, and when they are, they’re usually swept under the rug and ignored by prison staff and investigators.
In April 2020, the Department of Justice investigated the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in New Jersey and concluded that the sexual assault risk was so high that it violated the prisoners’ 8th Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment. This is not a unique conclusion. Investigations into women’s prisons all over the United States have brought about extremely disturbing stories of assault, coercion, and abuse of inmates by male guards. In 2019, at least 12 officers at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in Vermont were accused of sexual misconduct .
This is not only limited to guards, however. Therapists, doctors, and other staff members in prisons have been accused of abuse and sexual assault. In 2019, a nurse at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility was accused of abusing, raping or assaulting more than 15 women while he worked there. Because of the low rate of reporting in prisons, it is most likely that this happened to far more than 15 women.
Female prisoners are often threatened and punished when they attempt to report sexual abuse. A woman in New Jersey was thrown into solitary confinement after reporting a guard for molesting her. Because of punishments like this, sexual assaults in prisons, both men’s and women’s, go mostly unreported. This knowledge makes the known statistics around prison sexual assault even more terrifying. If 15% of incarcerated women report being sexually assaulted while imprisoned, how many go unreported? And how many women attempted to report their assault and were ignored or punished?
Very little has been done to prevent sexual assaults in US prisons. The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission wasn’t formed until 2009, over 150 years after the first women’s prisons were established. Any progress that has been attempted has gone extremely slowly, as no one wants to acknowledge the extent of the problem. Additionally, most of the focus around prison sexual abuse in the United States has been on white men rather than women. Incarcerated women are discredited and ignored when they attempt to report abuse and any group dedicated to protecting these women are extremely slow to respond.
None of this will change until more awareness is brought to the state of US women’s prisons. Many people in the American public look at prisoners as less than human, and couldn’t care less what happens to them. However, if feminists put their efforts into bringing awareness to the cruel and unusual punishments going on in our prisons, more pressure could be put on legislators to do something to change what’s going on. More surveillance of prison staff and a reliable reporting system need to be put in place to protect these women, many of which have done nothing wrong to be put in prisons.
