Women in prison experience difficult obstacles.
The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. In 2009, 7.1 percent of prisoners were female. While both women's and men's prisons experience their share of problems, female prisoners also face certain challenges not faced by their male counterparts. Statistics show that female inmates suffer grave injustices based on their gender. Shocking reports of mistreatment and discrimination are happening in our own back yards.
Sexual Assault
In the United States, 70 percent of the guards in federal women's prisons are men. It is well documented that female prisoners have been subjected to rape, sexual coercion and groping at the hands of their male correctional authorities. Many of these incidents go unreported, as women fear retaliation from their aggressors. Guards are often granted access to inmates' records and can use personal details about them to retaliate against their accusers. Correctional officers can threaten to deny an inmate visitation rights or other privileges. On the other hand, they have been known to bribe female inmates for sex in exchange for extra food or toiletries.
Lack of Quality Medical Attention
Female prisoners are routinely denied quality gynecological and reproductive services. Those who suffer from treatable diseases or late-term miscarriages are often denied access to medical attention, resulting in permanent injury and even death. In 1994, only half of state prisons offered mammograms, pelvic exams, and other services specific to women. Pregnant women are shackled during labor, which can cause hemorrhaging and severe brain damage in the baby. In almost all states, women are separated from their babies immediately after delivery.
Overmedication for Mental Health Issues
Female inmates seeking mental health counseling are often prescribed a medication to erase her symptoms, rather than addressing her underlying condition. More than half of all female prisoners are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of past physical or sexual abuse. But therapeutic counseling services are not available in most prison systems.
Damage to Parent-Child Bond
Incarcerated women are often sent to prison facilities in the countryside, far from their homes. This makes it difficult for a woman to maintain contact with her children or to fulfill the frequent visitations necessary for a healthy reunification at the end of her term. Few states offer community-based facilities that would allow women to carry out their sentences while remaining with their children.
Abortion
In other parts of the world, a woman can be imprisoned if she is found guilty of seeking an abortion. Women's prisons in Mexico, for instance, where abortion is still largely illegal outside of the capital city, are filled with women whose only crime was seeking to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. These women are subjected to horrible mistreatment at the hands of their male correctional officials. Also, there is no guarantee that they will have access to legal aid or be heard in front of a judge. Many of these women became pregnant as a result of rape, but Mexican legislation has a history of allowing rapists to walk away with impunity, while their pregnant victims are imprisoned for wanting an abortion.
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