Abuse of Women in Prison

Abuse of Women in Prison

Name

Institution

Abuse of Women in Prison

One of the major startling issues in the criminal justice has been the increasing cases of incarceration of women in prisons. Women in prisons have been more vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse compared to men. According to approach 1 that is based on micro or individual (biological) level of explanation, the increasing punitive sentencing policies have led to women being trashed in prisons without positive outcomes on the improved behaviors and, high likelihood of them not being accepted back in the society. The approach 1 has been rather a flawed approach that has seen more than 200, 000 women being put behind the bars and more than one million women on probation or parole (Siegel, 2011). However, many women are still struggling with histories of physical and sexual abuse, mental illness and substance abuse. The criminal justice system should ensure healthy and safety of women and girls and facilitate their successful re-entry into the communities. However, according to data released by Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2007, more than 50 percent of women in jail made claims to have been physically and sexually abused at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York. The data revealed that women were forced to have sex with the prison staffs, made to exchange sexual favors and encountered verbal harassment. Some of the women claimed to have been impregnated by the staff and forced to have abortion, placed in seclusions for days and stripped naked and watched by men on cameras. These complaints went uncovered and were never investigated, making these women to suffer from emotional psychological trauma. Therefore, the micro approach does not look into the issues of women in prisons who require special needs such as the counseling of women who are suffering from the psychological problem and sexual abuses (Siegel, 2.............