Women's Prisons

            As early as the 1960s, legislators have contributed ideas for prison reform to take place. In Andreas Glaesar’s review (1999) of Paul Rock’s Reconstructing a Women’s Prison: The Holloway Redevelopment Project (1968-88), he highlights Holloway’s governor’s successful attempt at reforming England’s most notorious women’s prison into one of minimum security and reliance on the full cooperation of inmates. This change took place in 1988 during a failed strike for heightened security in the prison. It has been observed that the more freedom given to the prisoners has gained the personnel a substantial amount of cooperation from the prisoners. It is also noted that this is a more humane method of operating the prison. However, I question that this turns out reformed individuals.

Kruttschnitt, et al. quote women prisoners at California Institute for Women (a prison run similar to how Holloway England’s prison was run starting in 1988) in their article, Doing Her Own Time? Women’s Responses to Prison in the Context of the Old and the New Penology (1998) showing what I consider an alarming response to their sentence. One woman, who had first served at Valley State Prison, had returned to prison and served time at CIW noted that, “They should have sent me [to VSP] first. I would have never probably been back. You know, after being at CIW, it’s so free, you know. It’s like, well, I’m going to camp.” If we are sending criminals to facilities such as these and turning them out with attitudes such as these, it gives the impression that a treatment like facility is doing more harm than good for the safety of society. In addition, I have made the observation that the inmates in these minimum security hospital-like prisons do not view their time as “hard” time, which defeats the purpose of punishment. Although I do not agree with a treatment facility for all prisoners, I feel that these types of prisons would work for inmates who are serving time for drug offenses or petty theft, for example. Perhaps this type of reform should only occur in part of the system, otherwise I feel that the safety of our communities is being compromised.