Post #15

As we’ve read, the United States prison system has come a long way since its beginning, and women are playing larger and larger roles in the system as time progresses both as prison guards, or correctional officers, and as prisoners.

Over the last 25 years, women have been incarcerated at a much higher rate than men. Women were imprisoned for misdemeanors like promiscuity, “waywardness,” or disorderly conduct. Incarcerated women were forced to perform work that was stereotypically female, like sewing, gardening and cooking. This is the opposite of incarcerated men who were forced into manual labor, chain gangs and subjected to harsh beatings if they stepped out of the enforced conformity. Incarcerated women were viewed as being abnormal, masculinized, not true women because they had been violent and committed crime, not a female trait. Women were taught to be domestic workers and trained as servants. Female prison reformers came in to mostly combat the rape of female prisoners. These reformers wanted women to be separated from men and wanted them to be overseen by women. The argument, according to Professor Romero’s slideshow was that “because men are less often than women the victims of sexual assault, men guarding women is more disconcerting than women guarding men.”

Now, women have entered into the prison system as correctional officers. Originally, women were excluded from this job, and even men took it as more of a last resort. It was thought that men could actually perform the job and that it was too dangerous for women. Because of the United States’ taking on the Auburn Prison Model, which encouraged brutality and physical discipline, women were pushed away from being guards. It was only because of these abuses that women were initially let into prisons to serve as “matrons” who would supervise and act as mentors and surrogate mothers to prisoners. Women were also not allowed to guard male prisoners until late in the game. Now, both men and women guard both sexes.

If we take a look at Arizona’s correctional history, we see that it followed the rest of the nation in focusing more on male prisoners initially. Now, Arizona tries to get more women working in prisons and jails. More women are also being imprisoned as well. However, men are still disproportionately imprisoned over women in Arizona. Arizona utilized chain gangs, and still does, with the help of people like Sheriff Joe Arpaio. In Arizona, because of prison overcrowding, prisoners are forced to build their own prisons.