It is strange that Orange is the
New Black, a Netflix very popular show about females in prison is so popular.
Well, maybe not so strange since there are more women in prison now than ever. The
majority of women behind bars are there for non-violent crimes. They give C-Sections
to women giving birth in prison with their limbs tied in handcuffs to the bed.
Do they think a woman is going to run away during a surgery? Prisons need to be reformed and changes need
to be made to address problems and try to make people’s lives better so that
there is no cycle for people to be housed in prisons. Last year President Obama
made history by being the first sitting President to ever visit a prison. He at
least showed some concern for the ever growing prison population. There exists
harsh treatment for drug offenders. Since 1980 the number of women incarcerated
in the United States have increased by 700%. The population of American women
behind bars is the largest population in the world. Are American women more bad
asses that other women around the globe?
When the government discusses
prison reform they do not even consider the women prison population. The pathway
to prison for most women there is the follow up to a long line of abuse in
their lives. Then they are trapped into the criminal justice system. Instead of
rehabilitating people our government simply opens up more costly prisons. Women’s
jail issues are theft, prostitution and possession of drugs. Well if you were poor enough
to have to steal stuff and resort to prostitution for money you would also
probably want drugs when you look back on your life too. Is that worth spending
20 years in prison or should they be teaching marketable skills to the women so
that if they get out of prison they will not have to go back to theft,
prostitution and drugs? There are so many women in prisons that meals have to
be given in shifts. Many get woken up at 3:30 in the morning to have a 4 .M.
breakfast. Then what do they do? Stare at a wall. Under a gram of drugs can
give you a felony sentence. The law requires mandatory minimum sentences for
drug crimes yet they fail to take in the specific circumstances involving
women.
Sometimes women get higher
sentences than men for the same crimes. Why? Women are rarely found at the top
of a drug conspiracy. If anything, women are abused by the head male honcho in
drug deals. She will get a very large sentence by association with drug deals. This
is a very irrational criminal justice policy. In 2016 then Governor Mike Pence
reinstated these bad policies. All it did was give longer sentences in state
and federal prisons that are now over populated. Drug adductions is the main
cause for these offenders. Dealing and manufacturing Meth will get you 58 years
behind bars. That is more time behind bars than murderers get. Supplies in
prison are scarce. Women make tampons by rolling pads up tightly. The amount of
neglect in prison breaks down the spirit of a human. There are usually multiple
attempts at suicide. Instead of mandatory psychiatric help,
they are put into lock down that is even more damaging to the mind full of isolation
and loneliness. Nearly 70% of incarcerated women suffer from mental illness.
Since they closed down all the mental hospitals are prisons where they house
the mentally ill now?
Solitary confinement is the
substitute for mental health rehabilitation. The only people watching them are
a few employees that look through the small window in the door on suicide
watches. The family displacement is a problem too. Women who have children are
both traumatized at the knowledge of separation. Visits are disturbing. 60% of
women in State prisons are mothers. Some are pregnant when they go to prison. After
birth the mothers can only spend one day with their baby and then it is given
to other family members or to foster care. That is disturbing too. Indiana is
the only State that allows select n on-violent offenders to raise and care for
their baby for a period of up to 18 months. There are few suicide attempts when
the women want to stay alive to care for their child. Incarcerated women with children
in foster care risk losing their children permanently because of a law called
the Adoption and Safe Families Act. The law stipulates that in the
case of a child who has been in foster care for 15 of the most recent 22 months,
the state shall file a petition to terminate the parental rights of the child’s
parents. Tearing people’s lives apart doesn’t make anyone better in society.
Often the woman prisoner is the
primary caregiver. Being shuffled around in foster care with the entire
collection of the child’s belongings fit in a trash bag is damaging to the
child who feels abandoned and soon they are on suicide watches too. Separation
from human caring life helps no one. Nine year old children shouldn’t want to
commit suicide and have long stays in mental hospitals only to be
released to an institution. The children without their primary caregiver are
now vulnerable to the cycle of life’s destruction. No woman desires to
leave their child with someone they never even met. We need to get rid of mandatory sentencing, we
need to increase resources in prisons, we need to build a layer of support
systems so that when they get out of prison, they will not end up going back to
prison. We have a serious human rights issue here in the United States that
large amounts of our people are suffering from. Start with reforming our prison
system before we worry about other people in other countries. Building more
prisons is not the answer. Keeping people out of prisons leading healthy
prosperous lives is the answer.
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