Analyzing the Women Prisoners Essay

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Incarcerated Women

The number of people incarcerated in the United States has been on the rise and women have greatly contributed to this trend. Through their increased numbers in jail it is estimated that their numbers grow annually by about 8%. Women from minority groups form the major part of this population. These are the women who come from low economic backgrounds and areas neglected politically. The women of color are the majority of those incarcerated. They come from neighborhoods that are typically poor, have little access to mental health facilities and receive little or minimal help from social services. These women make up the larger proportion of inmates at jails, prisons, and detention centers. Irwin (2009) and Jenness (2010) states that these women are in jail for committing non-violent offences related to poverty, drug abuse and being abused domestically.

Thesis Statement

This paper will focus on the ethnography of incarcerated women. Research will be carried out on penal confinement. The current developments are outlined and grouped by the themes of gossip, race and ethnicity, gender and the number of times of incarceration. The main direction of the paper will be focusing on how the prison society relates and communicates internally and externally. The discussion will be from the point-of-view of the woman who has been incarcerated.

Literature Review

There has been a lot of research in the ethnography of prisons. A research was conducted on this issue in Washington's high security prisons by Rhodes (2009). Crewe (2009) carried out a study on medium security prisons in the United Kingdom. The researchers examined how the prisons governed the prisoners, how power was exercised, and which forms it took, and the general atmosphere of the prisons. In addition to this research, other scholars have focused on removing misunderstandings of the prison environment and highlighting areas previously overlooked. The female prisoner and her subcultures were researched in Californian women's prison by Owen (1998). The issue of transgender inmates and their treatment in prisons especially in terms of grouping was highlighted by Jenness (2010). Some of the recent studies on ethnography were done at San Quentin and these have received a lot of notice. Irwin (2009) reported on the redemption and empathy that developed among the male inmates over many years of incarceration. The female partners of the inmates greatly felt the impact of the limitations of these institutions and this led to a lot of emotional distress and hurt. However there were cases where these same regulations led to better relationships.

Prison requires a group life which can create new behavior patterns. Ferns and Stein (2011) state that an individual's interaction with a group tends to be complex. It may lead one to vices or virtues not previously held and which one would not normally do when out of the group context. Thus for those with previously held negative perceptions of prison life, positive interactions may come as a surprise and something that they adjust to with time (Rowe, 2011). In the same way, where one did not have a perception of ethnic differences, these may emerge as they adjust to a prison society where these are prevalent and the only mode of existence (Comfort, 2008; Crewe, 2009).

Ferns and Stein (2011) also raise the issue of in-groups and out-groups. According to them, an in-group is a group where a person finds belonging and can identify with. This would be the ethnic group in prison. An out-group is that which a person experiences resentment, animosity and opposition. These in-groups and out-groups are prevalent in prisons to the extent that even sexual encounters and abuses are confined within these groups. The breach of such is a cause for an outbreak of riots (Rowe, 2011; Rhodes, 2009).

In addition, Ferns and Stein (2011) also note that individuals tend to be influenced by the group to which they belong. This is the social pressure or influence that may lead to vices or virtues.

Methodology

This study was done at the Federal Prison Camp at Alderson, West Virginia which is a minimum security women's prison under the U.S. Department of Justice. The approach used in this research was the ethnography approach. As it does not specify a particular method for collecting data, several methods can be used to collect the data as the researcher thinks appropriate. Observation of the participants as one of them was the method chosen for this study. The researcher put himself in the same situation physically and socially as those he observed as he used this method of participant observation.

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This required a lot of reflection as well as self-criticism in order to properly analyze the situation as well interpret it properly (Jenness, 2010).

Data collection involved various incidences, interactions, bonds, plain observation and talking with the female inmates. The researcher was able to do Interviews that did not follow a certain structure. Thus, the process of gaining information from the respondents involved the talking with the inmates and letting one question naturally lead to another. Thus the researcher tied or chained conversations so that the next question flowed along. Identifying the respondents that would be key to the research was something that the researcher did beforehand. As Rowe (2011) and Rhodes (2009) recommend, the observations lasted between half an hour and an hour so that rapport could be established and the ideal time was when the inmates were at the exercise yard.

Validity Test

Accuracy of each observation was run through the literature reviewed as and the population of inmates so that reliability could be established. The researcher strived to gain a better understanding of the observations by interviewing inmates further. The process thus progressed through participant observation, interactions with inmates and informants while focusing on gathering the required data. Through further interviews accuracy was tested. Rhodes (2009) suggests that feedback be collected from participants in order to avoid errors in facts and correct them where applicable, and differences in understanding also can be noted in the report.

Supporting Arguments and Evidence

Gossip

Gossip tends to spread very fast among inmates and as it is passed along, it gains twists and turns to the facts. It commonly features things like the sentences someone received, the offense that a person was incarcerated for, and treatment in the prison, what is perceived as fair or unfair and thus resented among other things. It is almost impossible to counter rumors once they are spread no matter how false they are (Dunbar, 1998). He goes on to allude that the human language emerged as a means for gossip which came as a replacement of grooming in early human populations. Gossip works as a means to spread information in society as well as in prisons. It seems to go further when there are attempts to curb it. Gossip has been known to cause a lot of damage to the staff members of prisons as well as to these institutions as well.

In the confined area of a prison, gossip tends to thrive and it is as open to distortion as it is outside the prison walls. Given the fact that prisons are highly structured socially and that there is a lot of stress, rumors tend to emerge. The rigidity of the systems and the forceful adaptation to prison life create a perfect atmosphere for gossip. At the back of most of these rumors is animosity. Some of this comes from fear, anger, bitterness and other such emotions. An example of this is when there is a major activity that will be carried out in a prison such as the health check of prisoners. Anxious prisoners will be quick to start a rumor that will spread his/her anxiety to the others (Comfort, 2008; Jenness, 2010).

Kimmel (2003) states that gossip is not merely the passing of information but more so the passing of information that has been processed. Kimmel (2003) claims that a person cannot just pass information like a machine but thinks about it, thus processing it, before passing it on. Thus where one considers that some information is not interesting, they are less likely to pass it unlike information that they find very interesting and thus cannot resist passing it on to others. This processing also results in information that has some alterations whether through the withholding of some facts or the addition of others. In this way, inmates can demonstrate the emergence of some behavior which can be termed as collectively intelligent or otherwise when they act as a medium for processing information.

Differences on Inmates Based on Prison Experience and Period of Incarceration

Prisoners who have never been incarcerated before can experience disorientation and loneliness. For some of these, their expectation of prison life has been influenced by the movies and programs they have watched and the routines and practices that they find can be overwhelming and fear inspiring. About a large number of the female inmates are serving their first prison sentence as opposed to their male counterparts. Very.....

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