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The present study aimed to expand the knowledge base regarding incarcerated women’s experiences with violence and their mental health with the goal of identifying avenues for more tailored, compassionate responses to their mental health difficulties in both macro and direct practice contexts. To achieve this aim, a secondary data analysis was performed using data from the Survey of Inmates in State Correctional Facilities (SISCF) completed by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in 2004. Six research questions pertaining to women’s experiences with violence and their mental health difficulties and service utilization guided the inquiry, which involved univariate, bivariate, and multivariate statistical analyses, including latent class analysis, performed to identify patterns in mental health difficulties among incarcerated women, and multiple logistic regression procedures. The latent class analysis resulted in selection of a 4-class solution which grouped women in the sample into four subgroups according to the latent variable of mental health difficulties. The four subgroups included the serious mental illness group (8.7%), the mood and drug use disorders group (30.3%), the substance use only group (11.7%), and the resilient group (49.4%). Women were less likely to be in the resilient mental health group and more likely to engage with a range of mental health services if they had perpetrated violence or experienced various forms of victimization, including sexual victimization in either childhood or adulthood, or physical victimization in either childhood or adulthood. Social workers should develop and implement clinical mental health treatment in correctional centers tailored to the mental health needs of subgroups identified through latent class analysis, including treatment for co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders. Clinical mental health treatment should also target those needs related to trauma stemming from victimization and perpetration of violence. Additionally, social workers should advocate for policies and programs to prevent and remediate drug-related crime and divert women with serious mental illness away from the criminal justice system.

A women's prison in the midwestern region of the United States experienced an increase of female inmates. Incarcerated women have reported higher rates of substance abuse problems, prior victimization, and mental illness than their male counterparts. Clinical social workers are often the primary service providers in criminal justice settings. The purpose of this action research project was to explore the challenges faced by social workers in a midwestern state when providing clinical treatment services to female offenders. Postmodern feminist theory and pathways theory provided a framework for understanding the factors related to female offending. The practice-focused research question explored the responses of licensed clinical social workers in a midwestern state regarding identifying the issues and challenges of providing clinical treatment services to female offenders. Data were collected from interviews with 7 local clinical social workers who had experience working with female offenders. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis to explore and organize the data. The study revealed 5 primary themes that included the unique background of female offenders, factors contributing to the incarceration of women, barriers to effective clinical treatment, the nature of prison, and postincarceration needs of female offenders. A possible implication of this study for social change is that specialized and/or population-specific training for clinical social workers may benefit clients in achieving their treatment goals and improve their capacity to successfully readjust upon release from jail or prison.

There is an abundance of literature that examines the comorbidity of domestic violence and trauma as well as domestic violence and alcohol and/or substance abuse in both community and incarcerated samples of women. There is a paucity of research dedicated to discovering if incarcerated women are significantly more likely to have this triad of domestic violence, trauma, and alcohol and/or substance abuse than their community cohorts. The present study examined this under-researched area by analyzing data from 147 women who participated in an extensive, ongoing research project. Women in this sample were from the United States, Russia, Colombia, Spain, Trinidad, and Greece. Results found that the incarcerated women were significantly more likely to suffer more severe domestic violence and were also more likely to abuse substances. No significant differences were found with respect to witnessing domestic violence or childhood sexual abuse, but both groups reported high rates. There were also no significant differences found between the groups on current symptoms of trauma, but both groups obtained scores that hovered just below the clinical cutoff. Although these variables were not statistically significant, they are diagnostic in that they describe experiences related to being a victim of domestic violence and are therefore, areas of potential intervention.

Women’s lived experiences of abuse and depression are examined within the context of gendered and racialized pathways to incarceration among 403 women randomly selected from a diagnostic unit in a state prison. This study utilizes feminist action research and community psychological methods to understand what factors predict incarcerated women’s placement on the mental health caseload and provides quantitative support for the pathways theoretical framework. Findings indicate that, among the sample, the prevalence of abuse experiences prior to incarceration exceeded 90%, prevalence of mental health problems exceeded 70%, and less than 35% were receiving mental health care. Being Caucasian, experiencing depression and suicidal ideation, and serving time for certain types of (non-violent, non-property, and non-drug related) crime (e.g., cruelty to children, prostitution, public order, “technicals,” and others) predicted the placement of women on the mental health caseload. Implications for trauma-informed, anti-racist, gender-responsive policies and interventions are discussed.

Master of Arts / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Lisa A. Melander / The number of women incarcerated within the American penal system has been increasing in recent years. Coinciding with this rise in the incarceration rate for women, there has been increasing concern regarding women parenting behind bars and how incarceration impacts a woman's identity as a mother. As such the purpose of this paper is to examine the connection between participation in contact maintenance programs at the Topeka, Kansas Correctional Facility and their resulting impact on identity work using a sample of 34 incarcerated mothers who participated in this contact maintenance program. Results revealed that through participation in contact maintenance programs incarcerated mothers begin to develop and sustain a more pro- social image of themselves as 'good mothers.' Foundational practices of parenting and the development and sustainment of the mother-child bond are reinforced to facilitate the development of a positive self-image and to lay the groundwork for successful parenting post- release.

The number of women who are incarcerated has increased significantly in the past few decades. Originally designed to manage male offenders, jails and prisons are ill-equipped to address the unique needs of women inmates whose paths to incarceration often include histories of trauma, abuse, and addiction. This qualitative study investigated the lives of 13 women who while incarcerated at Dallas County Jail, participated in an educational program, Resolana. The purpose of this study was to understand the women’s lives prior to incarceration, as well as the impact of the program and changes they experienced, if any, as a result of what they were learning. Data were collected using semi-structured, life history interviews, and by engaging in field observations as a volunteer for each class for a period of one week. An in-depth analysis through a critical lens, using a holistic-content narrative analysis method, was done with one participant’s life history. The findings are presented as an ethnodrama illuminating the cultural, social, personal, and legal systems of oppression that she survived and that contributed to her path to incarceration. Analyzed through a lens of agency and resistance, the findings that emerged from an analysis of all the participant’s life histories reveal that the women’s criminalized actions were often survival responses. The women employed various strategies, both legal and illegal, in response to people or situations involving control, power or domination over their lives. An analysis of the women’s experiences with Resolana through a transformative learning theoretical framework indicates that the women experience transformation in various ways and to varying degrees. The learning environment served as a container in which transformative learning could be cultivated through opportunities for interpersonal and intrapersonal engagement. The results of this study reveal the need for more and targeted advocacy and education for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women. The results also indicate that the process and content of Resolana’s programming had a transformative impact on participants, and for some, the transformation was enduring. Finally, the results challenge definitions of criminal behavior in the context interlocking systems of oppression, and encourage thinking about alternatives to incarceration.

abstract: The United States prison population is rapidly rising. Consequently, more families are losing loved ones to the system. While many researchers have focused on women of incarcerated men and children of incarcerated parents, none have looked at the partners of incarcerated women. This paper explores the issues and challenges of prison visitation for the significant others of women incarcerated at Perryville Prison in Goodyear AZ. It is known that prison visitation is important for supporting and maintaining romantic relationships. It is also beneficial to the prison institution. Visitation assists in social control and high inmate morale; both of which lower the instances of violent acts. However, it has been reported that visitation is a daunting task for the visitors. Many sources of information and data were used for this study; formal and informal interviews with family members and others with prison visitation experience, government websites that contain visitation policies, online forums for family and friends of inmates to discuss their concerns, existing research literature, direct observations, and discussions with scholar experts and prison activists. These resources act as a window to visitation at Perryville. With insights derived from symbolic interactionism and previous research guiding the project, it was found that visitation is a good experience for the significant others, incarcerated women, and Perryville. However, the troubles the significant others have with money, the institution and social support strongly suggest that these men encounter hurdles that make the positive act of visitation at times nearly impossible. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Justice Studies 2011

[pt] O presente trabalho tem com objetivo investigar a existência ou não de projetos futuros em mulheres encarceradas. Partindo do pressuposto de que as instituições totais têm como característica principal a dessubjetivação do sujeito, buscou-se analisar a fala de 154 presas em suas singularidades. A maternidade e a família apresentaram-se como o fio condutor na fala da grande maioria das entrevistadas. A religião surgiu como uma categoria importante no que tange a apropriação que as presas fazem desta para minimizar as mazelas do cotidiano carcerário e estabelecer uma convivência amistosa com as companheiras e com as agentes penitenciárias. O culto ao corpo aparece como uma outra categoria no cerne da experiência de encarceramento, uma vez que se transforma numa resistência a maciça institucionalização. Os projetos futuros são construídos a partir do valor dado a família, em especial a maternidade. A religião, em especial a evangélica, é apropriada como construção de táticas de sobrevivência dentro da prisão. O culto ao corpo serve como uma linha de fuga aos processos de serialização instituídos no cárcere feminino. Como conclusão apontamos a especificidade do encarceramento feminino: a maternidade. O encarceramento feminino atinge a sobrevivência dos filhos que, ante a enorme precariedade em que vivem, são destinados a abrigos do Estado ou enviados burocraticamente a familiares consangüíneos da presa. Assinalamos, neste estudo, a necessidade de construção de políticas públicas que se responsabilizem pelo bem estar de filhos e filhas de mulheres encarceradas. / [en] The current work is intended to investigate the existence or not of future projects for incarcerated women. Starting from the assumption that the total institutions have as their main characteristic the de- subjectivation of the subject, we sought to analyze the talk of 154 convicts in the uniqueness. Motherhood and family were presented as the lead in the talk of the great majority of those that were interviewed. Religion appeared as an important category in regard to the appropriation that the convicts make of it to minimize the afflictions of the day to day in jail and to establish a friendly companionship with their fellow inmates a with the prison agents. The cult to the body appears as another category in the core of the incarceration experience, since it transforms into a resistant to the massive institutionalization. The future projects are built from the value given to family, motherhood in particular. The religion, particularly the evangelical, is appropriated as the construction of survival tactics inside the prison. The cult to the body appears as escape route to the serialization processes established in the feminine incarceration. As a conclusion we point out the specificity of the feminine incarceration: motherhood. The feminine incarceration hits the survival of the children who, in view of the huge precariousness in which they live, are destined to State shelters, or burocratically sent to blood relatives of the convict. We stress, in this study, the need for building public policies which become responsible for the well-being of the sons ands daughters of incarcerated women.

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