response # 21

The national association for female corrections officers is trying to get legislation to pass laws that exhibit females from being raped, sexually assaulted and many other crimes that are committed against them while being a corrections officer. It is also lobbying for the implication of fines to institutions that do not promote safe and regulated working conditions for women. Britton offers some similar solutions in his book as well. He believes that women should not have to worry about being sexually assault at work and not have an authority to go to with their situation. These laws that could be passed would allow women to be able to attend to their job without the fear that something unnecessary might happen to them. As a correction officer they have to worry about enough safety as it is and should not have to worry about something that should not be accepted in any work place. I agree with both Britton and the NAFO organization with getting such laws passed by congress. Our systems are to be filled with the utmost qualified people in every position. There should be a no tolerance level. No sexual cementation between men and women should be allowed. The law should also be able to prosecute the directors who fail to establish these rights for women and their working conditions. Inmates should also be held under these conditions. If an inmate is caught trying to be sexually active with a female officer they should be punished for that action. Whether their sentenced is increased or they experience confined assignment with no human interaction. I think that with this group women we be able to see the changes that will occur. They will be able to arrive and leave working with the feeling of safety as their institutions number one priority.

response # 20

The hostage situation in Arizona has many key points that are pointed out in Brittons study. The first and major point is the endangerment that Correctional officers face when they are employed. Every officer knowingly takes the risk of death when they are employed as CO’s. Though it is very rare that a officer life is taken in the line of duty, it happens and it must be something that an officer must keep in his/or hers mind every time they put on the badge. It is known that young officers, right out of training are the most stern and show no emotion. This is because they are fresh out of training where they have been drilled to trust no one and to never let their guard down. That is clearly something that Lois still had. Where as her partner let his guard down for one second and chaos struck. There is no question about the danger that is involved in becoming a CO or a police officer. This danger is something that they must accept and use to keep them safe. Dora is known for saving her Lois life because of her patience. This shows some great power with the female body in administration. Dora was more calm and relaxed than maybe a male would have been. This is great evidence that it does not matter what your gender is but rather how you perform and react to certain situations. Prisons are total institutions due to the fact that when an occurrence like the one that happened in Arizona happens, it affects the whole prison. Every other guard and member of the prison was waiting to storm the tower or get that call to make the kill shot. This shows that the institution is a whole object and not just sections. The gender segregating that exists inside the prison showed in the hostage situation. Lois had no idea how to handle the situation because she was a female and males were holding her. She had no training on how to keep herself safe and not to provoke bad situation on her self. She had to teach her self these applications. This is a clear demonstration on how men benefit from women but women do not benefit from men. Britton explains this in his study. He states that men will benefit from the presence of women in the job but women do get any such advantage.
I don’t know if Brittons recommendation would have necessarily prohibited the hostage situation. I believe that it was more a management problem of the facility more than anything. The director did not put any time or resources in to keeping the prison running under safe and secure measures. The staff was determined to be poorly trained and not up to par of standards that should have been set forth. This was the main cause of the problem. There were so many loopholes in the prison itself it allowed for the situation to unravel. The inmates were obviously able to detect that lack of security that existed and saw it as an opportunity to control the tower. With the implementation of Dora’s new training program where the employees of the prison are now all up to par with prison standards, the prison is less vulnerable for another situation for it to happen. The situation was a possibility that never should happened under the right management of the prison. It is a threat that every prison has to take into consideration. Prisons directors always have to think about the what if. What if the guard tower was to be taken over by inmates? How would the facility respond to this situation? What would not be done to make sure that no one including inmates nor officer’s life was taken due to the breach of security. This also shows the importance of making sure officers do not become attached to inmates. The hostage situation occurred because the inmate was able to sue do an officer and taking the uniform along with access to secure checkpoints. This shows that when there is a lack of upper qualified management there are problems that can arise do to it. It is important to keep the facilities running safely.

response # 19

In the democracy now coverage with Geena Davis, she illustrates that the media depiction on females has not changed over the last ten to fifteen years. She discussed some statistics stating that majority of television networks displayed an un-even amount of mal characters to female ones. Brtiiton finds through is stuffy that many men in the years past believe that women did not belong in the prison system unless it was clerical work. However, now men are accepting that fact that women are entering the law enforcement or prison careers. This is fine as long as the women are able to perform the same physical strength as men can. Women were not thought be able to handle the violence in the prisons. Britton finds that women are placed in assignments were violence is low or where men cannot allow to be placed. Such as, the patting down of women within state prisons facilities. This was due to a lawsuit that prisoners filed against the state and federal government for the improper touching of female inmates by male inmates. This is not true however for federal prisons. In federal prisons male officers are allowed to pat down female inmates by using the back of their hands in the chest areas. Females are also discriminated against for administrative positions. In male facilities only one of the administrators who Britton studied was not a male. However females did represent a larger portion of the administration team within all female facilities. Women also receive fewer promotions than male did. This was doing to the value that women held in their positions. Many men felt that a woman did not hold the same value as a man because a male could fill her position. Whereas, if a male filled the position it hold more value do the ability to refill that position. Males are also thought to be able to handle violent situation better than females.

Response # 18

Britton discusses how norms become masculine to establish a gender-neutral policy and practice. This is reinforced in the on-the-job-training. When officers go through their intense training for becoming an officer, they are only taught how to deal with masculine behaviors. They are taught how to be authoritative and to not show emotion. They practice techniques on other men and majority of the time the instructors are also men. This poses a problem with in all women facilities. In all women facilities, women due fight but, many times officers have to deal with emotional fights. There are women who fight with themselves. They become very violent and emotional. Officers are not trained how to deal with emotional violence. Therefore, many times officers use the techniques taught to them in the training to restrain the inmates. There is no teaching of calming the inmate down and determining what the problem is without using some sort of force. Men and women prisons are very different from each other. Women prisons have more women who work in them then do men. Men in male prisons are often times kept within their cells for longer periods of time and are not allowed the same freedoms that women have. The prisons also vary in social structures. The women in the prisons have strong bonds between each other whereas that is not always the case for men. However, both male and female prisons have separation between inmates. Many time gangs form within the prisons for men and women also have special bonds or gangs that exist in their facilities as well. The gender-neutral training and the officers receive have a large part in why prisons are ran the way they are. The prisons are all trained to be the same and the impression that I get, is that it does not matter what gender you are when training, it is all taught to the way, but reflects a more historical masculine characteristics.

Response # 17

The NBC prison documentary was an eye opener for me. As a justice studies major, the focus is on the social behavior of the law and society. We looked at the youth and justice, domestic violence, law and social control, and many other social issues. The NBC documentary gave a real life version of what is really happening in present day life. As we study women in justice, it is apparent that it is completely different for women to be in a field than it is for men. In the documentary it takes you through a women prison facility to show the extent to which kinds of women are being sentenced to these facilities and the type of women and men who work in them. We also got to learn about the crimes that many of the women have committed. These crimes related to less offenses of violating parole or first-degree murder without parole. The women CO’s who worked within this facility faced many challenges every day. Women who were locked up often times had severe breakdowns. The CO’s had to then engage in restraining the women to make sure that there is no way for the inmate to harm themselves. The CO also had to make sure that they did not get emotional with any of the inmates because it could lead to unsafe activity. The director of the facility claimed there are very few times when a CO has become intimate with inmates and when this happen, an intense investigation is conducted. The officers try to keep a neutral view on the inmates themselves but, as one officer tells NBC, “some of the inmates are like celebrities” they have been in and out of the prison so often that they know everyone who works inside. This leads some of the officers to believe that many of the inmates will never be able to live a normal life. This can in a indirect way have a judgment placed on the inmates. However, many of the officers do enjoy watching the women being released from the facility. Also, many of the officers enjoy and are thankful to hear that someone has made it out and stayed out. Although this happens rarely, it shows signs for hope, not only for the inmates but also for the officers. The officers are re-enforced that by performing their job whether the inmate likes it or not, it is only to benefit everyone.
The forms of social control the facility used to discipline the inmates were effective. Many of the inmates within the facility had intimate relationships with other inmates. If an inmate was to cause a fight or express poor behavior, they were sentenced to a longer time and most often were contained to solid confinement. This meant the inmate was not allowed to interact with other inmates for a certain amount of time. The serious offenders also were allowed very little free time. And most of the free time was spent outside in what one inmate called “a dog cage.” She felt that she was treated to the same level as a dog. These were all forms of social control the officers were allowed to exploit onto the inmates.
Men who worked in the facilities of all women had even more obstacles than women. Ironically, men had to make sure that no such action could be taken for such of a sexual action. Some of the inmates tried their best to arouse male officers and use that against them or even black male them. When a male officer would walk through the hall way of the women prison, he had to shout before entering “male in the building,” so women were notified that a man was entering so no sexual action was assumed. This was the same for women who worked in male facilities. One women officer wore gloves over her hands when handled men from being transported from one cell to the next. When NBC questioned her on this, she stated that it was to stop any arousal that may occur due to the opposite sex touching the male inmate.
The NBC documentary was very informative with what happens within the prison facilities and how women who work in them are affected and deal with certain situations.

Response # 16

Britton maps the path to becoming a correction’s officer for both men and women. Some interesting results occur when he concludes his findings. He states that most of the correction officers never aspired to become a correction’s officer. That is was true for both men and women. He did see there was a huge difference in the type of work that was performed by men and women before they became CO’s. He found that a large proportion of men who were correction officer have been prior military personnel, whereas women were mostly in clerical work. Some of the reasons as to why they became CO’s were because the facilities were located out in the far part of major cities and there are few well paying jobs that are within the area. Therefore, many are turned to the CO position although it does not have the best pay it includes full benefits and retirement. Some of the social networks that persuade people to become CO’s are due to the figure that CO’s are known for. They are known to be big masculine guards that have great authority. Women often times felt very threaten by this myth and hence this is why so few women are employed within this career. As women realized that this was no necessarily the case for all positions they actively became part of the career. Women also took on the CO position many times when they were recently divorced. They needed to find a job that required little education but offered nice benefits. To become a CO officer a diploma or GED was the only requirement along with passing the academy. This is beginning to change through put the years. Many counties and cities want their personnel to be more educated. The officers also did say that it was not as bad as most people believe to think it is or movies show.

Response # 16

Britton maps the path to becoming a correction’s officer for both men and women. Some interesting results occur when he concludes his findings. He states that most of the correction officers never aspired to become a correction’s officer. That is was true for both men and women. He did see there was a huge difference in the type of work that was performed by men and women before they became CO’s. He found that a large proportion of men who were correction officer have been prior military personnel, whereas women were mostly in clerical work. Some of the reasons as to why they became CO’s were because the facilities were located out in the far part of major cities and there are few well paying jobs that are within the area. Therefore, many are turned to the CO position although it does not have the best pay it includes full benefits and retirement. Some of the social networks that persuade people to become CO’s are due to the figure that CO’s are known for. They are known to be big masculine guards that have great authority. Women often times felt very threaten by this myth and hence this is why so few women are employed within this career. As women realized that this was no necessarily the case for all positions they actively became part of the career. Women also took on the CO position many times when they were recently divorced. They needed to find a job that required little education but offered nice benefits. To become a CO officer a diploma or GED was the only requirement along with passing the academy. This is beginning to change through put the years. Many counties and cities want their personnel to be more educated. The officers also did say that it was not as bad as most people believe to think it is or movies show.

Response #15

The prison systems have come along way form the very first establishment that existed in the United States. The prisons systems were guarded by only men in the early years and have changed drastically. Women now play a huge role in the correctional facilities that are in place today. Women are now he guards of not only just women but also men. Although most women who work in the prison systems rarely work at the federal prisons, they have increased their presence within the system altogether. Women also have become incarcerated more than ever now. It used to be that men would guard the men and women would guard the women. This is no longer the case. Men will guard women prisons and cells along with the opposite. The biggest change with prisons is the treatment and compensation of prison workers. It used to be that prison workers were desperate for work and were paid very little. Now, prison workers are highly educated individuals that are very self motivated in becoming a better officer. The standards have been rising to only allow the most qualified persons to achieve the status of correction officers. The pay is also comparable to be able to create a living for them. Women have become part of this process. As the prisons have modernized, the gender of the working people has as well. As it is still noticed that women are not paid equally as men are who are performing the same job as women, there has been great movement in the system. Arizona has some of the same effects that early prisons had. Arizona needed roads to be built and constructed. Therefore, the prisoners were the one who built them. (The same as the chain gangs) Arizona also needed a new prison to house inmates due the increasing incarceration rate. Again, the prisoner who was put into the prison was the creator of the prison itself.

Response # 14

Britton uses theory to frame her questions to help better understand how prisons came about. She dates back to the earliest form of prisons that existed within the United States to find that the first prison to be formed was in 1785. From this point there were many types of prisons. One of the statements that Britton makes in her book is “organizations are gendered at the level of structure,” Britton is trying to convey the message of prisons being organized at the gender level within the prison structure. The prisons were mostly guarded with white males who were paid very little. The inmates were predominantly immigrants. Mostly African Americans were incarcerated into the prison system. White females were part of the inmate population and mostly were in there for lurking or “waywarding.” Men were the guards and they also guarded the women within the prisons. As the industrialization period exploded, inmates were used to construct roads and railroad lines. These were soon to be called chain gangs. The chain gangs were worked nearly to death do to the incentive the guards would receive on the side for getting the inmates to complete more work in the day. Women did no play a role in the prison system unless they were inmates of the prison. Britton explains how the culture and agencies all developed the gender gap of prisons. Women were looked at for “mothering” other women who were accused of lurking from traditional roles. The men were the peoples who were in charge of keeping order within the system. Britton’s research and theory helps lay out the map to how the prisons have changed throughout time. We can see from the start of prisons to now how the prisons are ran with in the United States. As the scope narrows to today, we can see that the changes are enormous.