User:Gracegoodnough/sandbox

Notes

1. In-depth Coverage: Expand the section on gender inequality in the criminal justice system to provide more detailed examples and analysis.


 * 8% of total incarcerated population is currently in some sort of private-for profit prison, and it is only increasing. These facilities come from corporate companies trying to make money off of one of the biggest government funded programs in the US. By incarcerating more people, companies make more money. This profit based agenda is just another confounding factor with gender inequality in our criminal justice system.


 * men are 63% more likely to be given longer and harsher sentences that women
 * sexual misconduct is a very big area of discrepancy with sentencing between genders
 * We can see this directly from the Henchel and Grant study and the differences in sentencing for men and women who commit sexual misconduct in schools.
 * sentencing is historically based off of traditional gender biases and perceived notions about race and ethnicity. While sentences should be decided on a case by case basis, they are not and that is what creates this sentencing disparity
 * "There’s a general societal disposition that does continue to treat women as the gentler sex, so typically the threshold for sending women to prison is higher," said Martin Horn, director of the New York State Sentencing Commission and a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
 * In this, almost 75 of the 95 cases were against men, with only 25 being against women - of these only 44% went to prison against the male's 55% incarceration rate

2. Intersectional Analysis: Include discussion of how gender intersects with race and other factors to compound inequalities within the justice system.


 * it is known that non white males, historically have gotten longer sentences and are convicted at a higher rate then white men
 * according to the United States Sentencing Commission, Black males received sentences 13.4 percent longer, and Hispanic males received sentences 11.2 percent longer, than White males
 * similarly, Hispanic females received sentences 27.8 percent longer than White females, while Other race females received sentences 10.0 percent shorter.
 * the likely hood of receiving probation also differs between race and gender, Black males were 23.4 percent less likely, and Hispanic males were 26.6 percent less likely, to receive a probationary sentence compared to White males
 * Similar trends were observed among females, with Black and Hispanic females less likely to receive a probation sentence than White females (11.2% percent less likely and 29.7% less likely, respectively).


 * the major reason that people of color, specifically black men are more affected by having a criminal record is because of 2 main reasons
 * imposing financial burdens and collateral consequences on people with criminal convictions
 * employment during and after incarceration pays almost nothing and afterwards it is difficult for former inmates to enter the workforce with their record
 * the price for lawyers, court processings, legal fees, etc that people in higher tax brackets have lead to many people having no choice but to go to prison because of lack of funds to help them have a fair trial
 * diverting public resources from effective interventions to promote public safety
 * high cost of mass incarceration comes at expense of investing in effective crime prevention, drug rehabilitation, and youth programs that can help decrease the incarceration rates in low income, high POC areas

3. Importance of Awareness: Emphasize the importance of understanding and addressing gender inequality in the criminal justice system, highlighting its broader societal impacts


 * understand that male and female prison subculture is developing in different ways and cannot be compared against each other when looking for similar corrections to the systems
 * allows for people to look at their own biases about other gender and other races to see how they might also be a perpetrator of this perceived bias towards others and gives a greater ability to recognize injustice solely based on what gender someone is
 * These laws and policies exacerbate the marginalization of justice-involved people—who are disproportionately people of color—by eroding the economic and social buffers against crime and increasing the likelihood of police contact - meaning more harmful interactions to people of color (again, more likely to be men of color) that leads to more death by police
 * more reforms and preventative actions need to be put into place instead of increasing our mass incarceration. We should work towards reducing out incarceration rates because the system we have in place is radically unjust in both gender and racial equality.

4. Comparative Analysis: Compare and contrast the experiences of men and women within the criminal justice system, as well as differences across racial and ethnic groups.


 * women's prisons are far less violent than men's
 * women's prisons are far more likely to have pseudo-families (role-playing as male and female characters in the lives of prisoners) which are shown to be very helpful and supporting to many inmates, according to U.S. Department of Justice
 * women develop much more love based relationships, sometimes never intending to be physical with each other than men, who primarily only have sexual relationships in prisons, without any real homosexual love

Section of article: (bolded are my edits)

A 2008 study of three US district courts gave some explanations for gender disparity in sentencing: 1) that women are sentenced more leniently than men because they are convicted of less serious crimes and have less serious criminal records than men; that judges take personal factors relating to defendants (e.g. family responsibilities) into account; 2) that judges exercise chivalry or paternalism towards women in ways that discriminate against men; and 3) that apparent disparities are caused by the intersection of other factors, such as race (as data shows it is only white women rather than women of color that benefit from disparities).The study concluded that the second first explanation is not evidenced in their data, but were unable to confirm the other two. Sonja B. Starr conducted a study in the US, published in 2012, that found that the prison sentences that men serve are on average 63% longer than those that women serve when controlling for arrest offense and criminal history.

Men's rights advocates have argued that men being over-represented in both those who commit murder and the victims of murder is evidence that men are being harmed by outmoded cultural attitudes. '''There is evidence for this that was found in a study by Henchel and Grant. When looking at 97 different cases of sexual misconduct, 72 of them were against men, and 25 against women. Of those cases, less than half of the female cases went to trial, with only 44% of those ending in incarceration, compared to 55% of the males cases. The reasoning for this inequal sentencing based on gender was explained by Martin Horn, director of the New York State Sentencing Commission and a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, "There’s a general societal disposition that does continue to treat women as the gentler sex, so typically the threshold for sending women to prison is higher,".  Sentencing is historically based off of traditional gender biases and perceived notions about race and ethnicity. While sentences should be decided on a case by case basis, they are not and that is what creates this sentencing disparity'''

Men are 63% more likely to be given longer and harsher sentences '''. Of those 63%, Black males sentences are around 13.4% longer, Hispanic males 11.2% than White men. Similarly, Hispanic females received sentences 27.8% longer, and other non-white females received sentences about 10% shorter. The likely hood of receiving probation is also differentiated based on race and gender. According to the United States Sentencing Commission, Black males were 23.4% less likely, hispanic males were 26.6% less likely than white males to receive a probationary sentencing. Similar trends were observed for women, with with Black and Hispanic females less likely to receive a probation sentence than White females (11.2% percent less likely and 29.7% less likely, respectively). '''

'''The gender inequality that men face in prison carries over to their lives after incarceration as well. A major reason that people of color are more affected by having a criminal record is because of the imposing financial burdens and collateral consequences on people with criminal convictions, and the diverting of public resources from effective interventions to promote public safety. Employment during and after incarceration pays almost nothing and afterwards it is difficult for former inmates to enter the workforce with their record. The price for lawyers, court processings, legal fees, etc that people in higher tax brackets have lead to many people having no choice but to go to prison because of lack of funds to help them have a fair trial. Also, high cost of mass incarceration comes at expense of investing in effective crime prevention, drug rehabilitation, and youth programs that can help decrease the incarceration rates in low income, high POC areas. These burdens are what make people more likely to fall back into their old lives of crime and leads to them becoming repeat offenders.'''

In 2022, Vicki Dabrowki and Emma Milne assessed female health care in the prison system in the United Kingdom. They found that there was an inconsistency in female and reproductive healthcare across prisons. More specifically, imprisoned women who had given birth reported feeling isolated and without access to healthcare professionals. Additionally, they reported a lack of access to feminine hygiene products. '''Our prison system is one of the largest in the world, with 8% being privately funded/for profit facilities, according to The Sentencing Project. Yet, there is still a lack of proper healthcare and medical attention for many women in need.'''

In a study done by the U.S. Department of Justice ''', women's prisons are far more likely to have pseudo-families (role-playing as male and female characters in the lives of prisoners) which are shown to be very helpful and supporting to many inmates. Women have tend to have much more love based relationships, sometimes never intending to be physical with each other than men, who primarily only have sexual relationships in prisons, without any real homosexual love. In this study, they found that the deprivation of sustained interpersonal support from family and friends is far more damaging to females.'''

'''With this context, the fact that women's prisons are much less violent then men's prisons is a very sensable fact. However, when government mandated reforms are put in place for correctional facilites, they are usually mandated in both male and female prisons. This is an example of gender inequality because male and female prison subcultures are constantly developing, most of the time in different directions, and they cannot be compared and changed in the same ways.'''

In a report by the Movement Advancement Project and Center for American Progress, researchers found that transgender people are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. 21% of transgender women reported that they spent time in jail compared to 5% of all U.S. adults. The reason for this disproportionate rate was stated to be because transgender people are more likely to be put in vulnerable situations due to gender discrimination. Transgender people are more likely to face discrimination in the domains of housing, employment, healthcare, and identification documents, leading to higher interactions with the criminal justice system. The report also found transgender women are more likely to experience gendered violence while in prison. When transgender women were placed in men's prisons in California, 59% reported that they had been sexually assaulted compared to the 4.4% of all male-respondents. Otherwise said, Transgender women are 13 times more likely to be assaulted than incarcerated men.

Sources:

https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/gender-differences-prisoner-subcultures-women-and-crime-america-p

[https://www.mcgrathtraining.com/post/offenders-and-sentencing-by-gender-are-females-treated-differently#:~:text=Research%20shows%20that%20men%20are,periods%20of%20time%20than%20women. https://www.mcgrathtraining.com/post/offenders-and-sentencing-by-gender-are-females-treated-differently#:~:text=Research%20shows%20that%20men%20are,periods%20of%20time%20than%20women.]

https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/2023-demographic-differences-federal-sentencing

https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/one-in-five-how-mass-incarceration-deepens-inequality-and-harms-public-safety/

https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/private-prisons-in-the-united-states/