In U.S. prisons, women are disciplined at a higher rate than men

[xeni]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/15/in-u-s-prisons-women-are-dis.html

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[Papasan]

Holy Guacamole! That was depressing as f@#k, and I’m on the outside.

[apenzott]

Perhaps if the prison staff (guards, wardens) were also sanction for these aggregate violations (dock in pay, bonus if violations decrease), these numbers would improve.

[IronEdithKidd]

Just like on the street, wimmins gotta be put in their place. /s

[anon47741163]

Is anyone still pretending that prisons exist to perform some kind of rehabilitation on offenders? If that were an actual thing, then this kind of news might be shocking.

[LadyBrains]

Those are some vague categories for misbehavior especially “disrespect.” I guess it’s used like “resisting arrest.” A way to punish someone just because you don’t like them.

[Andrew_Oh-Willeke1]

Optimistically, the discrepancy may reflect guards abdicating responsibility for misconduct in men’s prisons causing de facto rule of men’s prisons by violent prison gangs, while guards try to maintain order themselves through formal processes in women’s prisons making prison gangs less powerful in women’s prisons and resulting in less corporal punishment in prison and upon release in women’s prisons.

The pessimistic alternative is that guards in women’s prisons may be making marginal discipline charges in order to develop a currency for themselves that allows guards to trade leniency for sexual favors.

[shmello]

I don’t see rehabilitation vs. punishment at work here. Assuming straight up punishment or profit motive, it is news to me because I assumed that the punishment was the same for genders. At least the “official” part.

[anon47741163]

You’re right, “punishment” is the wrong word to use in opposition to “rehab”, since so many Americans still think of punishment as being an essential part of rehabilitation. The word we should be using here is revenge.

Inviting the crime victims or their surviving families to testify at sentencing, is an essential part of the revenge narrative, only by assessing the harm caused, can a judge or jury decide how badly to hurt the guilty party.

Since women are (in general) mistrusted by the patriarchy, it logically follows that the revenge narrative dictates they be punished more harshly then men.

Fairness to the perpetrator would come into play if rehabilitation were the primary goal of all theis, but since revenge is a much more powerful force here, its fairness to the “victim” (in this case society, as represented by prison guards) that dictates a harsher punishment for women. See, not unfair at all, if you look at it correctly!