Prisons: Prisons for Women

Understanding the contemporary prison for women requires an examination of the historical development of this system of social control and the critical issues relating to the imprisonment of women in the modern era. These issues include the development of distinct subcultures within these institutions, the enormous rise in the numbers of women in prison beginning in the late 1980s, the characteristics of women prisoners, and the gender-specific concerns such as physical and sexual abuse, separation from children, substance abuse, and unmet program needs.