blog 15

The first women’s prison was the Mount Pleasant Prison and it opened in 1839. However,most women were sent to halfway houses, society believed that women were not violent and just had to in some way be punished.

In this blog it is asked to compare some of the prisons in Arizona. Fort Grant was actually Army Calvary.According to the website “William H. Bonney (AKA Billy the Kid) allegedly killed a man at this frontier outpost in a fight.”Which have some type of precident that this land was ment to imprison those that did not obey the law. In the article it stated that “Arizona State Legislature passed a bill making the Fort Grant State Industrial School a part of the State's Department of Corrections“ which later became an adult male prison.

The second prison was in Florence. The website state that “Inmates built the prison and lived in tents scattered about the desert during the time it was under construction” In part this sound familiar to our county (tent city). What was unique about this prison is that it had no dungeon, no solitary confinement and no snake hole. However it did consist of a death chamber. Now it is by choice if a inmate was sentenced to death row they have the option of choosing lethal injection or lethal gas.

Now that I have shared a great deal of history I want to go back to discussing more about what is pertinent for us as of now. Women inmates. The website stated that women were not inprison but just reformed the idea of “acceptable female behavior” is the key word throughout the reformatories. Women were not seen as criminals they were there to change the attitude they had and were their to rehabilitate rather than pay for a crime.This ideology was part of what is commonly referred to as separate spheres doctrine and as Britton mentions in the book, “see’s middle-class white women as inherently gentler and more virtuous than men (57). This ideology not only affects inmate women but also the process of higher female correctional officers. Although it is apperent that this field of work in in demand also is the demand for workers which at time causes controversy because men continue to be hired more in these positions more than women at times due to the physical requirements. It is changing however, I know a lot of close friends (men) that suggested to me to get into the correction system due to the pay and benefits.
Britton also discusses the availability how helpful opening some of these positions to women especially to single mothers who were looking for regular hours, job stability, and health care benefits. As a mother that supports her son I did not think twice of the idea of getting into the career as a correction officer but then again I thought about the dangers as well. Over all there is still an idea that prisons are brutally aggressive and dangerous but as I talked to a my sons godfather he told me that at times women are more respected although at times he would not suggest some women to get into the career not because they are women but due to the hours at times there is not a lot of time to spend time with their children.