Their Sister's Keepers: Women's Prison Reform in America, 1830-1930

1982 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Dowd Hall ◽  
Estelle B. Freedman
Keyword(s):  
Prison Reform ◽  
Women's Prison

scholarly journals Emily’s Maternal Ideal: Pregnancy, Birth, and Resistance at Kingston Penitentiary

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-229
Author(s):  
Ted McCoy
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Prison Reform ◽  
Department Of Justice ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Pregnancy And Childbirth ◽  
Ideal Womanhood ◽  
Women's Prison ◽  
Women's Imprisonment ◽  
The Ideal

The 1850s and 1860s saw the rise of a new women’s prison reform ideology that would shape the next half-century of women’s imprisonment. “Maternalism” was the promotion of femininity as the basis of reform and rehabilitation with accompanying notions of ideal womanhood and appropriate roles for imprisoned women and in the aftermath of a penitentiary sentence. This paper looks at literal motherhood in the penitentiary by examining the experiences of prisoner Emily Boyle. Boyle was pregnant during two separate terms at Kingston Penitentiary. During the first term in 1926, she was paroled so that she could return to Edmonton to give birth. During her second term in 1932, no mercy was extended in consideration of her pregnancy and Boyle began a battle with the Department of Justice over her right to keep her baby within the walls of Kingston Penitentiary. The warden recommended that Boyle be separated from her child and it be sent to the Home for Infants, in spite of the fact that the father was in Edmonton. Boyle resisted this decision, and in fact resisted all penitentiary involvement with her pregnancy and childbirth. She ultimately gave birth in the bathroom of the women’s ward with the assistance of two matrons. When the child was taken away from her, both Boyle and her husband fought the Department of Justice decision on the matter, rallying against the notion that their child was better served by the Children’s Aid Society. The paper examines multiple questions about motherhood and maternalism in the penitentiary’s first century. It argues that maternalism and motherhood were found at cross purposes when balanced with the demands of punishment. Emily Boyle found herself at this intersection, fighting to keep her child in an institution geared towards teaching her to become the ideal mother.

Their Sisters' Keepers: Women's Prison Reform in America, 1830-1930

1982 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 1173
Author(s):  
David J. Pivar ◽  
Estelle B. Freedman
Keyword(s):  
Prison Reform ◽  
Women's Prison

The downside of downsizing: Persistence of racial disparities following state prison reform

2021 ◽  
pp. 146247452110060
Author(s):  
Amy E Lerman ◽  
Alyssa C Mooney
Keyword(s):  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Prison Reform ◽  
State Prison ◽  
Probation And Parole ◽  
Substantial Progress ◽  
Prison Populations ◽  
Racial Ethnic ◽  
Double Digit

Nationwide, prison populations have declined nearly 5% from their peak, and 16 states have seen double-digit declines. It is unclear, though, how decarceration has affected racial disparities. Using national data, we find substantial variation in state prison populations from 2005–2018, with increases in some states and declines in others. However, although declines in the overall state prison population were associated with declines for all groups, states with rising prison populations experienced slight upticks in prison rates among the white population, while rates among Black and Latinx populations declined. As a result, greater progress in overall decarceration within states did not translate to larger reductions in racial disparities. At the same time, we do not find evidence that a decline in prison populations is associated with a rise in jail incarceration for any racial/ethnic group. In additional exploratory analyses, we suggest that recent incarceration trends may be driven by changes in returns to prison for probation and parole violations, rather than commitments for new crimes. Our results make clear that while efforts to reverse mass incarceration have reduced the size of prison populations in some states, they have not yet made substantial progress in resolving the crisis of race in American criminal justice.

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