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Women in Prison
Women in prison for homicide were almost twice as likely to have killed an intimate (husband, ex-husband, or boyfriend) as a relative like a parent or sibling (32% versus 17%).  Women in prison were more likely than the men to have had at least one member of their immediate family who had been incarcerated: 47% of female inmates and 37% of male inmates.
 
Criminal histories
 
Nearly half of all women in prison were currently serving a sentence for a nonviolent offense and had been convicted in the past for only nonviolent offenses.  The number of women in prison has increased 138% in the last ten years.  The recent growth in the number of women in prison has been accompanied by changes in two other measures: the rate of arrest of women for selected serious crimes and the rate of incarceration of women convicted of selected serious offenses per 1,000 arrests of women for such offenses.  Research on women in prison has reveled that women's criminality must be understood in terms of the context of women's lives (Pollock, 2002; Belknap, 2001; Chensey-Lind, 1997).  The loss of self-esteem and identity of women in prison is associated closely with loss of contact with children and family.  Around 55% of women in prison have a child under 16, 33% a child under 5 and 20% are lone parents.
 
Mental Health Issues

Nearly 1 in every 6 women had received medication prescribed by a psychiatrist or other doctor for an emotional or mental problem since admission to prison.  The findings do show that women in prison need frequent visitations from family and friends to maintain positive mental health.  Half are taking some form of medication for mental health problems.  Women’s health care needs such as ante-natal care are often overlooked, as are their different needs in drug-addiction and mental health.

Community Help

The real tragedy here is that their mothers represented no threat to the community, as is often the case with women who enter detention or sentenced custody.  Every woman who is known to be pregnant will be consistently medically assessed and monitored, just as in the community.  In response, women prisoners use self-and community advocacy to meet their health care needs and cope with these challenges.  Although this conclusion is consistent with the rehabilitation goals of incarceration, it also suggests that some women may have been able to avoid prison if treatment had been provided in the community, especially for substance-related problems.
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The Prison Service
Introduction to the Prison Service

Prisons are normally surrounded by fencing, walls, earthworks, geographical features, or other barriers to prevent escape.  Prison accommodation, especially modern prisons in the developed world, are often divided into wings.  Prisons are conventionally institutions which form part of the criminal justice system of a country, such that imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime.  As compared to the traditional landing-cellblock-hall designs, many newer prisons are designed in a decentralized "podular" layout with individual self-contained housing units, known as "pods" or "modules", arranged around centralized outdoor yards in a "campus".  The object of prisons originally, both among the Hebrews and the Romans, was merely the safe-keeping of a criminal, real or pretended, until his trial.  As of 2006, it is estimated that at least nine million people are currently imprisoned worldwide.  In absolute terms, the United States currently has the largest inmate population in the world, with more than 2 million[13] in prison and jails, even though violent crime and property crime have been declining since the 1990s according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.  Corresponding with prisoners is very helpful to them but carries risks for both correspondents—improper mail to inmates can cost them privileges (normally, all mail to inmates is read by prison staff).  To locate a prison you can use the drop down lists or search for a keyword such as "drug rehab".  If you would like to download a list of prisons and contact details, click on the link below (this will open in a new window).  

Prison Life

Prison life can be dangerous, but getting out can be deadly, too.  Although people have been imprisoned throughout history, they have also regularly been able to perform prison escapes.  More than 40-percent of Iowa's prison population is classified as having "special needs", with either behavioral or mental health problems.  

Prisoners

Male and female prisoners are typically kept in separate locations or separate prisons altogether.  Movement out of the pod to the exercise yard or work assignments can be restricted to individual pods at designated times, or else prisoners may be kept almost always within their pod or even their individual cells depending upon the level of security.  The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has agreed that it will no longer bar lesbian and gay prisoners access to overnight family visitation.  onclusion

When asked on their attitudes about prison life in Canadian prisons, respondents across the country were mostly approving.  Looking beyond their imprisonment, they demonstrate a willingness and desire to renew their lives.