At Work in the Iron Cage: The Prison as Gendered Organization

2. Penology in America: Men’s and Women’s Prisons as Gendered Projects

Penology in America Men’s and Women’s Prisons as Gendered Projects Prisons are such a common feature of the American landscape that they have come to seem natural, indeed, inevitable. But prisons did not exist in the United States or in Europe until about two hundred years ago. During the colonial era and the early republic, crime and its consequences were left to the discretion of local communities. The fine and the lash were the most common punishments. The latter was often administered in public in hopes that the offender’s shame would be as effective a deterrent to crime as the beating itself (Colvin 1997; Hirsch 1992; Rothman 1990). Punishments were not generally differentiated by sex; women as well as men were subject to the full range of prescribed discipline. Though capital punishment was used rarely in early America, both men and women faced the executioner (Colvin 1997; Lewis 1965; Preyer 1982). The first American prison opened in Massachusetts in 1785; by the turn of the century, eight of the sixteen states had established their own institutions. Far from self-evident solutions to crime, however, early prisons were embattled from their first appearance. State legislatures were reluctant to provide the funds for prisons’ construction and operation , and critics immediately noted their tendency to increase crime through the association of all kinds of offenders (Colvin 1997; Lewis 1965). Our current reliance on incarceration is the outcome of a complex and contested institutional project shaped from the outset by ideas about gender, race, and class. If one assesses that project in terms of its sheer rate of proliferation , it has been an astounding success. As of the last official prison census , in 1995, there were 1,158 state and federally operated prisons in the United States, an increase of more than 15 percent over just five 2 22 years earlier (Stephan 1997). The total prison population in 2000 was 1,312,354 inmates, a number that gives the United States the dubious distinction of incarcerating more of its citizens than any other country in the world. Throughout the 1990s, the prison population increased at a rate of 6 percent per year (Beck and Harrison 2001). As has been the case since the first prisons were built, women constitute a minority of America’s prison population, currently accounting for 6.6 percent of the total, up from about 4 percent in 1925. Women’s rates of incarceration have recently risen at a much faster pace than men’s, however, increasing 436 percent from 1980 to 2000, compared with 233 percent for men. The current inmate population is, as it has always been, disproportionately composed of members of minority groups. As table 2.1 indicates, among men, whites account for 35 percent of the total prison population; blacks, 46 percent; and Hispanics, 16 percent. For women, the distribution is similar; whites account for 41 percent of those in prison; blacks, 45 percent; and Hispanics, 12 percent . Incarceration rates present much more dramatic evidence of the racial inequalities at the heart of the American prison system. Black men and women are about seven times more likely to be incarcerated than whites; Hispanics are three times more likely. The poor are also disproportionately represented in prison. In 1997, while 68 percent of male prison inmates and 54 percent of female inmates reported holding a job prior to arrest, their incomes were extremely low. Forty-three percent of men and 54 percent of women reported making less than $12,000 per year.1 Speaking of “the prison” in monolithic terms is inaccurate, however. In the course of this research, I interviewed officers at five facilities. Among just these five were both state and federal prisons, men’s and Penology in America | 23 Table 2.1 Number Incarcerated and Rate of Incarceration by Race/Sex Group, 2000 Incarceration rate Number incarcerated (per 100,000 population) White men 436,500 449 Black men 572,900 3,457 Hispanic men 206,900 1,220 White women 34,500 34 Black women 37,400 205 Hispanic women 10,000 60 source: Beck and Harrison (2001), tables 14 and 15. women’s institutions, prison “camps,” prison “farms,” a “boot camp,” and institutions designed and run utilizing at least some of the elements of the “reformatory” model. This diversity reflects distinct historical legacies. The first prisons were part of what criminal justice historians describe as America...