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How many ex-offenders are released from Triangle or NC prisons each year?
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In general, what are the employment barriers faced by ex-offenders?
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What does a female offender look like?
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What factors lead women to commit crimes?
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What are gender responsive strategies and how do they apply to the female ex-offender population?
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What are the unique problems faced by women ex-offenders?
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Are women’s employment needs different from men?
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What are proven ways to reduce the recidivism rate for women?
How many ex-offenders are released from Triangle or NC prisons each year?
Over 600,000 people are now being released from prisons each year. North Carolina releases more than 22,000 annually.
In general, what are the employment barriers faced by ex-offenders?
The law closes many occupations to individuals with felony convictions. Examples include positions involving contact with children, certain health services occupations, and jobs providing security services. Positions with significant customer contact or the handling of cash or expensive merchandise require dependable, honest employees. Because past criminal activity signals something less, employers may be unwilling to hire ex-offenders for any reason. Research has shown that hiring managers are much more averse to hiring ex-offenders than they are towards other marginalized group, such as welfare recipients.
What does a female offender look like?
Although the typical face of the female offender is changing, the majority of female offenders are still portrayed as minority, economically disadvantaged, single mothers, disproportionately undereducated and unskilled, with sporadic employment histories. The relevant life issues that propel women into crime include family violence and battering, substance abuse, and their economic struggle to support themselves and their children. These factors are interrelated, however as women’s substance abuse is highly correlated with past physical and sexual abuse.
Women in the criminal justice system are more likely than other women to have grown up in a single-parent home, and nearly 17 percent lived in foster care or in a group home for part of their childhood. About half of the women had an immediate family member who had been incarcerated. Women offenders often grew up in families where drugs or alcohol were abused, and approximately one-quarter of imprisoned women reported physical and/or sexual abuse by a family member.
What factors lead women to commit crimes?
Unlike men’s motivation for their crimes, very often, women’s offenses are economically driven, provoked by poverty and by the abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Women’s criminal involvement often has come about through relationships with family members and significant others. It is often a woman’s partner who introduces her to drugs and then continues to be her supplier.
Many women who enter the criminal justice system have had prior diagnosed mental health issues. One-quarter of women in state prisons have been identified as having a mental illness such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is often seen in women who have experienced sexual abuse and other trauma. Symptoms of PTSD include depression, low self-esteem, insomnia, panic, nightmares, and flashbacks. As expected, these mental health issues are often caused by and certainly exacerbated by the abuse the women experienced.
What are gender responsive strategies and how do they apply to the female ex-offender population?
There is significant evidence that rehabilitative programs for women offenders are often based on generic programs that make no gender distinctions. These programs work much less well than programs that respond specifically to women’s pathways in and out of crime and to the contexts of their lives that support criminal behavior. Gender-responsive programs are designed and implemented with these facts in mind.
In particular, women’s long histories of repeated victimization have to be considered in crafting any response to their criminal conduct. A gender responsive program focuses on the fact that women’s pathways into crime are different than men’s, and their life experiences tend to be specific to their gender, such as sexual abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence, and the responsibility of being the primary caregiver for dependent children. Studies and best practices suggest that addressing the realities of women’s lives through gender responsive policy and programming is crucial to improving outcomes during reentry.
Click here for more information about what gender-responsive means.
What are the unique problems faced by women ex-offenders?
Approximately 70 percent of women under correctional supervision have one or more minor children for whom thay must provide for. An important consideration for these mothers is reunification with their children after a conviction leading to incarceration. The minimum requirements for housing, wages, health care services, etc. are higher for women who wish to care for their own children than for women without dependents, or men. Sometimes, reunification with children is elusive. If a child has been placed in foster care or has become a ward of the state while the mother has been incarcerated, it is especially difficult for the mother to demonstrate to agencies that she is able to take care of and provide for her child.
The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) mandates parental rights be cut once a child has been in foster care for 15 or more of the past 22 months. This makes it extremely difficult for incarcerated mothers, who serve an average of 18 months, to regain custody of their children. Placement of children with relatives, (which gets past the ASFA mandate), is hampered by state policies that provide less financial aid to relatives who are caregivers than to nonrelative foster caregivers.
Are women’s employment needs different from men?
A survey of correctional officers in Canadian prisons showed that these professionals believed that women’s employment needs were different than men’s. Staff noted that women had a greater focus on (or responsibility for) family and children, or greater “personal” needs (mental health, self-esteem) that might interfere with their desire or ability to work. Staff reported a higher perceived level of skill or work experience for men than women before incarceration. Often, women are caring for children and are not able to be as flexible to work shifts or jobs that require additional time outside of normal school hours, and thus they miss out on higher paying jobs or more hours. Due to childrearing duties, women often have a shorter employment history and may have less to highlight on their job applications or résumés.
While certain professions (dominated by men) such as construction and manufacturing may place less emphasis on, or dispense entirely with, a formal interview, women’s jobs (in the service industry, or other areas with large amounts of human contact) have a very traditional hiring process, including an interview, which necessitates more preparation (in terms of résumé creation or obtaining appropriate interview clothes) for the female candidate. Additionally, women are missing pertinent experience. They lack specialized skills and there are few non-specialized jobs for women open to ex-offenders. A chambermaid or cashier, for example requires a criminal background check.
What are proven ways to reduce the recidivism rate for women?
A national study of all persons released in 15 states in 1994 found that within 3 years, 58% of women were rearrested, 40% reconvicted and 39% returned to prison. The first year following release is the most important, as two thirds of those who were rearrested during the three year study were rearrested during the first 12 months. If women ex-offenders can be reached and helped during the first year after their release, their chances of success are greater.
Women offenders in the community must have safe and affordable housing, access to reliable transportation, and realistic employment opportunities. There is corresponding evidence that these issues are essential to successful community reintegration following incarceration in jails and prisons. A Canadian study showed that the area of reentry that was a problem for the largest proportion of women was employment, with 74% of women need for improvement in this area within six months of release. In addition, results of other research have found some support for the link between employment and recidivism.
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