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Gender and Justice: The Equal Protection Issue (From American Prison: Issues in Research and Policy, P 89-109, 1989, Lynne Goodstein and Doris Layton MacKenzie, eds. -- See NCJ-120304)

NCJ Number
120309
Author(s)
N H Rafter
Date Published
1989
Length
21 pages
Annotation
After examining the historical roots of the unequal correctional treatment of women, this chapter identifies structural problems that perpetuate the problem, describes new equal protection litigation, and explores possible responses to the problem.
Abstract
Over the past 20 years, researchers have compared conditions under which men and women are incarcerated. They have all concluded that women have fewer educational and vocational programs; less opportunity for work release, recreation, and visitation; and fewer medical and legal resources. Their institutional job assignments are often more limited in number and type, and they may be classified according to criteria established for men. Historical conditions combine with the structural factors of women as a minority inmate population and cultural views of the female gender role to perpetuate the unequal correctional treatment of women. In recent years, women have brought a series of lawsuits charging jail and prison officials with discrimination on the basis of sex through failure to meet the ideal of justice as equal treatment. All the cases contrast the conditions of male and female inmates. The courts have ruled that existing inequities for women inmates are unconstitutionally discriminatory and no longer permissible. These decisions require changes that may radically restructure ways in which penal systems allocate funds, plan programs, and make institutional assignments. 53 references.

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