Gender Roles In Prisons

Throughout society, we are constantly told that prisons are a good thing. We believe in the myth that prisons change people for the better. What we fail to see is how damaging they really are to society. This is because the myths are imposed upon all of us from an early age and it frames our beliefs. The prison is set up in a way that puts emphasis on patriarchy – meaning that males often fair off better in prison that women or gender non-conforming people. Due to this patriarchal system, societal roles pertaining to gender are highly enforced, violence and abuse has risen to extremes, and the people in prisons differ vastly from our perceptions. The prison system does more damage to the people it holds; yet as members of society, we …show more content…
Unknown to me and many others in our current society, within the prison system, one of the main focuses is on enforcing gender roles. Today, we view our society as very accepting of diversity and individuality, and we believe that gender roles are almost a thing of the past. This view is wrong because one of the largest institutions in our country, the prisons, are still widely enforcing these roles to its captives. As members of society, the myths of prison are easily woven into our framing and we come to perceive them as true. Due to the fact that we see these myths as true, we fail to see the actual functions of prisons. One such myth of prisons that nearly everyone believes to be true is that prisons exist to control crime and reform criminal behavior. Yet, it is clear that one of the main reasons for prisons is to enforce these societal norms. In a way, society needs these norms in order to function. Prisons serve as a correctional facility for violators of the norms, “…the use of imprisonment as the main means of punishing those who violate social norms” (Davis, 40). As an author with …show more content…
Throughout history, people have recognized that violence occurs in prisons, and that is viewed as normal. But, what we are unaware of is just how much abuse and punishment people face. Within prisons, “…there is outrageous racial and gender violence…” (Dean Spade: The Most Imprisoning Nation in the World, part 1). Women suffer extreme abuse during strip searches in which they are inappropriately inspected, this, “…exposes an everyday routine in women’s prisons that verges on sexual assault…” (Davis 63). They are violated during the search and also suffer abuse from guards who alternately receive little to no punishment. Transgender people also suffer largely while in prisons as they are put through verbal and physical abuse as well as being deprived of the medication they need, essentially making their time within the prison more miserable that it already had to be. The reason that we are unaware of this type of violence that occurs in prisons is because it is viewed as normal. It is viewed as normal because the prisoners essentially have no rights, and if they have no rights, then they can be forced to endure punishment. This is the way that we all think; this is yet another myth of prison that we have been socially constructed to believe as true: prisons permanently remove the rights of incarcerated people, which is