Female Prisons Film Analysis

In the National Geographic film titled Female Offenders, several philosophies used for punishment in the field corrections are portrayed. You also see how female prisons function and the culture within the cells that makes it different from male prisons. Furthermore, through Robert Hansers book on corrections we see the aspects of confinement that are unique in female inmates, particularly regarding issues with female prisoners being mothers. In the film, you see the incapacitation theory used as punishment when inmates behave out of order. Incapacitation deprives offenders of their liberty and removes them from society with the intent of ensuring that society can’t be further victimized during their term of incarceration. In the film we the …show more content…
In the film we saw that like in male prisons, females also form groups used for protection and support. While male prison groups may be more race and gang affiliated, in woman’s prisons it may be more of a support group with less racial importance. As seen in the film, Dory’s crew was a mixture of races who saw her as a positive family figure. Another example of a significant difference in the prisons systems is the concept of sexual culture. A comparison stated in the book mentions, “Unlike male prisons where sex is used as a tool of violence and intimidation, sex in female inmate subculture tends to be more or less consensual rather than coerced” (Hanser, pg281). People often joke around about male prison situations such as “dropping the soap”. This is referring to rape in male prisons, when a man drops the soap and bends over to pick it up. As you can imagine what happens, males tend to use sex in a violent way as opposed to females in prison. Men often joke and say they are too pretty to go to prison. “A punk is considered a woman in prison and is often forced to engage in sexual acts for the pleasure of one or more inmates” (Hanser, p.g