By The U.S. Office of the Inspector General

As of September 2016, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) incarcerated 10,567 sentenced female inmates, representing 7 percent of the total BOP sentenced inmate population of 146,084. Though female inmates compose a small percentage of the nationwide incarcerated population, correctional officials have recognized that in some areas female and male inmates have different needs and BOP has adopted genderresponsive programs and policies that account for these needs. As a continuation of prior U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reviews examining BOP’s management of certain subpopulations of inmates, including aging inmates and inmates with mental illness in restrictive housing, OIG initiated this review of BOP’s management of female inmates, specifically BOP’s efforts and capacity to ensure that BOP-wide policies, programs, and decisions adequately address the distinctive needs of women. Our decision to initiate this review was also informed by members of Congress and public interest groups recently raising concerns about what they consider to be deficiencies in BOP’s current management of female inmates.

Washington, DC: U.S. Office of the Inspector General, 2018. 60p.

By The U.S. Civil Rights Commission

This report examines the state of federal civil rights protections for incarcerated women to explore women’s experiences while incarcerated. It covers a range of issues incarcerated women face, including access to healthcare, prevention of sexual assault, discipline and segregated housing, parental rights, and availability of programming. The report provides examples of prison administrations seeking to address these issues and it evaluates the response of the federal government. The Commission’s research includes examination of high rates of a history of trauma reported by incarcerated women, as well as policies responsive to this trauma. The report also offers recommendations to Congress and the executive branch.

Washington, DC: The Commission, 2020. 292p.

By Ashley Nellis

Nationwide one of every 15 women in prison — over 6,600 women — are serving a sentence of life with parole, life without parole, or a virtual life sentence of 50 years or more. The nearly 2,000 women serving life-without-parole sentences can expect to die in prison. Death sentences are permitted by 27 states and the federal government, and currently 52 women sit on death row. This report presents new data on the prevalence of both of these extreme sentences imposed on women.

Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project, 2021. 17p.

By The Sentencing Project

Over the past quarter century, there has been a profound change in the involvement of women within the criminal justice system. This is the result of more expansive law enforcement efforts, stiffer drug sentencing laws, and post-conviction barriers to reentry that uniquely affect women. The female incarcerated population stands nearly five times higher than in 1980. Over half (58%) of imprisoned women in state prisons have a child under the age of 18.1 Between 1980 and 2020, the number of incarcerated women increased by more than 475%, rising from a total of 26,326 in 1980 to 152,854 in 2020. The total count in 2020 represents a 30% reduction from the prior year—a substantial but insufficient downsizing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which some states began to reverse in 2021.

Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project, 2022. 6p.

By Theodore Greenfelder; Dana L. Haynie ; Derek A. Kreager; Sara Wakefield; Sam Nur; Julia Dillavou

This study extends a previous study, the Prison Inmate Networks Study (PINS), which focused on the social organization within a men’s prison unit. These two studies enable gender comparisons that reveal potential differences and similarities in prison social structure and health in men’s and women’s prisons. The current project involving women’s prisons was conducted in three phases. Phase 1 involved the design and implementation of a network and health survey administered to residents in three women’s units in a minimum-security prison and a maximum-security prison. This was done to determine the informal social structures within the prison units and prisoners’ positions within those structures. Phase 2 identified and recruited Phase 1 participants who were release-eligible within 1 year of the baseline survey. These women were administered semi-structured interviews prior to release to determine their future concerns and expectations regarding reentry, with a focus on mothers’ plans and expectations for child reunification. Phase 3 interviewed paroled prisoners and their children 1 year after release to determine the status of their family reunification and well-being. Thus far, this study’s findings reveal the complexity of women’s prison social systems, with implications for correctional policy. There was a more fluid social system in the women’s prisons than in the men’s prisons, which requires daily attention from correctional staff and prisoners. Prison pseudo-families were present to provide support and caring behaviors. Although analyses of pre-release and post-release interviews are ongoing, important lessons are reported on the data-collection process.

Washington, DC: U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2021. 55p.

By The Committee for Economic Development of Australia

This collaborative paper has been produced with contributions from experts, stakeholders and CEDA members. CEDA’s objective in publishing this paper is to encourage constructive debate and discussion on a matter of national economic importance. Justice is a critical institution underpinning economic and social development. Providing access to world-class justice and rehabilitation can help both the victims and perpetrators of crime, while minimising its associated economic and fiscal costs. This paper provides a foundational framework outlining the clear need to reform the imprisonment of women in Australia. It seeks to highlight the key issues and emphasise the urgent need to reduce rates of female imprisonment through a nationally consistent approach. This will help to improve workforce participation and life outcomes, while also reducing wasteful government spending at a time of urgent budget repair. This report does not seek to detail all the complexities of the issue of the incarceration of women.

Melbourne VIC ; Committee for Economic Development of Australia, 2022. 52p.

By Dudley Althaus and Steven Dudley

Since 2006, violence and criminality in Mexico have reached new heights. Battles amongst criminal organizations and between them have led to an unprecedented spike in homicides and other crimes. Large criminal groups have fragmented and their remnants have diversified their criminal portfolios to include widespread and systematic extortion of the civilian population. The state has not provided a satisfactory answer to this issue. In fact, government actors and security forces have frequently sought to take part in the pillaging. Frustrated and desperate, many community leaders, farmers and business elites have armed themselves and created so-called “self-defense” groups. Self-defense groups have a long history in Mexico, but they have traditionally been used to deal with petty crime in mostly indigenous communities. These efforts are recognized by the constitution as legitimate and legal. But the new challenges to security by criminal organizations have led to the emergence of this new generation of militias. The strongest of these vigilante organizations are in Michoacán, an embattled western state where a criminal group called the Knights Templar had been victimizing locals for years and had co-opted local political power. This paper was co-produced by the Wilson Center's Mexico Institute and InSightCrime.

Washington, DC: Wilson Center's Mexico Institute and InSight Crime, 2014. 21p.

By Ian Miller

It is the first monograph-length study of the force-feeding of hunger strikers in English, Irish and Northern Irish prisons. It examines ethical debates that arose throughout the twentieth century when governments authorised the force-feeding of imprisoned suffragettes, Irish republicans and convict prisoners. It also explores the fraught role of prison doctors called upon to perform the procedure. Since the Home Office first authorised force-feeding in 1909, a number of questions have been raised about the procedure. Is force-feeding safe? Can it kill? Are doctors who feed prisoners against their will abandoning the medical ethical norms of their profession? And do state bodies use prison doctors to help tackle political dissidence at times of political crisis?

Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 267p.

By The International Crisis Group

What’s new? A sudden uptick of violence in March, caused by the breakdown of talks between the government and criminal gangs, has sparked a ruthless six-month law enforcement campaign in El Salvador, anchored in unprecedented mass arrests and restriction of legal rights. Why does it matter? Fed up with gang violence, most Salvadorans have applauded the crackdown. But it has also drawn criticism from human rights organisations and could boomerang. Having more than doubled the prison population, the country is headed for a humanitarian crisis in its jails, while gangs, though now in disarray, could strike back. What should be done? Rather than commit to strong-arm tactics for the long term, the government should provide an off-ramp for the thousands of gang members willing to build new lives in law-abiding society. The country’s main foreign partners should support these efforts and revive their cooperation with San Salvador.

Brussels, Belgium: International Crisis Group, 2022.41p.

Edited by William Fielding, Virginia Ballance, Philip Smith, Alexandre Veyrat-Pontet, Heather Sutton.

This publication, a collaboration between the Inter-American Development Bank and the University of The Bahamas, presents the findings of a study of sentenced inmates at the prison in The Bahamas known at the Department of Correctional Services Facility, Fox Hill. The materials provide invaluable insight into public policy to further support the transformation of citizen security in The Bahamas. Robust and reliable information is needed to effectively diagnose, plan, carry out, and monitor correctional policies. The data generated by this publication and its underlying research are key inputs for the IDB’s Citizen Security and Justice Knowledge Strategy, which aims to better inform the public debate and decision makers about institutional performance of the criminal justice sectors in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Washington, DC: Inter American Development Bank, 2019. 225p.

By Rajan Basra and Peter R. Neumann

This report offers a wide‑ranging analysis of the role prisons can play in radicalising people – and in reforming them. Building on a 2010 study that used the same methodology, it examines the policies and approaches of ten European countries, identifying trade‑offs and dilemmas but also principles and best practices that can help governments and policymakers spot new ideas and avoid costly and counterproductive mistakes. • It paints a picture of countries trying to grapple with a challenging – and rapidly changing – situation. Over the past decade, many European countries have had to deal with a significant increase and diversification of their extremist offender populations, raising systemic questions about prison regimes, risk assessments, probation schemes, and opportunities for rehabilitation and reintegration that had previously often been dealt with on a case‑by‑case basis.

London: ICSR, King’s College London , 2020. 60p.

By The Anti-Defamation League, Center on Extremism

While there are almost certainly more, the following is an inventory of white supremacist prison gangs that the ADL Center on Extremism has created by working with correctional institutions and law enforcement, reviewing case files and news stories and tapping its own extensive body of information of white supremacist prison gang activities.

Key Points ■ For nearly four decades, white supremacist prison gangs have constituted one of the primary segments of the white supremacist movement, though they are different in many ways from “traditional” white supremacist groups. ■ Though they typically originate and are active in jails and prisons, most of these gangs are just as active on the streets as behind bars—including involvement in violence and other criminal acts. ■ Though they are white supremacist in nature, these prison gangs are usually a form of organized crime and frequently prioritize profit over ideology. ■ Most white supremacist prison gangs allow only men as full members, but women play important roles in most such gangs, including in criminal activity. ■ There are currently more than 75 different white supremacist prison gangs in at least 38 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, as well as in major county jails. They range from relatively small local gangs all the way to multi-state gangs with a thousand or more members. ■ The crimes committed by white supremacist gang members include traditional criminal activities such as running major drug dealing operations as well as ideologically motivated crimes such as hate crimes. Most white supremacist gangs also have a high association with violence—which includes violence directed even at their own members and associates.

ADL Center on Extremism , 2022. 36p.

By Filip Vojta

How criminal sentences are enforced, is of fundamental concern for the legitimacy of any justice system. However, fairly little is known about the practice of enforcing the prison sentences imposed by the international criminal tribunals. This volume offers a unique interdisciplinary lens - including international criminal and human rights law, penology, (supranational) criminology, transitional justice and terrorism studies - through which the policy and practice of enforcing the sentences of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) are analyzed. It is the first scientific work to comprehensively explore the significance of penal rehabilitation for the perpetrators of international crimes and its implementation in the prison treatment of the ICTY convicts. The analysis is informed by rich and systematically collected empirical data, including indepth interviews with the ICTY/MICT officials, national prison officials, imprisoned ICTY convicts and released ex-prisoners. It shows comparatively - and in previously unseen detail - the trials and tribulations the practice of enforcing the ICTY sentences in different European prisons faces and offers necessary recommendations for the improvement of the vertical system for enforcement of international sentences.

Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2020. 391p,

By Cesare Beccaria. Translated by James Anson Farrer.

This translation contains a 100 page introduction. From the opening page of the treatise: “To the Reader …The ill-conceived criticisms that have been published against this book are founded on the confused notions, and compel me to interrupt for a moment the arguments I was addressing to my enlightened readers, in order to close once and for all every door against the misapprehensions of timid bigotry or against the calumnies of malice and envy…”

Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly. 1880. 299p.

By George Ryley Scott

From the Preface: “In any debate on the merits and demerits of corporal punishment, the real points at issue are often confused, distorted or unnoticed in the personal reaction of the debater to the offences or crimes for which fustigation is held to be a fitting punishment. Indignation or hatred, which often degenerates into fanaticism, out- weighs every other factor. The inflaming or the development of the desire to punish results in the wish to maim or to crucify the individual responsible for the particular crime which has aroused hatred….”

London. T. Werner Laurie Ltd. (1938) 1943. 305p.

By Michel Foucault. Translated by AlanSheridan.

From Chapter 1, Torture. “We have, then, a public execution and a time-table. They do not punish the same crimes or the same type of delinquent. But they each define a certain penal style. Less than a century separates them. It was a time when, in Europe and in the United States,the entire economy of punishment was redistributed. It was a time of great 'scandals'for traditional justice, a time of innumerable projects for reform. It saw a new theory of law and crime, a new rnoral or political justification of the right to punish; old laws were abolished, old customs died out. 'Modern' codes were planned or drawn up: Russia, 1769; Prussia, 1780; Pennsylvania and Tuscany, 1786; Austria, 1788; France 1791 Year IV, 1808 and 1810. It wasa new age for pena justice…..Among so many changes, I shall consider one:the disappearance of torture as a public spectacle…”

Vintage Random House. (1977). 1995.353p.

By Henry Pontell

Henry Pontell convincingly demonstrates that despite the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars, the enactment of many new laws exacting harsher punish-ments, and the growth of a vast criminal justice system, America is losing its “war on crime.” In fact, the crime rate seems to have kept pace with the increase in our ef-forts to control it. Although the United States has the highest incarceration rate of any advanced country, we still manage to experience the highest rate of violent crime. As we continue to focus on deterrence through punishment meted out by our criminal justice system, our courts re-ceive more cases than they can handle and our prisons and jails overflow with in¬mates. The message from a beleaguered criminal justice system, according to Pon-tell, is clear: there is limited capacity to punish.

Indiana University Press. 1985. 140p.

By William (Buzz) Alexander

Prisons are an invisible, but dominant, part of American society: the United States incarcerates more people than any other nation in the world. In Michigan, the number of prisoners rose from 3,000 in 1970 to more than 50,000 by 2008, a shift that Buzz Alexander witnessed firsthand when he came to teach at the University of Michigan. Is William Martinez Not Our Brother? describes the University of Michigan's Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP), a pioneering program founded in 1990 that provides university courses, a nonprofit organization, and a national network for incarcerated youth and adults in Michigan juvenile facilities and prisons. By giving incarcerated individuals an opportunity to participate in the arts, PCAP enables them to withstand and often overcome the conditions and culture of prison, the policies of an incarcerating state, and the consequences of mass incarceration.

Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010. 327p.

Edited by Francesca Torlone, Marios Vryonides

Prison education should be a top priority issue in most societies. Prison conditions must not infringe human rights and dignity and must offer meaningful treatment programmes in order to support inmates in their rehabilitation and reintegration in society. The use of ICTs within a penitentiary context plays a crucial role in that. The present Volume looks at the learning potential in prisons and reports on innovative (e-)learning pathways for basic skills education as designed and tested in Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Romania. Research investigated on what counts as ‘educational’ in such a complex context and how to combine relevant pieces in a ‘learning mosaic’ (the broad range of any learning opportunity across it). This Volume argues that such an approach may be adopted in a wider European perspective within the frame of dynamic security.

Florence, Italy: Firenze University Press, 2016.133p.

By Irene Marti

This open access book provides insights into the everyday lives of long-term prisoners in Switzerland who are labelled as ‘dangerous’ and are preventatively held in indefinite, probably lifelong, incarceration. It explores prisoners’ manifold ways of inhabiting the prison which can be used to challenge well established notions about the experience of imprisonment, such as ‘adaptation’, ‘coping’, and ‘resistance’. Drawing on ethnographic data generated in two high-security prisons housing male offenders, this book explores how the various spaces of the prison affect prisoners’ sense of self and experience of time, and how, in particular, the indeterminate nature of their imprisonment affects their perceptions of place and space. It sheds light on prisoners’ subjective, emplaced and embodied perceptions of the prisons' various everyday time-spaces in the cell, at work, and during leisure time, and the forms of agency they express. It provides insight into prisoners’ everyday habits, practices, routines, and rhythms as well as the profoundly existential issues that are engendered, (re)arranged, and anchored in these everyday contexts. It also offers insights into the penal policies, norms, and practices developed and followed by prison authorities and staff.

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. 363p.