Discuss differences between female and male inmate cultures, and why they exist. How do these differences influence adjustment to prison life?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Like their male counterparts, the typical female inmate is young, a member of a minority group, unmarried, uneducated, and either unemployed or underemployed. In addition, a female inmate may have health problems, a history of abuse, and be a mother to small children. Incarcerated women usually have also had a troubled family life and many of them were at-risk children, products of broken homes and the welfare system. It should come as no surprise that many female inmates feel strain and conflict, which are psychological conditions related to violent episodes. Daily life in women's prisons differs somewhat from that in male institutions in that unlike male inmates, women do not present immediate physical danger to staff and fellow inmates. Few female inmates experience the violent atmosphere and incidents of inmate-initiated sexual aggression. Female inmates seem to receive more social support from both internal sources like inmate peers and external sources like family, a factor that may lessen the pains of prison life, help them adjust, and improve the social climate within female institutions.