About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

46 Crime & Delinquency 3 (2000)

handle is hein.journals/cadq46 and id is 1 raw text is: Classification for Female Inmates: Moving Forward Kathryn Ann Farr Most state and federal prisons use a single risk-focused classification system to assign female and male inmates to an appropriate security level. Evidence indicates that women pose very little risk to institutional or community security, and that manyfactors thatpre- dict risk in men are invalid predictors of risk in women. Current systems have led to excessive use of overrides in the classification offemale inmates. Findings regarding the needs offemale offenders for adjustment to prison andfor reintegration into the commu- nity are clear and consistent. It is recommended that a greaterfocus be placed on needs- based classification for incarcerated women. Statistics showing a continuing drop in the national crime rate merit cautious optimism. Indeed, throughout the past decade, arrest rates for both violent and serious property crimes in the United States have gone down. In spite of these declines, however, the rate of incarceration has been steadily increasing. Moreover, the number of women in jails and prisons has been growing at a much faster pace than that of men. Between 1985 and 1995, the number of women in U.S. jails and prisons went from 40,500 to 113,000 (almost a three-fold increase), whereas the number of incarcerated men dou- bled, from almost 700,000 to slightly more than 1.4 million (Bureau of Jus- tice Statistics 1997). Stated another way, the percentage of inmates who were women, although still small, went from 4.1 percent in 1980 to 6.4 percent in 1997 (Gilliard and Beck 1998). Expressing concern about the growing number of women prisoners and the relative lack of correctional services for them, feminist criminologists have turned their attention to this burgeoning population and the problems they encounter. An important issue that is sometimes overlooked involves the application and effects of custodial classification on incarcerated women. New inmates are routinely classified into one of several security levels, most commonly maximum, medium, and minimum. Although classification systems differ in their strategies and in the primacy of their goals, usually the main purpose is to determine the level of risk an inmate poses, both to the KATHRYN ANN FARR: Professor of Sociology, Portland State University. CRIME & DELINQUENCY, Vol. 46 No. 1, January 2000 3-17 @ 2000 Sage Publications, Inc. 3 from the SAGE Social Science Collections. All Rights Reserved.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most