Freedom-deprived women: social representations of prison, violence, and their consequences

Abstract

Objective: To understand the social representations that women deprived of their freedom have of imprisonment, violence, and their consequences. Method: An exploratory-descriptive qualitative study with 15 women from a female penitentiary in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Semistructured interview was used. Data submitted to thematic content analysis and interpreted under Social Representations. Results: Categories identified: “Enclosed and abandoned in the prison environment”: loss of contact with relatives, difficulties living in prison, and right to be reinserted into society. “Imprisoned in a cycle of social inequality”: lack of support, access to education and employment opportunities, leading them to engage in new illicit activities and consequent imprisonment. Final considerations: The social representations of prisoners suggest that they perceive themselves to be doubly “imprisoned”, either from the objective point of view, as an individual deprived of freedom; or subjective, as citizens who have their rights disrespected and their possibilities of rehabilitation limited by the prison system.

In or Out: Justice-Involved Women Characterization and Their Perceptions about Penal Sanctions

“…Thus, exploring how imprisoned women experience their sentence (Hedderman et al, 2011;Malloch & McIvor, 2011) and how such experiences influence their linking to criminal lifestyle (Scherer et al, 2020) is vital. Previous research underlined that women tend to provide different meanings to the sentences and to deal differently with the experience of condemnation (Rumgay, 2004;Wright et al, 2012).…”

Noções De Saúde, Práticas De Autocuidado E Necessidades De Saúde Mulheres Privadas De Liberdade

“…Em junho de 2017, 37.828 mulheres estavam privadas de liberdade nas 1.507 penitenciárias cadastradas, correspondendo a taxa de ocupação de 118,8% e déficit total de 5.991 vagas (2) . Ademais, o sistema prisional brasileiro originalmente constituído aos homens foi, posteriormente, adaptado às mulheres (3) . Cerca de 75% dos estabelecimentos prisionais são masculinos, 18% são mistos, 7% são femininos e outros possuem ala adaptada às mulheres em estabelecimento masculino e, apenas 14,2% das unidades possuem espaço reservado para gestantes e lactantes (2) .…”

The Professional Dimension in Spanish Prison Socio-Educational Action

“…The position of women prisoners should be highlighted, as they represent a vulnerable minority population due to their low institutional presence [15], which explains the differences and limitations in structures, resources, means, specific programmes, adaptation of prison gender policies, and recognition of their characteristics, needs, and potential [11,[16][17][18], despite the institutional advances that have taken place in the last few years [19]. In addition, they experience greater social stigmatisation and family distancing [10,20], which requires personalised professional accompaniment.…”

“…Women are considered to be a group with a high probability of insertion (61.9% of professionals), despite the great difficulties they experience due to their vulnerability and social stigma [20]. Women prisoners in an open regime report that only 10.3% consider the socio-educational actions received by the technical team to be useful, therefore, the prison context has limitations in terms of institutional suitability for women [16][17][18].…”