(en) Canada, Cause Commune #34 - Summary + Women and Prison (fr)

Summary --- Women and Prison -- Emancipate this sexuality that we can not see --- Mapping 
of revolutionary anarchism Eugu?lionne ---- ---- The Anarchists and the mayor --- Zero 
Deficit .. Permanent austerity! - Unemployment: Solidarity needed --- Download PDF 
http://www.causecommune.net/sites/www.causecommune.net/files/publications/journal/CC34.pdf
---- In recent months, there has been a boom in media around the lives of incarcerated 
men. Women prisoners were more present in the media through the TV unit 9 which romance 
character oppressive structures imprisonment and individualizes the characters lived in 
the dichotomizing (a minority are in units, good and bad prisoner prisoner) . However, the
media obviously forget that incarcerated women face the same conditions or even worse 
while being oppressed by their appropriation as women are often marginalized, racialized, 
colonized and impoverished socially.

For several years, the overcrowding in prisons for women crystallizes due to the increase 
of women in prison following the stricter laws. In the United States, women represent 7% 
of the prison population. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of women in prison has 
increased by 108% as opposed to 77% for men (1). In the Canadian context, there was an 
increase of 200% of incarcerated women in the last 15 years (2). As for the representation
of racialized women in prison in the United States, 1 in 300 black women is incarcerated, 
one Latin woman of 704 will be compared to one white woman in 1099 (3). This is not due to
an increase in crime, but racial profiling and precarious living conditions, as well as 
the war on narcotrafiquantEs. Moreover, despite the fact that crack and cocaine have the 
same active ingredient, the penalties are often severe for possession of crack and almost 
only affect low-income populations. In this regard, the drug use among women is linked to 
another male violence they have suffered. In regard to their economic insecurity, the 
United States, only 40% of women were employed full-time prior to their incarceration, and
30% received social benefits (4). In addition, the vast majority of them do not have a 
college education. Note that 65% of incarcerated women in the United States have had a 
child before the age of 18 years (5). To add, 80% of women in prison in Canada are for 
reasons related to poor socio-economic, 90% are indigenous and 82% are survivors of rape, 
incest and physical abuse (6). It is important to emphasize the criminalization of women 
in prostitution and an overrepresentation of women say street prostitutes in prison. Also,
the vast majority of arrests for prostitution surrounding the women.

The prison rules, the imposition of a moral model and the conditions of reintegration 
discredit women's autonomy, withdraw their privacy and help keep them in a state of 
ownership and patriarchal state while accentuating their oppressions. In this regard, 
there is a psychologizing and psychiatrisation said crime which individualizes social 
conditions up to deny the structures that cause social inequalities. The vision of the 
crime being created by the dominant discourse and political agendas feeds a social 
discourse of revenge.

Like the militant circles, militancy in prison also undergoes the overvaluation of a male 
model focuses on strength and physical virility. That is why there is little analysis on 
the militancy of women in prison since their means of action are more focused on 
strategies of denunciation, support and empowerment to face prison structures and economic
disruption (eg do not go to prison labor). Although the struggle of women in prison and 
this is just as relevant as that of men (monopolizing violence), it is underestimated and 
undervalued as that of women in other areas of militancy.

Thus, the prison is a pillar of the capitalist system and patriarchal. The passage of the 
women in the prison system mark their minds and bodies to give them a more permanent 
social label. Expectations that we have towards them are stereotyped and too often we 
forget the structural reasons and specific oppressions experienced by women.

Notes
(1) Heather C. West, Prison Inmates at Maidyear 2009 - Statistical Tables, Bureau of 
Justice, A 2010, 4, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gouv/content/pub/pdf/pim09st.pdf.
(2) Elizabeth Fry Society of Quebec
(3) Heather C. West, Prison Inmates at Maidyear 2009 - Statistical Tables, Bureau of 
Justice, A 2010, 4, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gouv/content/pub/pdf/pim09st.pdf.
(4) Ibid.
(5) Heather C. West, Prison Inmates at Maidyear 2009 - Statistical Tables, Bureau of 
Justice, A 2010, 4, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gouv/content/pub/pdf/pim09st.pdf.
(6) Elizabeth Fry Society of Quebec

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Following calls her "boyfriend" ass?n?s him, she calls the police. The two constables who 
are checking his name on the computer. It is this that leads to the station they found a 
failure to appear in a case of 2 years ago occurred in Gasp?. Allowed to rot two days in 
detention at the courthouse. Following the intervention of the representative of the SEF 
support service with the Court Liaison Officers of the Surete du Quebec, the release 
should have been raised because of its failure to have submitted to the Court . Who is to 
blame? What happened to his complaint of assault? Why these five days of detention without
cause?
(Testimony of Sophie)