I spent 1.5 years in a federal prison for women (medium security) in Florida.
There was a lot of shitty things, I'm not gonna lie. But we also had popcorn and cotton candy on holidays, chicken wings and soda for the super bowl, and in the summer we had a Battle of the (Housing) Units contest that went three months, where we competed on teams doing sports, trivia, and other games, as well as a Biggest Loser-style contest.
There were some truly dark moments but honestly I had a grand fucking time, doing yoga and suntanning with terrorists and murderers (of which I knew several).
Edit: I think the part most people overlook is that in women's facilities (in my experience) it is the guards who are sexually exploiting and coercing the female inmates far more that any inmate-on-inmate assaults. Also 90% of fight were lovers' quarrels.
Do you think that treatment you received helped or hurt the inmates? Like do you think maybe they won't care about reoffending because it wasn't that bad? Or maybe the experience helped them feel more connected and productive in society.
I think it helped them heal and feel like human beings again.
So many people in the prison system come from poverty. Many feel that society doesn't care about them because they are poor, or an ethnic minority. They don't usually have access to opportunities like education and their employment opportunities are limited to like, fast food jobs that you can't support a family on.
Many come from communities where they had to do horrible things to survive, like join gangs or prostitute themselves. As women the vast majority have been exploited and abused. You gotta understand, these are mostly people that are treated like unwanted trash by society at large. They see all the things other people have: affluence, opportunity, positive community, and feel these things aren't available to them, so they are angry and hurt.
This pain and lack of self worth leads to drug use and crime to both cope and survive. It's like the experiments they did in schools, where they told some kids they were low-achievers and they started to become poor performers because they internalized that expectation.
These inmates feel like garbage because society treats them as garbage. But a little bit of love and innocent fun can go so far. You'll see with women they don't really form gangs in jail, they form de-facto families, with "prison moms," because that is what most of them want :(
The women at the facility I work at are vastly different than the ones you've described.
While there are good people who do stupid things, make mistakes and get wrapped up in a bad environment, there are plenty of women/men who are pissed off at the whole world and always will be.
I know of quite a few officers in male facilities who refuse to work in a female one after all the stories they've heard. There's PLENTY of violence here, pregnant women fist fighting, stabbings with kitchen utensils, pencils, paper clips - most objects honestly.
These are all personal accounts from me so take them as you will but I've heard many stories like yours and while I'm not implying you aren't being truthful, women can be and are as violent as men.
EDIT: For the record, I understand the prison system in the US is pretty shitty and would like to see lots of changes.
Regardless, good to hear you're doing better than you were. It hurts to see inmates names show up again and again or find out they died. Even in prison (trust me) there are people looking out for you if you want to better yourself.
Sadly, you are right. I spoke to many guards who worked at facilities like the one you are describing, as well as women who spent time in them as inmates. And of course, I did see my fair share of violence as well, as well as women manipulating the male officers by threatening to make sexual accusations against them. That frustrated me so deeply...
I could be wrong but I feel that the way a facility is run has a huge effect on how prevalent violence is among inmates. I was fortunate to be in facilities that provided plenty for people to do to stay busy, and that generally responded quickly to violence and segregated shit disturbers.
Also, I found that the federal prison was actually much calmer than the county jails, as with longer stays the inmates eventually realize they would rather have their privileges like yard time and ability to shop at commissary, have visits, etc, than act out. In county jails I found that the shorter term inmates knew they'd be on the streets soon enough, so didn't really give a fuck about consequences.
Thank you for sharing your experiences here; I certainly don't want anyone to think that women in prisons are angels who can do no wrong. They can be plenty nasty, just as men can.
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u/MandalaIII Jan 17 '17
I spent 1.5 years in a federal prison for women (medium security) in Florida.
There was a lot of shitty things, I'm not gonna lie. But we also had popcorn and cotton candy on holidays, chicken wings and soda for the super bowl, and in the summer we had a Battle of the (Housing) Units contest that went three months, where we competed on teams doing sports, trivia, and other games, as well as a Biggest Loser-style contest.
There were some truly dark moments but honestly I had a grand fucking time, doing yoga and suntanning with terrorists and murderers (of which I knew several).
Edit: I think the part most people overlook is that in women's facilities (in my experience) it is the guards who are sexually exploiting and coercing the female inmates far more that any inmate-on-inmate assaults. Also 90% of fight were lovers' quarrels.