In America and around the world, women suffer more in prison. Most female prisoners are housed with little consideration for their needs as women. Now there is a global guide for the treatment of female offenders called the Bangkok Rules.
Certain abuses happen to female offenders just because they are women. It was over a decade ago when I volunteered as an advocate for inmates in the HIV unit of Alabama’s Tutwiler Prison for Women. Despite earlier lawsuits brought against Alabama’s correctional system, abuses continue there.
Today, federal investigators are calling Tutwiler Prison a “toxic” house of horrors where “repeated and open sexual behavior” is the norm. A Department of Justice investigation found that for two decades prisoners at Tutwiler have been subjected to all manner of humiliation.
The list of abuse includes officers forcing women into sexual acts in exchange for basic sanitary supplies, male guards openly watching women shower and use the bathroom, a staff-organized strip show, and a constant barrage of sexually offensive language, according to the New York Daily News.
However, those abuses in Alabama may now be an international incident. The Bangkok Rules, enacted by the United Nations General Assembly, is the first international guide to the treatment of incarcerated female offenders.
There are more than 625,000 women and girls held in prisons worldwide. America has over 2.2 million incarcerated persons. America’s “War on Drugs” has had a devastating effect on women and men, alike. With only 5 percent of the world’s population, the U.S. has 25 percent of the world’s inmates. Most American women in jails and prisons are serving sentences for nonviolent drug-related crimes.
Of that incarcerated population more than 200,000 are women and over one million more are on probation and parole, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. This means American prisons and jails hold about one third of the world’s incarcerated female population.
Female offenders need special protections. As with the suspected Tutwiler Prison guards, many female offenders are subject to rape by male guards and female inmates. Like male inmates, women struggle with substance abuse and mental illness. More women are victims of physical and sexual abuse prior to entering prison than men.
The Bangkok Rules do not ignore the crimes committed by women. The Rules take into account their special needs. Community re-entry programs are rarely designed for women. Prisons are located far from family support, breaking a mother’s bond with her children and weakening her community networks, making re-entry more difficult.
In America, racial disparities in the criminal justice system lead to longer sentences for African-American and Latino women. Since nearly 70 per cent of African-American children live in female-headed households, the loss of that parent to incarceration could mean placement of children in foster care. The number of incarcerated African-American women has increased 800 percent over the last two decades.
The Bangkok Rules address common issues between women offenders from Alabama to Algiers. But, the Rules are limited. They would not reach the type of racial disparities found in America’s criminal justice system. Enforcement of the Rules is primarily by international peer pressure, and without real punishment.
Gloria J. Browne-Marshall is associate professor of constitutional law at John Jay College and a legal correspondent covering the U.S. Supreme Court and the United Nations. Twitter:@GBrowneMarshall.
