Abstract
This study reflects on the condition of women inside prisons in Italy, with the aim of bringing out the problems that are generated around the combination of gender and detention. The marginalization of women prisoners are topics that have had little response in the academic world, perhaps due to the small number and the lack of criminal dangerousness. Even the Italian legislator has paid more attention to the role of the mother prisoner, than to the needs of the woman as such as if motherhood were the only female dimension worthy of being taken into consideration in the elaboration of prison treatment. In Italy, the “Women and Prison” Table of the “States General of Penal Enforcement” had approached the issue even outside of maternity, addressing the relationship with prison life, professional training, physical and psychiatric health and with the overcoming of the concept of treatment as “cure” or “correction”; with a decisive shift from the medical-therapeutic terrain to that of empowerment. Despite international indications the wide sphere of interests and specific needs that characterize the female universe, even in the prison microcosm, has remained in the background of a differentiated punitive system, often influenced by a “stereotyped” perception of the role of women in society, which projects the female and gender issue also within the model of justice and punishment. It is precisely the small numerical weight of female detention that has historically created difficulties for women in prison, especially for minor children, because prison is designed for men.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Women, Prison, Stereotypes, Maternity, Children
