Majority of State’s Women Inmates Abused as Children, Warden Says

The majority of the 100,000 women imprisoned in California were physically or sexually abused as children, the warden for the California Institute for Women in Frontera said Wednesday at the Orange County Child Abuse Conference.

While Susan Poole said she knows of no statistics on the phenomenon, she said the average female offender reports a typical pattern of violence or sexual abuse in their original homes.

“They become criminalized by running away to save themselves,” Poole said.

Many become prostitutes and may later be arrested for other offenses, she said. About 80,000 of the women prisoners are mothers who if untreated are at risk of perpetuating a “cycle of incarceration.”

Their own children may be placed with relatives or foster homes or shunted from one place to another, she said, and some have been offered for adoption without their mothers’ knowledge.

Separation is the most painful part of incarceration for both mothers and children, she said. Infants may have trouble bonding; toddlers may be afraid it is their fault; school-age children might worry about prison safety, and teen-agers may suffer from social stigma, Poole said.

There are now 30,000 children in California whose mothers are in jail, Poole said.

In the United States, the number of women in jail has jumped 138% over the last 10 years compared to 94% for men, Poole said.

Poole said the increase may be the result of a combination of women committing more serious crimes and police arresting them more often. As a result of the women’s movement, she said, judges have been more inclined to give women the same amount of jail time as their male counterparts regardless of their parental role.

However, she said, some courts are beginning to consider that women prisoners are still the primary caretakers of children and have special needs.

For example, there are now about 100 residential facilities scattered throughout the state where selected prisoners can live with up to three children while taking parenting classes or looking for work.