8 Aug 2022

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Jailcare: Finding the Safety Net for Women Behind Bars

Format: Other

Academic level: College

Paper type: Book Report

Words: 1176

Pages: 4

Downloads: 0

Carolyn Sufrin compiles the book titled, Jailcare: Finding the Safety Net for Women Behind Bars which explains the condition of women who have been incarcerated as well as documents their fears, triumphs, challenges and the condition of incarceration as it is in the country (Sufrin, 2017). The book employs the use of qualitative research method to examine the lives of different women in an eight-part series that takes issues like being an institutional burden to care, triaging everyday, cultivating ambiguity, following a clinic routine, gestating care, reproductive and carceral desire, custody of enforced as well as forced intimacy and being at home and in jail. In all these eight parts, the author critically and instinctively examines the lives of all the women who act as the subjects for the study and mirror the lives of other women in society. 

The book opens the mind of the reader to the events and the conditions of the jails and how these impact on the lives of women incarcerated in them. It argues that women are subjected to unfair and unequal conditions that make their lives in these facilities deplorable and challenging to live in (Sufrin, 2017) . So d espicable is their conditions that some of them are forced into incarceration while pregnant and this goes undetected for long periods. Some of them are forced to deliver within the facilities, even though the conditions of these facilities are not built to anticipate such instances (Sufrin, 2017) . Therefore, the book establishes that although men and women are structurally and biologically different, women end up in the same conditions or even worse than men, and this is an example of social injustice. 

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The author uses further techniques of qualitative research to assist the reader in understanding how society performs social injustice towards incarcerated women (Sufrin, 2017) . The women offer their accounts in various interviews, and these are documented into a series of excerpts that formally make up the entire book. At the culmination of the book is the story of one of the central figures in the story by the name Kima. She writes a poem in which she has to continuously cycle from the jail in San Fransisco to the Tenderloin district in the city. Moreover, she has to cycle to the drug treatment areas found in the Bay area. Kima composes a poem called "Poetry Blues" which speaks to the promise of redemption that is normally imbricated in the philosophy of incarceration (Sufrin, 2017) . This means the exploitation of guilt without a name, and this is a rectifiable beat that ticks to no end. 

The author notes that although mass imprisonment is on the increase in the US, the tendency is mostly affecting women (Sufrin, 2017) . Although more men are incarcerated compared to the number of women, the conditions women are forced to live in are more despicable compared to those of men. Imprisonment makes women feel vulnerable in their different surroundings, and this makes them feel the need to seek out ways of protection (Sufrin, 2017)

Imprisoned women typically lack such social amenities as financial wealth and mutual support. Moreover, they require practical relations and the substance of a safe childhood. These are some of the factors that lead them to the place of losing out in the area of law enforcement and living according to the provisions of the law (Sufrin, 2017) . The interaction patterns of women in the prisons are shaped by these factors which force them to seek out means and ways for personal protection (Sufrin, 2017)

The author struggles with the sense of guilt and the pain that permeates the San Fransisco jail clinic for pregnant women. She notes that the use of terms like a prison-industrial complex and structural violence fails typically to provide closure for people most affected. The book refers to other literary works like Righteous Dopefiend, which was written in 2009 and Addicted, Pregnant and Poor (Sufrin, 2017) . One of the latest responses that were meant to deal with the issue of pregnant women in incarceration involved the implementation of gender-responsive strategies. The strategies included the building of prisons with more open layouts designed to facilitate more diverse groups of women (Sufrin, 2017) . Furthermore, the author notes that providing the women with the required tampons and pads proved proble matic in the prison facilities. The authorities were concerned that women would use these tools to make weapons or to clog the toilets. 

The author credits her observant participation in working as an anthropologist and a physician in the San Francisco jail. These were aimed at destabilizing the monolithic representation of prisons as well as the limited depictions of imprisonment (Sufrin, 2017) . She intends to show that jails are not only sites where punishment and discipline occurs but that these are sites in which women live full lives and undergo the same issues as other members of the society (Sufrin, 2017) . While this is the status quo for many women in incarceration, she says things could be b etter only if the authorities made it their aim to improve the situation and the living conditions for women. 

The author makes a case that jail care seeks to complicate the characterization of the carceral system, leaving no room for any form of ambiguity. Moreover, it locks out any possibility for care and intimacy behind bars (Sufrin, 2017) . The author defines the notion of responsibility in three dimensions which include practice, relationship, and care. The use of this st ructural and technical framework allows the author to situate the San Fransisco jail within the more large network of social services and security in the US Federal Government (Sufrin, 2017) . She seeks to illustrate the gaps in the correctional facility as well as the frayed edges. 

Whereas incarceration centres are seen mainly as centres for punishment and all manner of mistreatment, the author tries to humanize it and make it understandable that the jail systems are initially intended for purposes of rehabilitation and reintegration into the society. There exist porous boundaries between the community of San Fransisco and the clinic and these present difficult questions regarding the responsibility of the government in caring for pregnant women (Sufrin, 2017) . Even though they are offenders of the law, they deserve the rights and privileges accorded to other women in contemporary society. 

From the title, it is clear to see that the author is interested in the manner in which institutions like the carceral clinic care for and articulate issues affecting women who can be said to have been abandoned by the system (Sufrin, 2017) . Incarcerated women are technically left on their own by the system, and this is regardless of their rights as individual citizens. Moreover, the book further examines the issues of motherhood in jail and how these affect child welfare as well as outcomes (Sufrin, 2017) . Even though women who have children are supposed to serve their jail terms, it does not stop them from being mothers, and the state needs to do all it can to ensure that they enjoy motherhood even from behind bars. 

Overall, the author makes a point for how the state offers wanting care to the mothers in prison among many other challenges women face daily. Although more men are incarcerated compared to the number of women who are placed behind bars, women are more likely to be subjected to despicable conditions compared to men. The state and the Federal government have the mandate to ensure that women get fair treatment even during their time of incarceration. This is important because not only does it safeguard the life of the child, but it also improves behavioural outcomes and expectations. 

Works Cited 

Sufrin, C. (2017). Jailcare: Finding the Safety Net for Women Behind Bars. New York: University of California Press. 

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StudyBounty. (2023, September 16). Jailcare: Finding the Safety Net for Women Behind Bars.
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