The target population include women living in correctional facilities. The recreation benefits and constraints will also be discussed in length. Multiple factors have made women commit crimes, for instance social inequality leading to poverty, discrimination, trauma, violence, drug abuse and lack of mental health services. Majority of women in correctional facilities are charged with; fraud and related crimes, illicit drug felonies, theft and related atrocities, robbery, extortion and connected offenses ( Kaeble & Minton, 2016) . Statistics indicate that 30% of women in penal institution have prior psychiatric hospitalization, 70% have record of sexual abuse and 86% have past of physical abuse. Indigenous women are considered the fastest emerging prison inhabitants ( Mak, Ho, Kwong & Li, 2018) . Over a ten year period, the number of women in Canadian federal institution grew by thirty five per cent. There was more than 75% increase in the number of incarcerated women which was a rise from 26,378 (in 1980) to 225,060 (in 2017) was reported. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of women under supervision in the United States Correction System between the years 2016 to 2017 was as follows; 111,360 were held in prison, 113,700 in jail and 113,724 in parole ( Parveen, 2018) . The criminal justice system treats women differently from the point of arrest, sentencing and corrective measures applied. The gender blind measures used have led to an increase of women incarceration .
Population Background Information
In September 2014, The International Centre for Prison Studies reported that six twenty five thousand women were held in correctional facilities across the globe. Women undergoing correction for an offense are usually imprisoned in local jails, correctional centers and detention centers. This excludes girls aged between 12 and 17 years who are usually held in facilities operated by Ministry of children and youth Justice Services. The correctional service of Canada operates a federal institution where women sentenced to more than two years serve. On the other hand, the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services operates the provisional institutions where women sentenced for less than twenty four months serve ( Mak et al., 2018) . The Vanier Centre for women situated in Milton houses one hundred and twenty four women, some of whom are awaiting their sentence and trial. The women population in correctional facilities is growing at a high rate, this rate varies from region to region, and nationally sixty three out of every one hundred thousand women were in held in corrective facilities this was reported in the year 2017.
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Recreation Benefits
Women living in corrective facilities are entitled to recreational and leisure benefits to improve their independence, well-being and health. The programs are made available considering the inmates age, security status and mental capabilities. The recreational benefits enhances institutional safety and reduces recidivism. According to Commonwealth of Kentucky (2016), The Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women (KCIW) which is an adult female correctional institution located in Pewe Valley offers outdoors and indoors recreational activities for example body work outs, sports, television time, arts and musical instruments. The activities give women time to steam off and brings them excitement, joy and fun.
Educational Programs for Students
The program offers opportunities for self-improvement. Thus inmates get the chance to make return preparation to their societies as better individuals ( Madden, 2019). Programs such as mathematics, art and craft, language, computer skills, victim empathy and reading are available in most facilities. A good example is the Utah Department of correction which added postsecondary certification such as automotive and residential construction to their program in 2009 ( Kaeble, Glaze, Tsoutis & Minton, 2016) .
Mothers Infant Contact
2/3 of female prisoners are mothers of minors with more than 8 million parents living in correctional facilities. Allocating time for mother child bonding allows women who become mothers while incarcerated by having quality time with their children. In some cases they are allowed to stay with their infants in the correctional facilities. Mothers in prison nursery in Nebraska reported that the contact aided in the relationship with their child and lead to a decrease in recidivism. According to Block and Potthast (2017), mother infant bonding time may act as their turning point since they receive motherly support, encouragement and a reason to be responsible again. Allowing these women to spend time with their kids in a supervised environment provides positive outcomes.
Recreation Constraints
Research has found that the target population encounter more constraints in their recreational and leisure activities compared to men as a result of gender responsibilities expectations. The constraints are discussed below.
Elderly Women
The purpose of recreational activities is to make women feel free and enjoy themselves through activities made available to them for instance sports. However most elderly women have no interest to participate hence tend to exclude themselves from such activities ( Parveen, 2018). A Study of the Women Inmates of Selected District Jails of Western Uttar Pradesh showed that recreational services might lead to anxiety, stress and depression instead of easing their situations. The elderly may not develop their recreational preference because of their ability, personality and attitude of other inmates towards them. They tend to be sensitive, self-consciousness, shy, experience low self-esteem and have bad body image. Therefore, the elderly women perceive recreational services as unnecessary and prefer not to participate in the activities.
Recreational and leisure activity budget
Recreation and leisure services comes with huge expenses for instance upgrading security, this drains the public budget. The public, legislators and institution administration as a result work towards elimination of these facilities. The program administrators are constantly asked to cut the costs of the institution and show justification of available programs, thus end up targeting recreation activities for cutbacks.
Security challenge
Inmates without social skills believe that fighting is an anger outlet. As a result, fights might occur anytime during recreational activities resulting into extensive violence and altercations. High level of security is required and sometimes the staffs experience issues when implementing these security measures. As shown above by Leach (2019), inmates consequently receive inadequate supervision especially when there are numerous activities going on which gives way to violence escalation.
Violence
According to Mak and Li (2018), t here is a possibility of increased aggression in women who participate in competitive sports due to their tendencies to display hostile and anti-social behaviors. When they are angered, instead of using the activity to release it, they keep it and become more violent. Therefore, recreational sports ends up promoting inmates disorder.
Statistics from 2014, indicate a slight increase of women inmates in different correctional facilities across the world. Recreation activities help women break up the jail life monotony, relieves stress, promote wellness and physical health and increase their self-esteem. Recreational and leisure activities in women facilities comes with numerous benefits, However, they also have limitations which include; overcrowding in the service section, rehabilitation programs cut offs, limited staffs, drug abuse opportunities, violence and poor attitudes of administration towards recreation activities among others. Corrective facilities should work towards eliminating the limitation and achieve recreational and leisure services goals. From this research it is evident that the recreational activities benefits outweigh its limitations. Therefore, recreational services should be adopted more in women correctional facilities.
References
Block, K. J., & Potthast, M. J. (2017). Girl Scouts Beyond Bars: Facilitating Parent-Child Contact in 5 Correctional Settings. In Children with Parents in Prison (pp. 93-110). Routledge.
Kaeble, D., Glaze, L., Tsoutis, A., & Minton, T. (2016). Correctional populations in the United States, 2014. Bureau of Justice Statistics , 1-19.
Leach, E. (2019). 'Doing Her Time': A Human Rights Analysis of Overcrowding in Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre. Griffith Journal of Law & Human Dignity , 7 (1).
Madden, M. P. (2019). Correctional Recreation: The Benefits of Recreation While Incarcerated.
Mak, V. W., Ho, S. M., Kwong, R. W., & Li, W. L. (2018). A gender-responsive treatment facility in correctional services: The development of psychological gymnasium for women offenders. International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology , 62 (4), 1062-1079.
Parveen, R. (2018). Imprisonment and Health A Study of the Women Inmates of Selected District Jails of Western Uttar Pradesh.
