Women’s bodies do two things that make women easier to punish than men: menstruate and give birth. That biology controls the destiny of women in prison is obvious in the statistics alone, from the ‘positive side’ (women’s generally less violent offenses and shorter sentences), to the most negative (the frequency with which incarcerated women, unlike men, remain the primary caregivers of families even during their incarceration, a situation often resulting in the break-down of the family and a second generation of incarcerates).
A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric