It is safe to assume that everyone knows that women and men are different. The needs of a woman are sometimes completely different from the needs of a man. While neither is more important than the other, it is helpful to note these differences and handle them accordingly. So it is with women and men in prison. Since the number of women convicts is increasing rapidly, recognizing this difference in needs is becoming more and more valuable. Once these needs are recognized, it is easier to find a way to meet them. .
It is first essential to start with understanding in what ways women work. Women work on a more interpersonal and emotional level than men. They express their emotions and needs differently than men. Knowing this, jail administrators can try to keep an open mind to what they might encounter from women emotionally. Women need to communicate with people instead of just take strict orders. This can be dealt with perhaps by having a more open line of communication with female offenders, or having them participate in activities that would more appeal to their emotional side rather than intellectual or physical side. Merry Morash, Timothy Bynum, and Barbara Koons in their article, "Women Offenders: Programming Needs and Promising Approaches" suggest, ".active listening, patience in explaining rules and expectations.and awareness of emotional dynamics." .
Another aspect to keep in mind is the possibility of special treatment of mental illness due to the fact that female offenders are more likely to have a history of sexual and/or physical abuse. In 1991, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics survey of state prison inmates reported that ".more than 43% of women inmates said they had been physically or sexually abused before their admission to prison." While sexual and physical abuses have a strong affect on both men and women, there is no one blanket method of treating them.