England 1700s: new alternative for a commuted death sentence was to transport convicts to the American colonies and Austrailaua with various work sentences. 1 in 8 women forced into sentences of prostutioin. .
Middle Ages: Women burned to death for commiting adultery or murder, while male adulteries and wife killer rarely considered offenders.
Elizabeth Fry: Est ladies society for promoting reformation of female prisons in England. Also segrated prisons by sex, hired women to supervise women, decreasing hard labor required by women prisoners.
Reform movement: began in England. Group of women est Magdalen Home in 1830 to reform prostitutes through religious and motivational instruction. Goal was to remold rather than punish women by encouraging proper gender roles.
Civil War reform movement: widows of war soilders filled the jails as prostitutes and thieves during 1800s. Society as a whole was obsessed with controlling social disorder of women, therefore placing harsher punishment on women criminals.
US reform movement: called for single sex prisons where women prisoners would be administered by women.
Custodial: tradition prisons designed for men but housed women-rehab was not the goal. Goal was to confine immates at lowest cost until their sentences expired. Occurred in late 18th and 19th centuries. Little privacy from male guards or prisoners. Mortality rate of infants born here was high. .
Reformatories: designed to house women offenders. Structure was cottage style design, reflecting gender stereotypes. Started in US in NE and Mid-west after Civil War. Ran by women and focused rehab toward idea that women are different than men. First started in Londan in 1853. First US in Indiana in 1874, then expanded. Successful. Encouraged gender roles like cooking, sewing and cleaning. Started out with white and native born offenders to a larger more diverse group of women. Firm and strict displine.
