This can lead to confusion and anxiety when they return to the outside world where men are available to them. Homosexual relations are the only means for participatory sex in prison, and many, female inmates in particular, undergo changes in identity and self perception. Female long-term prisoners tend to be poorly educated and unemployed. Some research has shown that women are treated more severely, or labeled as mentally ill, for minor rules infractions in comparison to men. Andrews explained that prisons are not all like what people see in the movies.
Most people picture dark, cement cells with rusting iron bars and the sounds of chains.
But it's not really like that anymore. Female felons do their time in a state of the art designed prison, Donaldson said. In much comfort, usually better then they would if they were left on the street. Women inmates can live up to eight in a cell. Within the cell they have a toilet area, a shower, and a sink area.