SEXUAL ABUSE OF WOMEN IN UNITED STATES PRISONS: A MODERN COROLLARY OF SLAVERY

I. INTRODUCTION I initially began working on this paper in connection with a project that looked at the transatlantic abolition movement in the United States and Europe from 1830 to 1870 with a focus on early feminist efforts. (1) In that initial effort, it became clear that sexual abuse of women in prison and the sexual abuse of female slaves shared many similarities. This paper addresses the sexual abuse of women in custody as a more contemporary manifestation of slavery. Part II situates the sexual abuse of women in custody and women slaves in their historical context. Part II also charts the creation of the first penitentiaries in the United States and the "Reform Movement," led by Quaker women who were also involved in the abolition movement, and later in the suffrage movement. (2) It further examines the impact that women's entry into male prisons as workers in the 1970s and 1980s--pursuant to Title VII (3)--had on the sexual abuse of women in custody. Part III will discuss the congruencies and the differences that exist between the sexual abuse of women in custody and slavery. Part IV discusses modern advocacy efforts to address sexual abuse of women in custody and explores the relative lack of advocacy by national women's organizations on this issue. Part V concludes that the sexual abuse of women in custody is a serious contemporary issue, similar to slavery, and that the appropriate societal response to this problem is impeded by deeply imbedded views of women in custody as unworthy and undeserving of attention, and to some degree, as responsible for their own victimization. (4) II. HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF SEXUAL ABUSE OF WOMEN IN CUSTODY & WOMEN SLAVES Historically, both women in custody and women slaves experienced abuse by those in authority. A review of the historical contexts of women's imprisonment and slavery demonstrate that sexual abuse of both is deeply imbedded in both experiences. A. Sexual Abuse of Women in Custody As long as there have been prisons (5) and women in them, (6) women have been sexually victimized. (7) Women in the earliest prisons were poor women, usually of the non-ruling or minority class, and women who had deviated from prevailing social norms for their gender. (8) In the 1860s, women reformers in the United States raised public awareness about the increasing number of women in prison and the terrible conditions of confinement they faced, in particular the sexual abuse of women prisoners by male guards. (9) These reformers pointed out that men were luring women and girls into prostitution. (10) Women prison reformers complained that prisons degraded rather than reformed women by subjecting them to sexual abuse. (11) Thus, the sexual abuse of women existed even in the earliest United States prisons. Around 1870, there was a movement to improve the conditions of incarcerated women. This "Reform Movement" (12) was led, in large part, by Quaker men and women involved in, or sympathetic to, the abolition of slavery and gaining suffrage for women. (13) They believed that women who had run afoul of the law were in need of reforming, (14) and thus opened "reformatories" staffed by "matrons" to teach women the skills they needed to make their way in the world--sewing, gardening, laundry, and cooking. (15) The Reform Movement lasted until the 1930s, when it lost the support of some women's groups who felt that women's efforts needed to be focused on gaining the vote for women rather than prison reform. (16) This "abandonment" left the Reform Movement lethargic and left female prisoners languishing in institutions that retained the old characteristics of reformatories, (17) without formal backing from established and respected women's groups. (18) Even after suffrage was granted, there was a definite fracture of the women's movement, with some feminists voicing the idea that scarce resources were being wasted on the task of "reforming" women offenders. …