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Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice

No. 35: Women and crime: imprisonment issues

Patricia Weiser Easteal
ISBN 0 642 17514 4 ; ISSN 0817-8542
May 1992

Abstract

The number of women in Australian prisons has increased significantly over the past decade. Easteal provides a brief profile of the sociodemographic and sentence background of women in prison. She highlights the issues affecting female inmates: illegal drugs; high security prisons and intermingling of security levels; officer prisoner relations; lesbianism and the inmate hierarchy; medical care; counselling; drug withdrawal; suicide and self inflicted injuries; work and education opportunities; family visits; and children. Recommendations for improving prison conditions are outlined.

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