Women’s Experiences of &Ldquo;successful (Re) Integration”

Anyone who has experienced someone going to jail knows the emotional pain that they will experience, and you may feel as if you too are serving a sentence. It is not common and natural to be upset over someone going to jail and becoming a prisoner. Prison is a life changing experience that has an effect on an ex female prisoners life forever. Women who were in conflict with the law encounter challenges throughout their lives with the criminal justice system after their release from prison. The correctional service in Canada takes away a woman’s personal independence. Therefore it is in the communities best interest to attempt to rehabilitate ex-female prisoners. The community does not plan for a female prisoners release from prison; however, the state makes an attempt to reintegrate ex female prisoners back into the community, and by being in prison it encourages more surveillance for ex female prisoners after they leave prison.

The authors’ main argument is how female prisons by their nature are not effective because the women lived in an institution and they cannot be integrated back into a non institution. “The control experienced in prison echoes in women’s lives on the outside: they experience dislocation, marginalization, and a need to (re)negotiate their lives (Shantz, Kilty Frigon, 105). Once the female ex-prisoners leave jail they are not prepared to live in society because they are accustomed to the rules placed on them in prison. There are limits on an ex-female prisoners ability to survive after release. The prison creates a dependency rather than an independency for female prisoners. The women have a lack of education, experience, and skills to reintegrate into society. The society is constantly changing and these women encounter obstacles more than ever before. Many previously incarcerated women are forced to return to the same difficult socio-economic lifestyle that caused their initial conflict with the law. “Unfortunately, many women are released only to find themselves staying in a homeless shelter or on the street” (Shantz, Kilty, Frigon, 99). Some ex-female prisoners are forced to lives in shelter or the street because there is no government funding for houses. Consequently, prison serves as a deterrent for creating a new beginning. “Systemic failure to assist women coming out of prison, the effects of the prison continue to and follow women as they move on and out into their communities” (Shantz,Kilty,Firgon,104). The state is not prepared for a woman’s release from prison as they prepared for men. There is a lack of planning upon discharge of ex-female prisoners, and their needs are rarely addressed.