Prisons are inherently traumatic places that dehumanize people in the name of security and control. Incarcerated people navigate constant surveillance, social isolation, limited personal care services, ongoing harassment, and threats of violence and abuse. These experiences can be especially traumatic for women, many of whom have experienced victimization and abuse before becoming involved with the justice system.

From 1980 to 2017, the number of incarcerated women in the US increased more than 750 percent. In 2017, Black women were incarcerated at twice the rate of white women, while Latinx women were incarcerated at 1.3 times the rate of white women. These incarceration rates can be traced to deep racial disparities caused by structural racism in the justice system. Being confined in this inherently flawed and racist system has lasting impacts on physical and mental health. And prisons cannot meet women’s unique mental, physical, and reproductive health care needs.

Women are also especially vulnerable to abuse while incarcerated. Roughly a quarter of women experience sexual or physical victimization—with higher rates among LGBTQ people and women who have been victimized in the past. Invasive searches and solitary confinement can trigger past traumas and create new ones. Victimization histories, the threat of violence in prison, and an inherently traumatizing environment present significant barriers to incarcerated women’s healing.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an added strain.

Although incarceration is intended to address criminalized behaviors and rehabilitate people, evidence shows it does not improve public safety outcomes. Despite the wider public recognizing that rehabilitation and prevention should be more important than punishment, the US justice system remains rooted in a punitive approach that is conducive to neither healing nor growth and strips people of agency and social supports.

Although stakeholders are beginning to acknowledge the racism and violence perpetuated by the current justice system, they can take immediate steps to address trauma in prisons while working to reduce the scope of the carceral state overall. Our recent study of state departments of corrections and women’s prisons suggests correctional leadership can take the following actions to treat incarcerated women with humanity, develop a more trauma-informed culture, and reduce some of incarceration’s harms:

  • Adapt custodial practices like searches, restraints, and discipline to provide incarcerated women with more decision-making power and knowledge around invasive procedures.
  • Build partnerships with community-based service organizations to provide the type of trauma-informed care and service continuity that is often better for healing than what prisons can provide.

Read the full article about the trauma of prison by Melanie Langness, Jahnavi Jagannath, and Evelyn F. McCoy at Urban Institute.