Blog #25

Sexualized behavior can be used as a weapon in the workplace. Society and media as whole generally perceive males and females in different roles. Males are masculine, strong and sometimes aggressive individuals. Women can be seen as more feminine, passive, weak at times, and sexual. Men play baseball, football, and other sports. While women were brought up dancing, taking ballet, and playing with baby dolls. Keep in mind these are general statements, but for the most part many of our children in society today are molded from birth to fit the stereotypical gender norms. In Holly English book males look at female sexuality as a distraction. These women are often times thought of as inferior to their male counterparts and are seldom taken seriously. When men see a sexy attractive female that also excels in her work, in this particular case law, men tend to see women differently. Women in a sense can parlay their beauty along with their success to gain superior recognition from their male counterparts. This may help women in some ways but I believe it hinders them more than helps them. I believe that using sex as a weapon in the workplace can actually devalue the perception of women. It is still said that women have a long way to go in terms of gaining gender equity in the workplace. In fact both men and women in the field alike feel that though we have made some progress in the means to gender equity much more is still needed. What can we do to shorten the gap of fender equity? I think education and self awareness is the key. If we are aware of issues of gender inequality in the workplace we can strive to fix them. We need to be aware of the issue that way we can fix it. Hopefully more individuals can strive to improve this issue that plagues our legal workforce today.

Blog #23

Fashion is an interesting topic in regards to female politicians and lawyers. Women in a professional sense are critiqued in a much higher degree than that of their male counterparts. Prominent women as well as everyday business women find themselves constantly watching what they wear to work every single day. Our publically viewed women mostly conform to the perceived norm in regards to what they do and do not wear in public. Michelle Obama today, much like Jackie Kennedy in the 60’s is taking women’s fashion to the next level. Michelle Obama has been scrutinized of late for not conforming to the conservative first lady’s typical appearance. Keep in mind the standard for the way the first lady is supposed to dress has been set by white middle class America. People have taken the issue of Michelle Obama’s clothing and blown it completely out of proportion. Is this related to race? Or does it have a direct correlation with what other first ladies of the past have worn? I think it’s both. On a recent trip to Arizona Michelle Obama wore shorts to the Grand Canyon. Keep in mind this is Arizona and the weather was between 80-90 degrees. The media had their heyday claiming that Mrs. Obama was flaunting her legs. I don’t think this was her intent but who cares if it was. Women including Mrs. Obama are dressing differently than women of similar stature did in the past. They may not use the same conservative clothing; however they do it in a classy tactful way. Women in English’s study also found themselves trying to wear bland conforming clothing to fit in with their male counterparts. They wanted to essentially blend in not being seen as week lesser sex. I really see this as non issue. Women in the public’s view should be able to wear what they want. I find it very sad that our society has to scrutinize women for what they wear leaving their male counterparts to do as they please.

Blog #22

Sonia Sotomayor is an associate Justice of the Supreme Court and has been serving on the United States Supreme court since August of 2009. She is the third female justice and first Hispanic Justice to serve for the Supreme Court. She was appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the Unites States Senate by a 68-31 vote. Criticism by conservative members of congress soon followed her appointment. Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingerich claimed she was a “racist”. The basis for their comments comes from a speech Sotomayor made in 2001 where she claimed “I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experience, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life”. I find this statement to be brutally honest. She seems to be using her experiences to assist in her judicial law conforming decision. If for instance a case were to come about in regards to Hispanic women; she would be able to provide a greater insight into the issue than that of her white male counterparts. She has lived similar experience to these “Latina Women” and her perspectives would provide a positive insight into judicial rulings in regards to these matter. Sotomayor’s white male opposition should step outside the box and realize that this experience will only do them good.
Sotomayor realizes that her decisions need to be made based on the law. In fact during her hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee she claimed her statement was “a rhetorical flourish that fell flat”. These hearings did judge Sotomayor based on her past statements, race, and gender, which is completely wrong. However, it makes sense in the fact that gender and racial bias exist in nearly every facet of our world. Fortunately Sotomayor stood up, withstood the criticism and now practices law, her passion.

Blog #20

The story was hard to read due to the extreme violence that Lois Fraley and Officer Auld went through. This horrible situation was initiated by two men, Wassenaar and Steven Coy. Wassanaar posed as a Corrections Officer by stealing a uniform from a guard that he compromised. Fraley and Auld let this so called guard into their area, and Auld was immediately compromised. From that point 15 days of violence and torture ensued. The beat and rapped Fraley repeatedly over the next 15 day before she was finally released. Her partner, Officer Auld, was released after 7 days to critical injuries. By the 4th day Fraley contemplated suicide, she considered using her badge pin to puncture one of her veins.

Survival is what she strived for and she did all she could to stay strong. She stopped washing so they wouldn’t sexually assault her, and she stopped drinking so she wouldn’t have to urinate in front of them. She claimed that during those times she “laughed, joked, cried, I talked to my picture of my daughter and Tere (her partner for four years), I talked to dead family members, I said goodbye, I prayed….I’m a recovering alcoholic.” When she was finally rescued she was greeted by Dora Schirro the Director of Prisons and Governor Janet Napolitano.
Director Schirro reflects on the situation and confirms that the prison guards were not properly trained. Schirro soon discovered that security inside the prison was “Lax, sloppy, and careless”. She also discovered that the training regime by officers had no uniformity so figuring out what each CO knew was basically impossible. Schirro points out the lack of training by the Corrections Officers that she had inherited within the Lewis prison, 25% couldn’t pass the lowest level of competency tests.

This lack of training is supported by Britton’s ideas. Prison Guards truly believe that they are undertrained when taking on new jobs as Corrections Officers. The articles for this section along with the Britton reading affirm that notion. I like what Schirro is doing by instituting new policies and changes. If something is broke it needs to be fixed and I think Schirro is taking this very same approach. She is a noble person who doesn’t blame any single person from the past. She is soft spoken in regards to her critics as well, saying “If you don’t have something nice to say”. In my opinion Schirro is a great asset to the state of Arizona, and we are lucky to have an individual like her running our correctional system.

Britton makes some useful suggestions that I agree with. He too believes that more training and better policy is needed and that it may avoid future hostage takeovers. Better training is definitely something that wouldn’t hurt. Training would make these officers feel more comfortable and better prepared if these tough situations were to arise. Education, training and a positive outlook towards policy change will all make for a better system. Implementation and follow thru are what we now need to focus our time on.

Blog #19

Geena Davis speaks about the gender discrepancy within our media in regards to children in particular. She discusses the successes that two of her movies had in regards to making a positive impact on women throughout the country. Geena was greatly impacted on by the reactions of her fans and wanted to make a difference e in the way women are depicted within today’s media. She gives examples from various cartoons. The Smurfs had one female character named Smurfette, that was originally described and ugly with ugly eyelashes. Papa Smurf eventually transformed her into “a blonde bombshell”, and soon after she was beloved by her fellow Smurfs. Is this a coincidence? I think not. She discusses Winnie the Pooh and the one female character from that cartoon series, Kanga. Kanga appears to be just half a character. My favorite example was the character Miss Piggy, who has cleavage. These images and examples are outrageous when you really think about it. When I personally sit back and look at how characters are depicted it makes me mad and sad at the same time. Our society is molding the minds of our young children at a very young age and gender is at the heart of some of these subliminal messages. Geena proves that over the years little has changed and I believe that thought to be true. She aims to help make things equal in terms of the way sex and gender is depicted and I commend her for that.

These depictions have spilled over into the way we act as adults. The readings and research from Britton clearly show that gender plays a role in the way we think and act as adults. Men’s and women’s prisons differ. Men and women working within in similar Penal positions are treated differently. Even women’s and men’s pay is shockingly one sided. There are so many ways gender if falsely depicted in society today that we (society) should be ashamed. Thankfully people like Ms. Davis and organizations are doing everything they can to make sure everyone is accurately depicted within our media.

Blog #18

All Corrections Officers are required to complete a formal training before they begin their assigned duties. The state and federal systems usually train men and women together and require the same curriculum and testing. In reading Britton’s study it is quite obvious that most state department’s of correction are underfunded, while the federal system has more money because of the government’s contributions. It is interesting to note that federal officers seem to have a higher level of satisfaction compared to state trained officers as well. Most officers see their trainings as slightly helpful but claim that the real training is done “on the job”.

I found one particular section of Britton’s research to be shocking. It seems time and time again CO’s claimed that their co-worker had helped them with their job, but inmates trained them. Officer’s repeatedly affirmed the fact that inmates actually helped them learn their new job, and did it willingly. The inmates actually seem to want order just as much as the Corrections Officers do. One CO claimed that if he really wanted to know how to do something or find out what had happened he would simply ask one of the inmates.

Male and women officers also noted that violence within prisons was exaggerated greatly during their training. In fact some of the videos shown during training caused recruits to quit. These officers interviewed claimed that the video violence and the portrayal of male violence within prisons were overblown. I survey in 1995 proves their accusations showing that 91% of prison’s recorded no such violence in regards to rioting throughout an entire year.

Men and women inmates are quite different statistically and this transcends into the way they are treated during their sentences. Men are more likely to be serving time for violent offenses. Men have longer criminal histories. And men are more likely to escape once in custody. Because of this male inmates are subject to higher security standards than that of females. A different training regime needs to be instituted due to these drastic differences within male and female prisons. The proof is in the pudding. Corrections Officers time and time again say that the training is based solely on male inmates and prisons. Why is it that these officers are not being trained properly?

Blog #17

The NBC documentary “Lockup” was an enlightening viewing experience. I have read our text books and assignment articles which have been very helpful throughout the semester. However, the video opened my eyes to situations and ideas which I was otherwise unaware of. The female prison system is interesting, complex, and from an outsiders view fascinating. There were over 1,100 inmates within the North Carolina Women’s Prison. These criminals have committed crimes of murder, fraud, burglary, D.U.I. and many other offenses. Many of the women within the video are repeat offenders and have been behind bars multiple times. The prison life is a fascinating one.

The video shows daily life as seen by the inmates. They get three meals a day, and make about 40 cents a day working prison jobs. Two particular women were interviewed and made money by loan sharking. The two women worked together and had sexual relations with one another. At times they would find “weak staff” members to get items like drugs, cigarettes, and other things from the free world. “Hustle”, in their minds was the only way to make money and stay above water behind bars. Other inmates had legitimate work. Some women worked in “Cosmo”, a beauty salon. They were able to interact with one another while learning a valuable trade that could potentially better their lives upon releasal. Another useful job that could be had behind bars was with a travel agency. These women actually interacted over the phone with free people from the outside world. These inmates helped people over the phone with travel planning. This job like the others seemed to allow the prisoners a chance to escape from the prison world. Cafeteria work and cleaning were other jobs that prisoners were able to work as well.

Personal affection was a topic discussed in the video. Many of the women inmates were lesbian. These women looked towards the relationships for support and a sense of worth. The women in the video seemingly loved each other and even proclaimed that the relationship “wasn’t all about sex”. Danica had a term 8 years shorter than her lover. When questioned about what she would do when she was released 8 months from now she claimed “she would probably be back”. Shockingly Danica didn’t know what she would do in the free world without her partner Jennifer and vowed she may willingly come back to prison so she could spend her life behind bars with her partner.

The video briefly touched on the lives of corrections officers. The officers were not at all what I had expected and differed greatly from media’s view. There were male and female officers within this all-female prison. The male officer’s needed a female officer’s accompaniment when escorting female prisoners. This insured that male officers would not be falsely accused by inmates in regards to mistreatment or rape. The male and female inmates were not as described in the media. Each guard seemed to be relatively normal, not being overly violent or aggressive. The guards were cautious when dealing with inmates and assertive when doing their respective jobs. In my opinion the correctional officers did a great job in regards to their work. They properly enforced the rules by using a passive aggressive approach. This approach simultaneously earned the inmates respect while allowing CO’s to complete their job in an efficient and correct manner.

The text from Britton and the video both give great insight into the Women’s penal system. It is a mysterious and dynamic animal that is constantly changing. The book and video provide an excellent point of view both from prisoner’s and guard’s and allow an outsider to learn about these systems without actually being a part of It themselves. Both the video and text show that dangers can arise and a careful approach to working in the Penal system is a necessity. Caution must be used as injury and death can occur with a lack thereof. The book also touches on the dynamic between minority Corrections Officer’s and inmates and makes an interesting point. Minority Corrections Officer’s find themselves sympathizing with inmates of a similar race. I can see how this could happen. Inmates are treated differently than free people, and in my opinion this is ultimately fair. These people are behind bars for a reason and their punishment must be served. I don’t believe any preferential or unusually cruel punishment should be given but reality proves this is not the case. Again the justice system is constantly changing and adapting to current situations and legislation. I have faith that the right decisions will be made in regards to Penal Legislation. I truly believe our society will make these institutions, and the laws that go along with them, as fair and just as possible.