Women offenders and prisioners Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Women offenders and prisioners - Essay Example The special guidelines for the treatment of female prisoners, namely the Bangkok Rules, have been adopted by the United Nations (UN) in the year 2010. Despite the fact that these rules have not been implemented in totality, they represent vast improvement for female prisoners in international law. The main motivator for this astounding development was Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol of Thailand. This redoubtable champion of women’s issues was instrumental in ensuring that the efforts of the Thai delegation to the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice was successful in its efforts (Barberet, 2014, p. 174). It has been acknowledged in these rules that female prisoners have drastically different requirements, in comparison to their male counterparts. To a major extent the Bangkok Rules are evidence based and acknowledge several of the findings of ‘Women Crime and Criminal Justice: A Global Enquiry’, by the eminent scholar Ms. Barberet. Moreover, the Bangkok Rules mirror several of the erstwhile reform efforts that had been undertaken on behalf of females in prison, across the world. For instance, these rules acknowledge the high incidence of victimization of female prisoners and their greater inclination to engage in self-harm and suicide; the lower risk of most female prisoners, but higher classification levels; the special status of female prisoners who are also mothers of children; the stigma encountered by female prisoners; the abuse of women for immoral crimes; and the specific needs of indigenous women prisoners (Barberet, 2014, p. 174). Furthermore, these rules recommend the provision of intimate articles for females, alternatives to invasive or strip searching, alternatives to incarceration for females, and research and data collection regarding the issues pertaining to imprisoned females. Moreover, these rules acknowledge that females, in some nations, are incarcerated, in order to safeguard them,