The Challenges of Mentally Ill Female Offenders in Prison

• Date: 01 August 2008
• DOI: 10.1177/0093854808318660
• Author: Elaine A. Lord
• Published date: 01 August 2008
• Subject Matter: Articles

928

THE CHALLENGES OF MENTALLY

ILL FEMALE OFFENDERS IN PRISON

ELAINE A. LORD

Independent Scholar

An increasing number of women offenders arrive in prison with serious mental health problems. Such inmates tend to

experience difficulties negotiating the prison environment. They create all sorts of predicaments for other prisoners and insti-

gate crisis situations that present pressing challenges to members of the staff. One prevalent form of symptomatic behavior

in women’s prisons is that of self-injury, which carries the risk of death or serious impairment. Self-harm should not be the

sort of behavior that invites disciplinary dispositions. Mentally ill women also become involved in disproportionate serious

rule breaking, including assaultive acts, leading to inappropriate placement in segregation cells, where their difficulties are

apt to become exacerbated. To address this problem, special settings can be created to accommodate some chronically dis-

turbed women, but these serve to merely ameliorate a seemingly insoluble dilemma.

Keywords: female inmates; mentally disordered inmates; prison programs; segregation

On any given morning, the noise of cell doors opening as women are released from each

of the 60 cells on a unit, 30 on each gallery, 360 cells altogether, resounds though the

main housing block and over the hillside. On this particular morning, shortly before 6 a.m., the

clanging and banging was interrupted by garbled screams from 114A gallery. All the solitary

officer in the control bubble could hear was a repeated shout, “It’s the devil. It’s the devil. The

devil’s in her,” followed by almost unintelligible pleas for help. As he rushed down the corri-

dor, he heard again, “The devil’s in her. It’s the devil.” However, before the officer could get to

Cell A-7 near the middle of the gallery, three inmates who had been on their way to the show-

ers rushed in through the open cell door. As the officer arrived, he could see Violet1sitting over

Jane, straddling her prone form and choking her. She pounded Jane’s head into the pillow. It

took the three inmates to pull Violet off Jane. When the officer took control of Violet, she was

still yelling about the devil; she continued to yell all the way to the mental health unit and for

some time after. Jane, a teenager, was inconsolable, shaking and breathless, disturbed beyond

measure and sobbing uncontrollably. It was clear that she had no idea what had happened. She

had never met Violet, and it was the first night she had ever spent in a cell.

Violet struggled with demons long before she was incarcerated. She also had a history

of not showering because she insisted that black bugs would come out of the showerhead

and cover her body. Whenever Violet stopped showering, we knew that a referral for mental

health services was in order. Sometimes another inmate made the referral before correc-

tional staff because showering next to Violet usually led to the earliest clue.

Most women in prison know why they are there, accept that they have done something

wrong, serve their sentences, and go about their business, making changes and doing what

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, Vol. 35 No. 8, August 2008 928-942

DOI: 10.1177/0093854808318660

© 2008 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Elaine Lord, e-mail:

ELAINEL2900@aol.com.