Oklahoma's 'mean' laws to blame for high female incarceration rate, sociologist says

Submitted by Mastodon on Sun, 2013-10-13 07:30

Article here. Excerpt:

'Oklahoma has “mean” laws, provides little help to addicts and the mentally ill and is full of tough-on-crime politicians who are not concerned with rehabilitating criminals, an OU sociologist said Wednesday during a forum on female incarceration.

In recent years, Oklahoma has held the distinction as the state that locks up women at the highest rate in the nation.

Susan Sharp, a University of Oklahoma sociology professor who has been studying the state's high rate of female incarceration since the 1990s, was highly critical of Oklahoma's drug laws, calling them “mean” and overly punitive. She said the state's tough-on-crime sentencing guidelines are to blame for nearly all of the women serving lengthy terms in state prison.

Sharp said women usually end up in prison due to three factors: Coming from a poverty-stricken background, being in relationships with men who engage in criminal behavior and suffering from a long history of abuse.'

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"Sharp said women usually end up in prison due to three factors: Coming from a poverty-stricken background, being in relationships with men who engage in criminal behavior and suffering from a long history of abuse.'"

I'm sure being found guilty of committing a crime has nothing to do with it. Nope. We just put women in jail because they were poor, abused, and had a boyfriend who was a criminal. These women did nothing wrong. No sirree bob. They're just poor, innocent victims.

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Submitted by el cid on Tue, 2013-10-15 12:07