The ‘Invisible’ prisoners

November 5, 2009 by Leslie Ventura 

UNLV professor illuminates often- overlooked segment of prison population

The number of incarcerated women has grown over 800 percent since 1980, according to UNLV professor Ann Cammett.
Cammett brought this and other startling facts to light Wednesday, as part of the Women’s Research Institute of Nevada’s Gender Research Series. She discussed the social conditions and political choices that affect real women in Nevada state prisons and county jails.

The lecture focused on creating visibility for the struggles of incarcerated women and examining laws that have hindered women in the judicial system.

“Nationally, 75 percent of incarcerated women are mothers,” Cammett said, “and most were caring for their children before they were arrested.”

Cammett said that when a mother is incarcerated, the family experiences the loss of the immediate caregiver and children experience turmoil, suffering greatly.

Joanne Goodwin, director of WRIN, said that the discussion encouraged talking about gender research, one of WRIN’s main goals.
“There are many faculty at UNLV who use gender as an analytical framework and whose work covers a wide spectrum of topics,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin said the university can learn from people like Cammett.

Cammett came to UNLV to open a law clinic after holding a Clinical Teaching Fellowship from the Georgetown University Law Center and has worked with incarcerated women over the years.

Undergraduate Kelly Przestwor also presented with Cammett, as part of the Family Justice Clinic. “This is a best-kept secret,” Goodwin said. “WRIN uses the gender research series to give faculty the opportunity to present their work to their colleagues, students, staff and community members.”

The discussion engaged the audience and asked attendees what images they see when thinking of women who are in prison. “I tend to think of women who have been forced into unfortunate circumstances,” one audience member said.

For women, Cammett explained, the surge of imprisonment is linked to social choices implemented by policy makers.
“Drug laws have precipitated an explosion of incarceration,” Cammett said. “More than half of women are incarcerated for drug-related crimes.”

Two-thirds of women who are convicted on drug charges are members of racial or ethnic minorities. “We live in an era where we are tough on crime,” Cammett said. “Instead of solving problems, the government relies on incarceration.”
Cammett also argued that the War on Drugs is a war on women.

“In our country we treat drugs like a criminal problem rather than a public health problem…and you tend to get incarcerated rather than getting help,” Cammett said.

Through the documentation of important women through WRIN, the panel discussed Florence McClure and her contributions to women’s rights and the creation of the first women’s clinic out of her own home.

Deemed one of the most important aspects of her fight for women’s advocacy, the Rape Crisis Center of Nevada, named after McClure, is important because of its proximity to the city.

Mothers who are incarcerated often lose parental rights especially if they are unable to have consistent contact with their children while in prison, Cammett said. “After incarceration, women are usually sent to facilities far away from the communities that they reside in. As a result more than half of women prisoners never receive a visit from their kids.”

Because Cammett has a history with women who have been incarcerated. part of Cammett’s goal has been in the movement against domestic violence. Cammett said that when women are victims of domestic violence, they often fall into a life of crime, deemed as felons with no sympathy or regard to the history that has gotten them there.

“Women in prison are invisible. We want to do something to support them,” Cammett said. The action plan to support incarcerated women in Nevada consists of keeping the focus on women in prison, through the Family Justice Clinic at the Boyd School of Law and the Nevada Women’s Lobby.