The issues revolving around female inmates have raised heated debates in the recent years. Not only has the cases of incarceration of females increased but also the time spent while serving their sentences has shown steady rise. According to Nedim (2017), the period between 1995 and 2002 saw the imprisonment rate of females increase by about 60 percent. Currently, a large number of criminologists point out to the fact that most of the correctional facilities are ill-equipped, and they cannot effectively deal with the problems. In their opinion, the issues would better be managed outside the prison set up (Nedim, 2017). Of course, in the end, the women are eventually released from the facilities even more destabilized to the point that they find it too hard to manage their preexisting problems – instead, they find themselves with even worse problems that result from the stay at the correctional facilities. The most dominant issue in the female prisons is rape by the officers in charge.

Jessica Fowler, an inmate at Tennessee, Moor County, recounts how she was sexually abused by Shane Hopkins, an officer at the facility, and eventually got pregnant. In her statement, Jessica narrates how Hopkins would force her into having unprotected sex with him (Hall, 2018). While all these happened, the victim felt powerless since the officer had threatened her to make things worse if she told anyone. Worse still, she knew no one would believe her, a criminal, over the officer. Consequently, she suffered silently, served his demands, and the issue only came up when she conceived and it was noticed that she was pregnant.

To show the public of their commitment, the correctional facility took it on the prisoner and filed a lawsuit. Shane Hopkins pled guilty to the charges, and is awaiting sentencing. Currently, like many other correctional facilities, the institution is embracing proper training to ensure the officers in charge are well educated on how to go about their duties (Hall, 2018).

Owing to the rape cases, and eventual delivery of an unplanned-for baby, the correctional facility cannot be said to have been served. Besides, the ill she underwent cannot be meted to the sexual abuse she was subjected to: this would, instead, break her even further, ruin her personality.

Indeed, I would go for an overhaul in the prison systems, right from the justified cases for arrests, to the employees in the prisons. First, it is in order for the various correctional facilities to ensure only mature enough officers are put in charge, and if possible, ensure the only females serve the women prisons, and males for men prisons. Advanced training on the management of the inmates is also a mandatory to help curb the issue. Lastly, there is the need to recheck on what offences should warrant an arrest; in many occasions, petty offenders have been subjected to extreme detention and humiliation, which only serves to harden and make them into worse citizens.

So far, several reforms have been put in place by various nations. For instance, the US, in its efforts to reduce the sexual victimization occurring in female prisons, has come up with Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), which is to ensure zero-tolerance to sexual abuse in prisons (Frank, 2014). Through PREA, the US government intends to check on the issues through training, data collection, education, inspection, and the use of protocols. The other reform that creates alternatives is the UK’s Prison Reform Trust of 2011, which advocates for an increase in the use of individualized, community-based programs. The view of the program is that, instead of making arrests, the funds for running the correctional facilities should be redirected to investments in the programs to help women out of the prisons (Frank, 2014). Such assistances would include childcare, substance abuse, housing assistance, educational training, and mental health treatment.