Natalie J. Sokoloff and Susan C. Pearce, "Locking up Hope: Immigration, Gender, and the Prison System" (page 6 of 6)

Addressing Policy

At the time of writing, in 2007, national legislators are agreed that the immigration system needs to be overhauled—but that is where the agreement ends. Congressional debates are polarized between those who would strengthen existing laws and enforcement and those who propose a more open policy for newcomers. In 2006, a series of federal bills was proposed in one of the houses of the U.S. Congress that could potentially move immigration law into a direction that further blurs the boundaries between police-enforced criminal law and the civil statutes under the purview of the federal immigration system. Congress continued to consider such bills in 2007 in its debates over immigration reform, but did not reach a resolution. Addressing basic flaws and gaps in immigration law could potentially alleviate some systemic problems enumerated here.

Policy changes and full investigations of the conditions of incarceration could make a world of difference in the situations of immigrants generally—and immigrant women in particular. A small number of recent pieces of legislation now exist to provide relief to victims of domestic violence and trafficking that are particularly useful to those who feel they risk arrest or deportation in coming forward. These include the T Visa, which offers a legal visa for trafficking victims who cooperate with investigations of the traffickers, the U Visa, which also provides a visa for victims of some violent crimes, and provisions of the Violence Against Women Act (known as VAWA), which allows domestic violence victims to apply for legal status independent of their abuser. Usage of these remedies is low, as many women are not familiar with these visas or fear other consequences if they were to enter the legal system.

Advocates call for a range of additional changes to U.S. law that would help reverse the more egregious conditions that immigrant women in the criminal justice system currently face, as well as those who come in contact with the criminal justice system as victims, partners, parents, children, family and friends of offenders. In considering any such changes, it is critical that the voices of incarcerated immigrant women be heard. Among the proposals are:

• Overhaul the immigration system to reduce the numbers of deportations and detentions by providing legal pathways into U.S. society.
• Provide alternatives to incarceration for civil offenses such as violations of immigration law, including awaiting a decision on an asylum case; low-level drug and non-violent crimes, which affect women disproportionately (both U.S. citizens and immigrant women); and mothers who have committed nonviolent crimes and have dependent children.
• Offer gender- and culture-sensitive programs for immigrant women who seek help for such problems as drug addiction, domestic violence, and mental health; who are arrested or incarcerated so that they have access to information and legal assistance in their own language; who are in court, ensuring that women's rights are protected and that appropriate language translation is used; and who are in jails and prisons, accommodating their particular needs related to health, reproduction, and motherhood.
• Increase enfranchisement options for former or current offenders.

Conclusion

We have presented here an outline of several key areas of concern that call for applying a (raced/classed) gendered lens to the intersection of immigration and incarceration. The policy areas listed above would be steps in the right direction toward addressing these issues. Policy-making needs to be critically informed by solid social-scientific research, as well as such initiatives as investigative journalism. Therefore this article proposes that such research give broader and deeper attention to the growing presence of foreign-born women in our jails and prisons. There are, admittedly, many challenges to such a task: the difficulty of access to those "inside," the fear of future consequences that inmates feel if they speak up, the constant moving of detainees held on immigration charges from facility to facility, and the loss of contact with former detainees who have been deported. Such challenges call for stronger communication linkages between researchers, journalists, advocates, local ethnic communities, and policy makers—including international human rights monitoring bodies. Social and political action are essential if we are to change the conditions for immigrant (and non-immigrant) women caught in the web of the criminal legal system.

Authors' Resources

• Natalie J. Sokoloff, "Women Prisoners at the Dawn of the 21st Century," Women & Criminal Justice, 16(1/2): 127-135.
• Natalie J. Sokoloff, "The Impact of the Prison Industrial Complex on African American Women," Souls: A Political Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society, 5(4): 31-46, Fall 2003.
• The Criminal Justice System and Women: Offenders, Prisoners, Victims, and Workers. Edited by B.R. Price and N. J. Sokoloff, Eds. 2004. McGraw-Hill.
• Domestic Violence at the Margins: Readings on Race, Class, Gender, & Culture. Edited by N.J. Sokoloff with C. Pratt, Eds. 2005. Rutgers University Press.
• Multicultural Domestic Violence Bibliography by Natalie Sokoloff
• Women and Current Immigration Policies by Elizabeth J. Clifford and Susan C. Pearce.
  Fact Sheet (PDF) published by Sociologists for Women in Society Fall 2004

Endnotes

1. This article served as the basis for a discussion during The Scholar and Feminist Conference XXXI: Engendering Justice: Prisons, Activism and Change, Barnard College, April, 2006. [Return to text]

2. Both authors contributed equally to the writing of this article. [Return to text]

3. Irwin, Tim, "Anti-terrorism legislation delays entry of refugees to United States," UNHCR, September 6, 2006. [Return to text]

4. We use the terms criminal legal and criminal justice systems interchangeably. The reason for focusing on the criminal legal system is that, too often, this is a system of injustice, not justice, to poor, minorities, women, and immigrants (see Andrea Smith, "Looking to the Future: Domestic Violence, Women of Color, the State, and Social Change," Domestic Violence at the Margins: Readings in Race, Class, Gender & Culture, N. Sokoloff with C. Pratt, Eds., Rutgers University, 2005, 416-434). [Return to text]

5. According to the Associated Press, more than 1,000 "illegal" immigrants are located in Oregon's prisons, making up 7 percent of Oregon's state prison population. See The Associated Press, "News of the Week: More than 1,000 Illegal Immigrants in Oregon Prisons," August 26, 2007. Thus, 1,000 of Oregon's 13,3000 inmates are being detained and will be deported after serving their sentences. [Return to text]

6. Rubén G. Rumbaut, et al., "Immigration and Incarceration: Patterns and Predictors of Imprisonment among First- and Second-Generation Young Adults," in Ramiro Martinez Jr. and Abel Valenzuela Jr., ed., Immigration and Crime (New York and London: New York University Press, 2006), 65. [Return to text]

7. "Immigrant Assimilation and Crime: Generational Differences in Youth Violence in Chicago," in Ramiro Martinez Jr. and Abel Valenzuela Jr., ed., Immigration and Crime (New York and London: New York University Press, 2006), 37. [Return to text]

8. Rubén G. Rumbaut and Walter A. Ewing, "The Myth of Immigrant Criminality and the Paradox of Assimilation: Incarceration Rates among Native- and Foreign-Born Men" (PDF) (Washington DC: Immigration Policy Center), Spring 2007, 6. [Return to text]

9. For a summary of the data on women's experiences with prison between 1970 and 2004, see Natalie J. Sokoloff, "Women Prisoners at the Dawn of the 21st Century," Women & Criminal Justice, 16(1/2): 127-135. (2005). Paige M. Harrison and Allen J. Beck, "Prisoners in 2005" (PDF), Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, November 2006, 4-5. [Return to text]

10. Kelly Jeffereys, "U.S. Legal Permanent Residents: 2006," Annual Flow Report March 2007. Washington, DC: DHS Office of Immigration Statistics. [Return to text]

11. American Community Survey, U.S. Census Bureau, 2004. [Return to text]

12. Susan C. Pearce, "Immigrant Women in the United States: A Demographic Portrait" (Washington DC: Immigration Policy Center), Summer 2006. [Return to text]

13. Unless otherwise indicated, this section is from Factsheet: Women in Prison, The Sentencing Project, Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2004. It is based on Sokoloff's presentation in "Women Prisoners at the Dawn of the 21st Century," op. cit. and Natalie J. Sokoloff, "The Impact of the Prison Industrial Complex on African American Women," Souls: A Political Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society, 5(4):31-46, Fall 2003. [Return to text]

14. Paige M. Harrison and Allen J. Beck, "Prisoners in 2005" (PDF), Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, November 2006, 4. [Return to text]

15. Paige M. Harrison and Allen J. Beck, "Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2005" (PDF), Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, May 2006, 8. [Return to text]

16. Lauren E. Glaze and Thomas P. Bonczar, "Probation and Parole in the United States, 2005," Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, November 2006. [Return to text]

17. Lawrence A. Greenfeld and Tracy L. Snell, "Women Offenders" (PDF), Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, 1999. [Return to text]

18. For an analysis of how race historically influences the prison system in the U.S., see Loic Wacquant, "From Slavery to Mass Incarceration: Rethinking the 'Race Question' in the United States." New Left Review, 2nd series, 13 (February 2003): 40-61. For an analysis of the race, class, gender intersectional approach to crime and justice, see Barbara Raffel Price and Natalie J. Sokoloff (eds.), The Criminal Justice System and Women: Offenders, Prisoners, Survivors, and Workers, 3E. New York: McGraw-Hill and Julia Sudbury (ed.), Global Lockdown: Race, Gender, and the Prison-Industrial Complex. New York: Routledge. [Return to text]

19. "Fact Sheet: Women in Prison," The Sentencing Project, December 2006. [Return to text]

20. "Women Prisoners and Substance Abuse Fact Sheet," Women in Prison Project of Correctional Association of New York, 2002. [Return to text]

21. Judith Greene and Kevin Pranis, "The Punitiveness Report," Women's Prison Association. [Return to text]

22. "Fact Sheet: Distinctions between Human Smuggling and Human Trafficking" (PDF), Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice Human Trafficking and Smuggling Center. [Return to text]

23. Caroline Wolf Harlow, "Prior Abuse Reported by Inmates and Probationers" (PDF), Bureau of Justice Statistics Selected Findings, April 1999. [Return to text]

24. "Women in Prison Fact Sheet" (PDF), Women in Prison Project, Correctional Association of New York, 2002. [Return to text]

25. "Imprisonment and Families Fact Sheet" (PDF), Women in Prison Project of Correctional Association of New York, March 2007. [Return to text]

26. Laura M. Maruschak, "HIV in Prisons, 2004," Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, November 2006, NCJ213897, p. 3. [Return to text]

27. Paige Harrison and Allen Beck, Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2004, Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, 2005, NCJ 208801. [Return to text]

28. National Immigrant Justice Center. Briefing Paper: The Situation of Immigrant Women Detained in the United States, April 16, 2007. [Return to text]

29. "Immigration and Criminal Justice Fact Sheet" (PDF), Women in Prison Project, Correctional Association of New York, April 2007. [Return to text]

30. Mark Dow, American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), 15. [Return to text]

31. Ibid. Also see Shamita Das Dasgupta's Body Evidence: Intimate Violence against South Asian Women in America, (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2007). [Return to text]

32. Ramiro Martinez Jr. and Abel Valenzuela Jr., ed., Immigration and Crime (New York and London: New York University Press, 2006), 2-3. [Return to text]

33. Ibid, p. 7. [Return to text]

34. W.I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in Poland and America (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1918), Vol. 5. [Return to text]

35. Martinez and Valen, p. 7. [Return to text]

36. For a very recent example, see Teresa Watanabe, "Immigrants Boost Pay, Not Prison Populations, New Studies Show," LA Times, February 8, 2007. [Return to text]

37. Alejandro Portes and Alex Stepick, City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami Prisons (Berkeley: University of California, 1993) and Min Zhou and Carl L. Bankston III, "Delinquency and Acculturation in the Twenty-first Century: A Decade's Change in a Vietnamese American Community," in Ramiro Martinez Jr. and Abel Valenzuela Jr., ed., Immigration and Crime (New York and London: New York University Press, 2006), 117-139. [Return to text]

38. Rumbaut and Ewing, 13. [Return to text]

39. Rumbaut and Ewing, 1. [Return to text]

40. Linda Greenhouse, "Court Rejects Interpretation Of Immigration Drug Law," New York Times December 6, 2006. [Return to text]

41. Ibid. [Return to text]

42. Meredith Kolodner, "Private Prisons Expect a Boom; Immigration Enforcement to Benefit Detention," New York Times, July 19, 2006; and May 12, 2007 stock quoted at www.marketwatch.com. [Return to text]

43. "Detaining America's Immigrants: Is this the Best Solution?" (PDF), Detention Watch Network. [Return to text]

44. "Locking up Family Values: The Detention of Immigrant Families" (PDF), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, February 2007. [Return to text]

45. "Advocates Speak of Workers' and Detainees' Rights," American Civil Liberties Blog, May 14, 2007. [Return to text]

46. Spencer S. Hsu and Sylvia Moreno, "Border Policy's Success Strains Resources: Tent City in Texas Among Immigrant Holding Sites Drawing Criticism." Washington Post, February 2, 2007. [Return to text]

47. "Locking up Family Values...," ibid, p. 2. [Return to text]

48. Dow, ix-xiii. [Return to text]

49. Dow, 32. [Return to text]

50. See information about the Chasing Freedom Campaign by Human Rights First. [Return to text]

51. Dow, 178-179. [Return to text]

52. "ACLU Sues U.S. Immigration Officials and For-Profit Corrections Corporation Over Dangerous and Inhumane Housing of Detainees," January 21, 2007. [Return to text]

53. "USCIRF Finds Disappointing Response from Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to its Recommendations on Expedited Removal Process," Washington, CD: U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom [Return to text]

54. Julia Preston, "U.N. Official Says He's Been Denied Access to U.S. Immigrant Jails," New York Times, May 15, 2007. [Return to text]

55. Hoan N. Bui, In the Adopted Land: Abused Immigrant Women and the Criminal Justice System, New York: Praeger, 2002. [Return to text]

56. See Bui, Ibid., 2002. [Return to text]

57. Personal conversation with a Chinese-American woman. [Return to text]

58. Personal conversation with a colleague of the courtroom observation. [Return to text]

59. See Das Dasgupta, op. cit., 2007. [Return to text]

60. "Targets of Suspicion: The Impact of Post-9/11 Policies on Muslims, Arabs and South Asians in the United States," Immigration Policy in Focus, May 2004, Washington, DC: Immigration Policy Center. [Return to text]

61. National Immigrant Justice Center, "The Situation of Immigrant Women Detained in the U.S.," op cit., p. 5. [Return to text]

62. "International Human Rights Standards Governing the Treatment of Prisoners," Human Rights Watch Prison Project. [Return to text]

63. National Immigrant Justice Center, The Situation of Immigrant Women Detained in the U.S., op cit. [Return to text]

64. See Nell Bernstein, All Alone in the World: Children of the Incarcerated. New York: The New Press, 2005. [Return to text]

65. E.g., see Nicole Hill, "US Farmers Using Prison Labor," Christian Science Monitor Online, August 22, 2007. [Return to text]

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