Dimensions and predictors of treatment needs for female inmates: an exploratory study in Taiwan

Abstract

Although female offenders have been largely neglected by researchers in the past, the recent and rapid rise in their numbers has resulted in increased scholarly attention. While there has been a substantial movement toward gender-specific rehabilitative programs, limited studies have been conducted over the past years that explore the dimensions and determinants of treatment needs for female offenders. Using data comprised of 883 women collected from 3 individual women prisons and 10 other prisons or jails, primary findings indicate that counseling and therapy services are priority concerns followed by educational and vocational training courses, health and medical services, and pre-release preparations. In terms of significant determinants, diseases, social support, depression, and imprisonment stress have a great impact on women's treatment needs. Consistent with prior studies, Taiwanese female drug offenders have also reported a higher level of treatment needs. Comparative views, policy implications, and limitations are addressed.

Keywords:

• women in prison
• treatment needs
• gender-specific rehabilitative program
• social support
• disease

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments in the manuscript's original version. In addition, data used for our analysis were collected as part of “The etiology and treatment needs among women offenders” sponsored by the MOJ in 2009. The authors acknowledge with gratitude the assistance provided by the MOJ as well as those individuals who participated in the correctional facilities. Nothing included in our article is intended to represent any official or unofficial position taken by the Taiwanese correctional department or its staff.

Notes

1. Similar to the correctional systems in the United States, jails in Taiwan also house short-term inmates that include males and females (MOJ, 2012).

2. For the purpose of our project, the MOJ organized a committee board consisting of scholars, officials, and practitioners to review and assess the questionnaires several times. Based on the literature and an in-depth interview, the research team designed the questionnaire and proposed it to committee members. After two or three meetings and comments, the research team revised the questionnaire several times accordingly. Hence, our project and the questionnaire are not an assessment but rather a research-oriented survey.

3. For the purpose of our study, a “stratified random sampling” of respondents (20%) representing each facility was utilized based on the sponsor's request, namely the MOJ. In addition, facility location, capacity, and inmates' convicted offense (e.g., drug and/or drug-related) were considered. For example, women correctional facilities located in Taiwan's Eastern region and off-shore islands (i.e., Kinmen and Penghu islands) were selected since their inmates' voices had been largely overlooked in academic studies. Further, while most samples (80%) were collected from three women prisons, other facilities with fewer than 200 women beds had also been selected due to the MOJ's concern. In terms of convicted offense, stratified random sampling was employed given that over 65% of female inmates were drug abusers or convicted of drug-related crimes. As a result, their offense was divided into three categories: drug offenses (including drug-related crimes), property crimes, and violent crimes, respectively. Of note, female inmates who entered the facilities less than 2½ months prior to distributing the survey were not permitted to participate since they were under the classification process.

4. For assessing normal distribution, the skewness and kurtosis for four dependent variables were employed. Results indicated that the skewness coefficients were –0.553, –0.339, 0.490, and 1.001, respectively. In addition, the kurtosis coefficients were 0.327, –0.012, –0.281, and 0.472, respectively. Although the values for skewness and kurtosis were not equal to zero, the four dependent variables were close to a normal distribution (Mertler & Vannatta, 2005). In addition, larger samples may not deviate from normal often enough to make a meaningful difference in the analysis (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1996). Accordingly, there is no doubt that four dependent variables in our study could be treated as a continuous variable.

5. According to Taiwanese prison codes, visitation and corresponding are inmates' rights to access social support and should be mandatorily offered for each inmate. However, visitors, receivers of correspondence, and the frequency vary depending upon how long an inmate has served time. For example, newcomers who are under classification procedures are not allowed to have visitors or to mail letters. In our study, we combined the frequencies of visitations and writing letters in order to echo the variation of each respondent's social support. As hypothesized, women who perceived lower levels of social support reported significantly higher levels of treatment needs; therefore, this finding can lead to proposing policy implications for correctional administrators.

6. Initially, the following question was asked in order to affirm treatment needs among women: “Have you brought any children with you while incarcerated?” In our final analysis, however, we removed this variable given that only four respondents reported that they brought their children with them. In addition, OLS regression results indicated that this item was insignificant across all four dependent variables.