question archive Rose Giallombardo's 1966 study of the federal reformatory for women in Alderson, West Virginia, indicated a major difference between male and female prisoners
Rose Giallombardo's 1966 study of the federal reformatory for women in Alderson, West Virginia, indicated a major difference between male and female prisoners
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Rose Giallombardo's 1966 study of the federal reformatory for women in Alderson, West Virginia, indicated a major difference between male and female prisoners. Among female inmates, membership in fictive families was more common than participation in homosexual activities and occurred earlier than sexual involvement. Giallombardo reported that the women at Alderson established familiar relationships similar to the relationships of the free world. A sort of family life—with "mothers" and "fathers," "grandparents," and "aunts" and "uncles"—was at the very center of inmate life at Alderson and provided a sense of belonging and identification that enabled inmates involved in "family affairs" to do easy time. Unlike male prisoners, the women at Alderson did not design the social system to combat the social and psychological deprivations of prison."
