Adjustment to Prison of Women Convicted of Possession,Trafficking,and Nondrug Offenses

Abstract

The present study investigates how female drug offenders adjust to their incarceration and whether there are detectable differences in the patterns of adjustment between women incarcerated for possession offenses, drug trafficking offenses, and nondrug offenses. Participants were 630 women incarcerated at a maximum security state prison who completed self-report adjustment measures. Results indicated that possession offenders reported less internal distress, lower levels of conflict, greater satisfaction with institutional conditions, and less of a tendency to view life in prison as worse than life outside than did women convicted of nondrug offenses. Possession offenders reported less internal distress and less conflict than did drug offenders incarcerated for trafficking offenses. Women convicted of possession offenses reported fewer mental illness symptoms than either the trafficking offenders or the nondrug offenders. Present results also confirmed that women of color are disproportionately represented within both drug offense groups.