By Linda Tweedy, women's rights activist—It is 2019. By this time, our forebears believed that we would have flying cars, hoverboards, and scheduled weather events. It seems that we have let them down, but in more ways than technologically. Specifically, I am appalled to think that they would look into our time and see so much discrimination and hatred based on gender.
Although I, like my sister activists, die a little each day knowing that women are underrepresented in STEM fields, as CEOs, and in the leadership of our "great" country, nothing shocked me so much as when I learned about just how few women there are represented in our criminal justice system.
Recent statistics suggest that, although the United States has more prison beds per capita than any other country, 92% of prison inmates are men. This figure is an outrage, and is yet another example of the patriarchy systematically separating prison resources from women. This must end now.
Prisons not only provide education and job skills opportunities to its residents, but they have universal healthcare, and ensure a balanced diet for those fortunate enough to meet the admissions criteria. Beyond these luxuries, single mothers' childcare needs are a non-issue once they've entered the prison, in virtually all cases. Just imagine the relief these institutions could provide to women. And yet prisons have become yet another "boys only" club, hoarding millions of tax dollars to be spent on services for almost exclusively men. It's nothing short of shocking.
I do not ask for much. I ask only for equality. In 2019, it should be simple for any woman to make a name for herself as a vicious serial killer, child pornographer, or kidnapper. Yet societal imbalances have skewed things once again in favor of men who aggress against others, and take or damage property. Women, it seems, have to work twice as hard as men to get the same results. We cannot continue to tolerate such blatant sexism, and I, for one, will not rest until strong women make up at least 50% of the prison population.
Among my demands are the following:
Arrests of women should be increased fourfold to begin making up lost ground. I also prefer that these be by women police officers and federal agents.
Quotas should be required for the number of women charged with crimes, both local and federal, ensuring that they are at least in equal proportions of men charged.
Juries should be carefully instructed to begin weighing gender in their decisions of guilt or innocence.
Male prisoners must begin serving shorter sentences or be released early to free up prison resources for their female peers.
I urge all feminists and persons who desire a more equitable future for our nation to contact their representatives and demand that they act now for equality and fairness.
We can do this. The future is ours, and we owe it to our daughters and granddaughters to pave the way for equal treatment under the law.