Description:

The article describes the discrimination and violence faced by imprisoned women, especially torture and cruel treatment. The main topic here is the situation in the criminal justice system that concerns women convicted, as well as women sentenced to imprisonment. It deals with the risks faced by women in the private sphere or society, and also emphasizes the important link between prison culture and society. Violence against women is often contained in social and cultural values and practice. Other groups of convicted women at risk of cruel treatment and torture include women with limited health, foreign citizens, ethnic and racial minorities, and women belonging to Indigenous Peoples. The criminal justice system and the legislature cannot completely avoid the impact of these values and therefore their attitude towards women has not always been as serious as their attitude towards other forms of violence. Thus, the possibility of cruel treatment and torture available to women in places of deprivation of Liberty is a problem that can not be solved only by work aimed at correcting the situation in these institutions. The root causes of the special vulnerability of women in penitentiary institutions are often found outside the walls of prisons, although in places of deprivation of Liberty this vulnerability is even greater. Women are not only vulnerable to torture and cruel treatment, they also have special needs in places of deprivation of Liberty, which, as a rule, are often neglected (for example, women's special medical problems) or are greatly aggravated by the fact of being in prison (for example, some female prisoners are rejected by relatives as a result of stigma associated with convicted women). In this context, the needs of female prisoners should also be taken into account. As a rule, the main responsibility for the care and upbringing of children is assumed by women, as a result of separation from the mother and co-existence with the mother in prison, the child can be greatly harmed. In this regard, for pregnant women and mothers with underage children, the need for maximum consideration of the interests of the child is increasingly perceived, with an emphasis on penalties not related to deprivation of Liberty.