ABSTRACT
Contemporary approaches to understanding adjustment to prison point to multidimensional forms of adjustment, especially for women in prison. This chapter involves a formative process of prison adjustment scale development as well as utilizing diverse voices of women lifers to illustrate the personal nature of coping with imprisonment. Based on a modified version of Zamble and Porporino's (1988) “prison problems” index, we draw on a sample of 214 women with life sentences to examine more fully the nature of prison adjustment. Using factor analysis techniques, we identify five subscales (deprivation experiences, psychological concerns, personal vulnerability, social structure, and prison milieu) that contribute to our understanding of the complexity of adjustment for long-serving women. Findings suggest that women have the greatest difficulty adjusting to separation from family, loss of freedom, lack of parole clarity, missing social life on the outside, and worry about getting sick. These women appear to have less difficulty adjusting to abiding by prison rules and policies, and inside social life, including relationships with prison staff and other carceral residents. Additionally, variations in women's age, abuse histories, family dynamics, and mental health indicators differentially shape their adjustment to prison living. We conclude the chapter by discussing the obstacles women lifers face in adjusting to decades of prison life, implications for theory, policy, and practice, and future research directions.
