Restrained voices: Female inmates' views of health services in two Ohio prisons

This research presents the voices of women inmates on health care services in prisons. Foucault's discourse analysis as a means of bringing to the surface restrained voices provides the theoretical basis for this study. The research is based on face-to-face interviews of fifty-six women inmates to understand better the role gender plays in prison health care delivery. The results show that women are willing to discuss only physical ailments and are reluctant to speak about mental health care or HIV. While women benefit from health care services in prison, they still feel that a female-oriented approach to health care in general will improve the services tremendously. This approach is not dictated by the "difference" in the ailments between men and women, but by the "difference" in the way men and women encounter health care providers and illnesses.