"In 1975, I reported the reactions of twenty-three criminal court judges interviewed in the Midwest and commented:
Most of the judges treat women more leniently than they do men. They are more inclined to recommend probation rather than imprisonment, and if they sentence a woman, it is usually for a shorter time than if the crime has been committed by a man.
Based on additional interviews conducted in 1989, I am still inclined to believe that judges treat women more gently than they do men, mostly at the sentencing stage. There is some evidence to suggest that they are also more inclined to be lenient at the determination of guilt stage. many trial court judges believe today, as they did twenty years ago, that incarceration is far more degrading for a woman than for a man...
Physically, then, female institutions are usually more attractive and more pleasant than the security-oriented institutions for men. They tend to be located in more pastoral settings, and they are not as likely to have the gun towers, the concrete walls, and the barbed wire that so often characterize the male institutions. Women inmates usually have more privacy than men and tend to have single rooms. They may be allowed to wear street clothes rather than prison uniforms and decorate their rooms with bedspreads and curtains provided by the prison. Toilet and shower facilities also reflect a greater concern for women's privacy. Because women prisoners are perceived as less dangerous and less escape-prone than men, most states also allow them more trips outside the prison than they do their male counterparts."
- Women, Crime, and Justice, Rita Simon