Prison By Way Of A Sorority...

Barbara Stanwyck looks very 'chic' going in and leaving the alleged Prison. One that features a common room, individual cells that can be decorated as the inmate sees fit. Beauty Parlor and more free time then work time. This is a pre code Hollywood fantasy. In reality Women's Prison of the time were alot harsher, though they did vary from State to State.

Typical punishment for a Suffragette in the early 20th Century was to be Handcuffed with hands above her head to the bars of her cell, all day. Need a bathroom break, it was not going to happen. Being Handcuffed and Shackled to your bed was used to calm down those who acted up. The inmates were expected to work sometimes twelve (12) hours a day. Some States allowed Women inmates to be leased out to private business, usually farms or communities generally for cleanup purposes. The Women would be fettered (leg irons) and feeding, discipline and security was largely left to the leassee. Punishment usually was a flogging. Prisons in the South were segregated and these type of treatments would continue through the 1930s. Mental Hospitals were not much better.

A more representative depiction of Women in Prison is the film ANN VICKERS, RKO (1933) also a pre code film. Adapted from the novel by Sinclair Lewis. It clearly illustrates some of the abuses described above.