After reading Harner and Riley’s article on “The Impact of Incarceration on Women's Mental Health: Responses From Women in a Maximum-Security Prison” from the link below and chapter 11 of the textbook on "Processing and Sentencing Female offenders," discuss the pros and cons of “gender-neutral” sentencing. Provide examples from the reading. file:///Users/justinstatic/Documents/Documents/MOLLOY-%20FALL%202017/CRJ%20530%20(Women%20and%20Criminal%20Justice)/ACFrOgB7mkZnAYyUv_6alizBO01G3F1Jd7RZIl2BwjNIdTLqc68FD_S0BtE7UIS7tg1usffegiRd0Etdl3gAFhJmOURDl_13PXhP0NKYUR0fqvFFDh0weu7UbOJwBJ0=.pdf

Gender-neutral sentencing has been a controversial practice. On one hand, there is a basic argument about fairness: the penalties for crimes should be the same no matter who commits the crime. A female mass murderer, in theory, is as great a danger to society as a male mass murderer. In fact, though, females are far less likely to commit violent crimes than men. Although we might want to argue that as we as a society move closer to the ultimately desirable goal of gender equality it is only fair that our criminal justice system be gender neutral, the actual facts are that women commit far fewer crimes than men. Those crimes tend to be minor property crimes, drug-related offenses, or prostitution. In other words, female criminals are substantially less likely than male ones to pose a serious threat to society. 
Many of the women who are incarcerated have mental health or substance abuse problems, and, as Harner and Riley point out, incarceration exacerbates these mental health problems, especially given the limited resources for mental health care in the prison system. This means that incarcerating women does not address a major cause of female crimes, it actually aggravates it.
Even more importantly, women tend to be primary caregivers for children. A felony conviction for drug possession results in a lifetime ban from access to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. This means that imprisoning women has a disproportionately negative effect on children. It not only breaks up families, it also makes it more difficult for women to get assistance in turning their lives around and taking care of their children. This lack of access to financial support makes it more likely that they will be driven back to theft, prostitution, or dealing drugs to support themselves. Thus, gender neutral sentencing, despite appearing fair in theory, does not actually take into account the gendered patterns of criminal behavior and the unequal effects of incarceration on women and men.