Ronney Mourad and Dianne Guenin-Lelle
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199841127
- eISBN:
- 9780199919536
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199841127.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The introduction explores Guyon's reasons for not publishing the Prison Narratives along with the rest of her autobiography and shows how Guyon's early reputation among Protestants outside France was ...
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The introduction explores Guyon's reasons for not publishing the Prison Narratives along with the rest of her autobiography and shows how Guyon's early reputation among Protestants outside France was shaped by this gripping account of her confinement—copied and circulated by her supporters—which revealed many of the religious and social forces behind the Quietist Affair for the first time. The introduction contests mainstream accounts of this important historical event in light of her perspective as the victim of a carefully orchestrated political conspiracy. It shows how Guyon's unusual situation as a female prisoner of conscience defies theoretical generalizations about women's prison literature and clarifies the literary strategy of Guyon's well-known Life by comparing it with her Prison Narratives. The introduction also analyzes Guyon's positions on several perennial theological issues, including the meaning of evil and suffering, the balance of activity and passivity in the spiritual life, and the means of the soul's progress toward union with God.Less
The introduction explores Guyon's reasons for not publishing the Prison Narratives along with the rest of her autobiography and shows how Guyon's early reputation among Protestants outside France was shaped by this gripping account of her confinement—copied and circulated by her supporters—which revealed many of the religious and social forces behind the Quietist Affair for the first time. The introduction contests mainstream accounts of this important historical event in light of her perspective as the victim of a carefully orchestrated political conspiracy. It shows how Guyon's unusual situation as a female prisoner of conscience defies theoretical generalizations about women's prison literature and clarifies the literary strategy of Guyon's well-known Life by comparing it with her Prison Narratives. The introduction also analyzes Guyon's positions on several perennial theological issues, including the meaning of evil and suffering, the balance of activity and passivity in the spiritual life, and the means of the soul's progress toward union with God.
Alison Griffiths
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231161060
- eISBN:
- 9780231541565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231161060.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Chapter 5: “A Different Story: Recreation and Cinema in Women’s Prisons and Reformatories” explores how women incarcerated in prisons and reformatories at the turn-of-the-last century first ...
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Chapter 5: “A Different Story: Recreation and Cinema in Women’s Prisons and Reformatories” explores how women incarcerated in prisons and reformatories at the turn-of-the-last century first encountered modern media such as magic lantern slides, phonographs, and motion pictures and why film exhibition began later in the women’s prison than in male institutions. Using New York State Prison for Women in Auburn and Bedford Hills Women’s Reformatory as case studies, the chapter considers what alternative models of women’s recreation were deemed suitable and what happened on occasions when women were shown motion pictures.Less
Chapter 5: “A Different Story: Recreation and Cinema in Women’s Prisons and Reformatories” explores how women incarcerated in prisons and reformatories at the turn-of-the-last century first encountered modern media such as magic lantern slides, phonographs, and motion pictures and why film exhibition began later in the women’s prison than in male institutions. Using New York State Prison for Women in Auburn and Bedford Hills Women’s Reformatory as case studies, the chapter considers what alternative models of women’s recreation were deemed suitable and what happened on occasions when women were shown motion pictures.
Californians United for a Responsible Budget
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520252493
- eISBN:
- 9780520944565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520252493.003.0065
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
In April 2007, Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) published a report entitled Reducing the Number of People in California's Women's Prisons: How “Gender Responsive Prisons” Harm ...
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In April 2007, Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) published a report entitled Reducing the Number of People in California's Women's Prisons: How “Gender Responsive Prisons” Harm Women, Children, and Families. The report was in response to the controversial policy that would expand the capacity of California's women's prison system—already the largest prison system for women in the world—by up to 40 percent in two years. The California prison expansion plan was first publicly proposed by the Gender Responsive Strategies Commission, established in February 2005 as an advisory committee to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). In response to overwhelming evidence of unaddressed violence, medical neglect, and abuse, the CDCR, federal courts, and watchdogs are working to centralize control of California's prison system to increase oversight, address the myriad scandals within it, and ensure that people are treated equally no matter where they are imprisoned. However, real prison reform involves reducing the number of people in women's prisons by discharging the 4,500 people CDCR identified as no longer needing to be in prison.Less
In April 2007, Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) published a report entitled Reducing the Number of People in California's Women's Prisons: How “Gender Responsive Prisons” Harm Women, Children, and Families. The report was in response to the controversial policy that would expand the capacity of California's women's prison system—already the largest prison system for women in the world—by up to 40 percent in two years. The California prison expansion plan was first publicly proposed by the Gender Responsive Strategies Commission, established in February 2005 as an advisory committee to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). In response to overwhelming evidence of unaddressed violence, medical neglect, and abuse, the CDCR, federal courts, and watchdogs are working to centralize control of California's prison system to increase oversight, address the myriad scandals within it, and ensure that people are treated equally no matter where they are imprisoned. However, real prison reform involves reducing the number of people in women's prisons by discharging the 4,500 people CDCR identified as no longer needing to be in prison.
MAGALI TERCERO
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264461
- eISBN:
- 9780191734625
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264461.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
This chapter presents powerful images and accounts that chronicle contemporary urban life in Mexico. The images discussed were captured by the photographer Maya Goded. These photographs and ...
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This chapter presents powerful images and accounts that chronicle contemporary urban life in Mexico. The images discussed were captured by the photographer Maya Goded. These photographs and narratives chronicle the desolation of death, the world of the child and the bleak world of prostitution. In addition to these, the woman’s prison, the attractions of lucha libre (masked wrestling), the national lottery and games of chance, and the mass rallies of the Zapatistas, are painted vibrantly through chronicles and accounts. In these chronicles and photographs, the theme of poverty and the failure of the government to address the needs of the marginalized people form the unifying voice of these accounts. Prostitution, wrestling and the lottery became means for the people to escape poverty and the humdrum of everyday lives marked with difficulties. And the mistreatment of children, the trafficking of the rights of women in prisons and the lack of systematic identification of the victims of death reflect the failure of the government to produce laws and services that protect its people. However, despite the bleakness of the photographs and the chronicles presented herein, they nevertheless reflect the resilience of the Mexicans in surviving the challenges of life despite the feeling of being marginalized.Less
This chapter presents powerful images and accounts that chronicle contemporary urban life in Mexico. The images discussed were captured by the photographer Maya Goded. These photographs and narratives chronicle the desolation of death, the world of the child and the bleak world of prostitution. In addition to these, the woman’s prison, the attractions of lucha libre (masked wrestling), the national lottery and games of chance, and the mass rallies of the Zapatistas, are painted vibrantly through chronicles and accounts. In these chronicles and photographs, the theme of poverty and the failure of the government to address the needs of the marginalized people form the unifying voice of these accounts. Prostitution, wrestling and the lottery became means for the people to escape poverty and the humdrum of everyday lives marked with difficulties. And the mistreatment of children, the trafficking of the rights of women in prisons and the lack of systematic identification of the victims of death reflect the failure of the government to produce laws and services that protect its people. However, despite the bleakness of the photographs and the chronicles presented herein, they nevertheless reflect the resilience of the Mexicans in surviving the challenges of life despite the feeling of being marginalized.
Paul Rock
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198260950
- eISBN:
- 9780191682179
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198260950.003.0023
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
This chapter tries to reconstruct some critical parts of the decision to demolish the old Holloway prison, and it would be useful at the outset to give structural and political context to what was ...
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This chapter tries to reconstruct some critical parts of the decision to demolish the old Holloway prison, and it would be useful at the outset to give structural and political context to what was done. It recalls that the prison was part of the estate managed by the Prison Department's P4 division, and that P4 had its special features, being new, composite and mildly reformist. The division claimed to occupy an advantageous position, directing a few, uncrowded prisons which had an unusually favourable ratio of staff to prisoners, and whose inmates themselves served short sentences and were not thought to be dangerous, professional, or politically troublesome. The chapter touches briefly on the example of Everthorpe, but the focus is on a women's prison, and the treatment of women.Less
This chapter tries to reconstruct some critical parts of the decision to demolish the old Holloway prison, and it would be useful at the outset to give structural and political context to what was done. It recalls that the prison was part of the estate managed by the Prison Department's P4 division, and that P4 had its special features, being new, composite and mildly reformist. The division claimed to occupy an advantageous position, directing a few, uncrowded prisons which had an unusually favourable ratio of staff to prisoners, and whose inmates themselves served short sentences and were not thought to be dangerous, professional, or politically troublesome. The chapter touches briefly on the example of Everthorpe, but the focus is on a women's prison, and the treatment of women.
Erline Bibbs
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520252493
- eISBN:
- 9780520944565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520252493.003.0060
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
The author, an incarcerated woman, describes the kind of leadership that “experienced” incarcerated women in Alabama and Louisiana have been willing—and determined—to exercise in the interests of ...
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The author, an incarcerated woman, describes the kind of leadership that “experienced” incarcerated women in Alabama and Louisiana have been willing—and determined—to exercise in the interests of their community. She shows how the Longtimers/Insiders Activist Group at Tutwiler Prison in Alabama claimed a voice in decision making about a number of issues, especially about the new women's prison under construction. The participants in this group believe fervently that they can offer important, seasoned insights about the proper size of the new facility, its location, and its programs. The chapter shows that even in a domain governed by crude practicalities and politics, a group of incarcerated women can act on the powerful urge to introduce logic and lay claim to the dignity of experience.Less
The author, an incarcerated woman, describes the kind of leadership that “experienced” incarcerated women in Alabama and Louisiana have been willing—and determined—to exercise in the interests of their community. She shows how the Longtimers/Insiders Activist Group at Tutwiler Prison in Alabama claimed a voice in decision making about a number of issues, especially about the new women's prison under construction. The participants in this group believe fervently that they can offer important, seasoned insights about the proper size of the new facility, its location, and its programs. The chapter shows that even in a domain governed by crude practicalities and politics, a group of incarcerated women can act on the powerful urge to introduce logic and lay claim to the dignity of experience.
Alexandra Bell and Leche
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520252493
- eISBN:
- 9780520944565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520252493.003.0084
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
In this chapter, the author narrates her encounter with a former prisoner named Leche, who at the time of writing is enrolled in an Alternative to Incarceration program. On her last bid in prison, ...
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In this chapter, the author narrates her encounter with a former prisoner named Leche, who at the time of writing is enrolled in an Alternative to Incarceration program. On her last bid in prison, the conclusion of which would have marked seven years served, she was accepted into an ATI program at the Women's Prison Association (WPA). Before the ATI, she had gone straight back to selling drugs after her release from prison. In her depiction, prison had offered little change from the social ills that women encountered on the outside. Leche had entered prison a hustler and continued to hustle on the outside, returning to prison four more times. Like Leche, more than 70 percent of New York's women prisoners are of Latina or African descent, and more than 80 percent of women who are incarcerated for drug offenses are women of color. Despite studies showing that drug treatment and ATI programs are healthier and more cost-effective alternatives to imprisonment, women continue to be imprisoned at staggering rates.Less
In this chapter, the author narrates her encounter with a former prisoner named Leche, who at the time of writing is enrolled in an Alternative to Incarceration program. On her last bid in prison, the conclusion of which would have marked seven years served, she was accepted into an ATI program at the Women's Prison Association (WPA). Before the ATI, she had gone straight back to selling drugs after her release from prison. In her depiction, prison had offered little change from the social ills that women encountered on the outside. Leche had entered prison a hustler and continued to hustle on the outside, returning to prison four more times. Like Leche, more than 70 percent of New York's women prisoners are of Latina or African descent, and more than 80 percent of women who are incarcerated for drug offenses are women of color. Despite studies showing that drug treatment and ATI programs are healthier and more cost-effective alternatives to imprisonment, women continue to be imprisoned at staggering rates.
Barbara Owen, James Wells, and Joycelyn Pollock
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520288713
- eISBN:
- 9780520963566
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520288713.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
Based on extensive mixed-methods data, this book examines gendered violence and conflict in women’s prisons. Conflict and violence in the prison are located in intersectional inequalities and ...
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Based on extensive mixed-methods data, this book examines gendered violence and conflict in women’s prisons. Conflict and violence in the prison are located in intersectional inequalities and cumulative disadvantage, reflecting their pathways to prison. Women in prison share common characteristics, many mediated by structural, historical, and cumulative disadvantage. T pathways approach is expanded to include women’s experience within these structural clusters of intersectional inequalities. In their search for safety, women must negotiate these inequities through developing forms of prison capital. The history and philosophies underpinning women’s imprisonment, the gendered impact of prison and drug policy, and the variations in rates of imprisonment for differentially-situated women are also used to contextualizes the imprisonment of women. Prison conditions, aggravated by crowding, inadequate medical and mental health care and the lack of gender-informed operational practice, contribute to the gendered harm of imprisonment. A women’s search for safety is described through the lens of prison capital, forms of human, social and cultural capital women leverage to combat the gendered harm of imprisonment. Forms of capital combine with the intersectional inequality of imprisonment to condition the context for trouble and harm among women and with staff. The harm of women’s imprisonment can be located in human rights violations inside. The way forward is found in implementing international human rights standards in U. S. prisons, focusing on the promise of the Bangkok Rules.Less
Based on extensive mixed-methods data, this book examines gendered violence and conflict in women’s prisons. Conflict and violence in the prison are located in intersectional inequalities and cumulative disadvantage, reflecting their pathways to prison. Women in prison share common characteristics, many mediated by structural, historical, and cumulative disadvantage. T pathways approach is expanded to include women’s experience within these structural clusters of intersectional inequalities. In their search for safety, women must negotiate these inequities through developing forms of prison capital. The history and philosophies underpinning women’s imprisonment, the gendered impact of prison and drug policy, and the variations in rates of imprisonment for differentially-situated women are also used to contextualizes the imprisonment of women. Prison conditions, aggravated by crowding, inadequate medical and mental health care and the lack of gender-informed operational practice, contribute to the gendered harm of imprisonment. A women’s search for safety is described through the lens of prison capital, forms of human, social and cultural capital women leverage to combat the gendered harm of imprisonment. Forms of capital combine with the intersectional inequality of imprisonment to condition the context for trouble and harm among women and with staff. The harm of women’s imprisonment can be located in human rights violations inside. The way forward is found in implementing international human rights standards in U. S. prisons, focusing on the promise of the Bangkok Rules.
Alison Griffiths
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231161060
- eISBN:
- 9780231541565
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231161060.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
A groundbreaking contribution to the study of nontheatrical film exhibition, Carceral Fantasies tells the little-known story of how cinema found a home in the U.S. penitentiary system and how the ...
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A groundbreaking contribution to the study of nontheatrical film exhibition, Carceral Fantasies tells the little-known story of how cinema found a home in the U.S. penitentiary system and how the prison emerged as a setting and narrative trope in modern cinema. Focusing on films shown in prisons before 1935, Alison Griffiths explores the unique experience of viewing cinema while incarcerated and the complex cultural roots of cinematic renderings of prison life. Griffiths considers a diverse mix of cinematic genres, from early actualities and reenactments of notorious executions to reformist exposés of the 1920s. She connects an early fascination with cinematic images of punishment and execution, especially electrocutions, to the attractions of the nineteenth-century carnival electrical wonder show and Phantasmagoria (a ghost show using magic lantern projections and special effects). Griffiths draws upon convict writing, prison annual reports, and the popular press obsession with prison-house cinema to document the integration of film into existing reformist and educational activities and film’s psychic extension of flights of fancy undertaken by inmates in their cells. Combining penal history with visual and film studies and theories surrounding media’s sensual effects, Carceral Fantasies illuminates how filmic representations of the penal system enacted ideas about modernity, gender, the body, and the public, shaping both the social experience of cinema and the public’s understanding of the modern prison.Less
A groundbreaking contribution to the study of nontheatrical film exhibition, Carceral Fantasies tells the little-known story of how cinema found a home in the U.S. penitentiary system and how the prison emerged as a setting and narrative trope in modern cinema. Focusing on films shown in prisons before 1935, Alison Griffiths explores the unique experience of viewing cinema while incarcerated and the complex cultural roots of cinematic renderings of prison life. Griffiths considers a diverse mix of cinematic genres, from early actualities and reenactments of notorious executions to reformist exposés of the 1920s. She connects an early fascination with cinematic images of punishment and execution, especially electrocutions, to the attractions of the nineteenth-century carnival electrical wonder show and Phantasmagoria (a ghost show using magic lantern projections and special effects). Griffiths draws upon convict writing, prison annual reports, and the popular press obsession with prison-house cinema to document the integration of film into existing reformist and educational activities and film’s psychic extension of flights of fancy undertaken by inmates in their cells. Combining penal history with visual and film studies and theories surrounding media’s sensual effects, Carceral Fantasies illuminates how filmic representations of the penal system enacted ideas about modernity, gender, the body, and the public, shaping both the social experience of cinema and the public’s understanding of the modern prison.
Emily L. Thuma
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042331
- eISBN:
- 9780252051173
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042331.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
Chapter 3 analyzes women’s prison newsletters as a feminist counterpublic that enabled incarcerated women to communicate with one another and with anticarceral feminist activists in the “free world.” ...
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Chapter 3 analyzes women’s prison newsletters as a feminist counterpublic that enabled incarcerated women to communicate with one another and with anticarceral feminist activists in the “free world.” Two newsletters, Through the Looking Glass and No More Cages, which were produced by lesbian feminist collectives from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, document prisoners’ resistance and collective action against gendered and racialized violence. Addressing the chasm between a prisoners’ rights movement focused on men’s institutions and a feminist antiviolence movement increasingly enmeshed with the carceral state, these newsletters created solidarity between criminalized women and those outside the walls.Less
Chapter 3 analyzes women’s prison newsletters as a feminist counterpublic that enabled incarcerated women to communicate with one another and with anticarceral feminist activists in the “free world.” Two newsletters, Through the Looking Glass and No More Cages, which were produced by lesbian feminist collectives from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, document prisoners’ resistance and collective action against gendered and racialized violence. Addressing the chasm between a prisoners’ rights movement focused on men’s institutions and a feminist antiviolence movement increasingly enmeshed with the carceral state, these newsletters created solidarity between criminalized women and those outside the walls.
Emily L. Thuma
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042331
- eISBN:
- 9780252051173
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042331.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
Chapter 2 examines the resistance of women prisoners and their supporters’ opposition to the use of medicalized behavior-modification regimes in prisons during the 1970s. The Coalition to Stop ...
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Chapter 2 examines the resistance of women prisoners and their supporters’ opposition to the use of medicalized behavior-modification regimes in prisons during the 1970s. The Coalition to Stop Institutional Violence, a broad-based, feminist-led alliance in Massachusetts that included advocates for the rights of prisoners and mental patients, blocked the construction of a locked treatment center for dissident and gender-nonconforming women prisoners who were labeled “deviant” and “violent.” Activists criticized the “prison/psychiatric state” for perpetrating violence against women while advocating alternative approaches to safety, accountability, and healing.Less
Chapter 2 examines the resistance of women prisoners and their supporters’ opposition to the use of medicalized behavior-modification regimes in prisons during the 1970s. The Coalition to Stop Institutional Violence, a broad-based, feminist-led alliance in Massachusetts that included advocates for the rights of prisoners and mental patients, blocked the construction of a locked treatment center for dissident and gender-nonconforming women prisoners who were labeled “deviant” and “violent.” Activists criticized the “prison/psychiatric state” for perpetrating violence against women while advocating alternative approaches to safety, accountability, and healing.
Megan Sweeney
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520252493
- eISBN:
- 9780520944565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520252493.003.0035
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
The draconian political climate in the United States has contributed to an evisceration of prison libraries and a substantial reduction in the educational and rehabilitative programs in prisons. ...
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The draconian political climate in the United States has contributed to an evisceration of prison libraries and a substantial reduction in the educational and rehabilitative programs in prisons. Despite these bleak prospects for reading behind bars, the author of this chapter has discovered that some incarcerated women engage in highly resourceful reading practices with the limited materials available to them. As part of a larger study about cultures of reading in women's prisons, she has been conducting interviews and book discussions in a midwestern women's prison. In this chapter, she catalogues the reading habits of the incarcerated women she teaches and the roles of novel reading in their lives. She also provides snapshots of the varied and vital ways in which these women use reading as a means to re-story their lives: to learn about themselves, mediate their histories of pain and violence, gain knowledge and inspiration from other women, and narrate—and sometimes redirect—their own journeys.Less
The draconian political climate in the United States has contributed to an evisceration of prison libraries and a substantial reduction in the educational and rehabilitative programs in prisons. Despite these bleak prospects for reading behind bars, the author of this chapter has discovered that some incarcerated women engage in highly resourceful reading practices with the limited materials available to them. As part of a larger study about cultures of reading in women's prisons, she has been conducting interviews and book discussions in a midwestern women's prison. In this chapter, she catalogues the reading habits of the incarcerated women she teaches and the roles of novel reading in their lives. She also provides snapshots of the varied and vital ways in which these women use reading as a means to re-story their lives: to learn about themselves, mediate their histories of pain and violence, gain knowledge and inspiration from other women, and narrate—and sometimes redirect—their own journeys.
Alfreda Robinson-Dawkins
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520252493
- eISBN:
- 9780520944565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520252493.003.0075
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
In this chapter, the author recalls the time she was in prison for nine and a half years for a drug conspiracy. She feels like her life has been interrupted, and now she seeks some semblance of ...
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In this chapter, the author recalls the time she was in prison for nine and a half years for a drug conspiracy. She feels like her life has been interrupted, and now she seeks some semblance of “catching up” and making the pieces fit, to live a life of normalcy and do the little things that would allow her to assimilate back into society. After all, every one talks about “reentry.” After being rejected from so many jobs and trying to maintain her self-esteem and faith, the author realized she was not alone out here. So many former women prisoners feel the same thing and think the same thoughts. After having so many doors closed, the author decided to take more assertive responsibility for her own course of action, to help cement her destiny. She had a strong desire to help other women who were facing the same obstacles, so she founded the National Women's Prison Project in Baltimore, Maryland. She continues to heal from her incarceration by helping other women like her heal.Less
In this chapter, the author recalls the time she was in prison for nine and a half years for a drug conspiracy. She feels like her life has been interrupted, and now she seeks some semblance of “catching up” and making the pieces fit, to live a life of normalcy and do the little things that would allow her to assimilate back into society. After all, every one talks about “reentry.” After being rejected from so many jobs and trying to maintain her self-esteem and faith, the author realized she was not alone out here. So many former women prisoners feel the same thing and think the same thoughts. After having so many doors closed, the author decided to take more assertive responsibility for her own course of action, to help cement her destiny. She had a strong desire to help other women who were facing the same obstacles, so she founded the National Women's Prison Project in Baltimore, Maryland. She continues to heal from her incarceration by helping other women like her heal.
Marisa Belausteguigoitia Rius
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231154499
- eISBN:
- 9780231520843
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231154499.003.0012
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
This chapter explores pedagogical activities that foster intimacy—that is, attachment, communication, intersubjectivity—in imprisoned spaces by focusing on the collective storytelling made possible ...
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This chapter explores pedagogical activities that foster intimacy—that is, attachment, communication, intersubjectivity—in imprisoned spaces by focusing on the collective storytelling made possible through the concrete materiality of the mural painting in Santa Marta Acatitla, the most important women's prison in Mexico City. In particular, it looks at the conceptual connections that women prisoners in Santa Marta Acatitla began to make with prisoners in other parts of the world. It examines how this project introduced color and textuality inside the prison through the design of the mural on the surface of the spiral stairs used only by visitors or by women prisoners in the process of their liberation. The chapter tackles two central questions in relation to this project: What kind of “text” can emerge under intense surveillance? And how do captive spaces enable or resist signification? In discussing this mural, the chapter highlights the interrelation of theories, concepts, and politics underlying the pedagogy of the spiral.Less
This chapter explores pedagogical activities that foster intimacy—that is, attachment, communication, intersubjectivity—in imprisoned spaces by focusing on the collective storytelling made possible through the concrete materiality of the mural painting in Santa Marta Acatitla, the most important women's prison in Mexico City. In particular, it looks at the conceptual connections that women prisoners in Santa Marta Acatitla began to make with prisoners in other parts of the world. It examines how this project introduced color and textuality inside the prison through the design of the mural on the surface of the spiral stairs used only by visitors or by women prisoners in the process of their liberation. The chapter tackles two central questions in relation to this project: What kind of “text” can emerge under intense surveillance? And how do captive spaces enable or resist signification? In discussing this mural, the chapter highlights the interrelation of theories, concepts, and politics underlying the pedagogy of the spiral.
Megan Sweeney
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807833520
- eISBN:
- 9781469604367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807898352_sweeney.10
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter shows that narratives of self-improvement and religious transformation have largely replaced narratives of political transformation in women's prisons. This reflects a broader cultural ...
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This chapter shows that narratives of self-improvement and religious transformation have largely replaced narratives of political transformation in women's prisons. This reflects a broader cultural shift from the politicized climate of collective activism and social critique during the early 1970s to the self-help climate of the 1980s and beyond. Self-help discourse has a Christian inflection in the women's prisons where the author conducted research; the majority of available self-help books are written by Christian authors and geared toward a Christian audience. In prisons throughout the country, the decrease in state and federal funding for rehabilitative programming has been matched by an increase in the presence of Christian volunteers, reading materials, and educational programs. As a 2007 federal appeals court decision underscored, this influx has meant that some opportunities, privileges, and reading materials are available only to prisoners who are willing to embrace a Christian perspective.Less
This chapter shows that narratives of self-improvement and religious transformation have largely replaced narratives of political transformation in women's prisons. This reflects a broader cultural shift from the politicized climate of collective activism and social critique during the early 1970s to the self-help climate of the 1980s and beyond. Self-help discourse has a Christian inflection in the women's prisons where the author conducted research; the majority of available self-help books are written by Christian authors and geared toward a Christian audience. In prisons throughout the country, the decrease in state and federal funding for rehabilitative programming has been matched by an increase in the presence of Christian volunteers, reading materials, and educational programs. As a 2007 federal appeals court decision underscored, this influx has meant that some opportunities, privileges, and reading materials are available only to prisoners who are willing to embrace a Christian perspective.
Paul Julian Smith
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781781383247
- eISBN:
- 9781786944054
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781383247.003.0009
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
Chapter 8 treats HBO Latin America’s first series to be made in Mexico. The chapter asks how the “HBO effect,” a paradigm of quality TV that is fully documented in the US, is transformed in a new ...
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Chapter 8 treats HBO Latin America’s first series to be made in Mexico. The chapter asks how the “HBO effect,” a paradigm of quality TV that is fully documented in the US, is transformed in a new territory and televisual ecology. The choice of a women’s prison drama thus not only connects the show with grittily realistic transnational titles from the network that addressed law and criminal justice; it also, in this new context, facilitates a connection with the melodramatic national genre of telenovela. The chapter further argues that authorship for the series should be assigned less to HBO than to the Mexican producer, Argos, which had been producing socially conscious and politically progressive dramas for some twenty years before.Less
Chapter 8 treats HBO Latin America’s first series to be made in Mexico. The chapter asks how the “HBO effect,” a paradigm of quality TV that is fully documented in the US, is transformed in a new territory and televisual ecology. The choice of a women’s prison drama thus not only connects the show with grittily realistic transnational titles from the network that addressed law and criminal justice; it also, in this new context, facilitates a connection with the melodramatic national genre of telenovela. The chapter further argues that authorship for the series should be assigned less to HBO than to the Mexican producer, Argos, which had been producing socially conscious and politically progressive dramas for some twenty years before.
Lotte van de Pol
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199211401
- eISBN:
- 9780191725142
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199211401.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter examines the relationship between changing attitudes and legislation toward prostitution and policing in Amsterdam from the middle ages through the eighteenth century, and traces the ...
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This chapter examines the relationship between changing attitudes and legislation toward prostitution and policing in Amsterdam from the middle ages through the eighteenth century, and traces the interaction between the policing and the organisation of prostitution. The reasoning behind the 17th and 18th policy, from whoring as a crime, to prostitution as a social problem was always overshadowed by age old notion of prostitution as necessary evil in a port city. The writings of the Dutch/English Bernard Mandeville serve as an example. In the 17th century prosecution was directed at prostitutes, in the 18th century at the organizers, whereas by the end of the 18th century the prostitution business experienced regulated tolerance. The Reformed Church regularly influenced the policing of prostitution, whereas parental requests and complaints from neighbours also instigated persecution. An further element of control was the prostitute's fear of the Spin House, the women's prison.Less
This chapter examines the relationship between changing attitudes and legislation toward prostitution and policing in Amsterdam from the middle ages through the eighteenth century, and traces the interaction between the policing and the organisation of prostitution. The reasoning behind the 17th and 18th policy, from whoring as a crime, to prostitution as a social problem was always overshadowed by age old notion of prostitution as necessary evil in a port city. The writings of the Dutch/English Bernard Mandeville serve as an example. In the 17th century prosecution was directed at prostitutes, in the 18th century at the organizers, whereas by the end of the 18th century the prostitution business experienced regulated tolerance. The Reformed Church regularly influenced the policing of prostitution, whereas parental requests and complaints from neighbours also instigated persecution. An further element of control was the prostitute's fear of the Spin House, the women's prison.
Robert A. Ferguson
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300230833
- eISBN:
- 9780300235296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300230833.003.0009
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
This chapter focuses on how advances in education are the ultimate source of improvement, and how it will require a many-tiered coordinated program. Empirical study shows that education makes all the ...
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This chapter focuses on how advances in education are the ultimate source of improvement, and how it will require a many-tiered coordinated program. Empirical study shows that education makes all the difference in reducing recidivism in prisoners. Recidivism rates vary depending on the quality and the level of educational programs, and quality is notoriously hard to gauge in a prison setting. Even so, all such programs have an impact, and some have a decisive one. If recidivism rates remain at an unacceptably high peak—well over 60 percent—the percentages drop with some education and reach single digits if a person in prison completes a college program. The chapter shows that educational potentials are greater in prisons for women and might, with a realization of what works, be carried into prisons for men.Less
This chapter focuses on how advances in education are the ultimate source of improvement, and how it will require a many-tiered coordinated program. Empirical study shows that education makes all the difference in reducing recidivism in prisoners. Recidivism rates vary depending on the quality and the level of educational programs, and quality is notoriously hard to gauge in a prison setting. Even so, all such programs have an impact, and some have a decisive one. If recidivism rates remain at an unacceptably high peak—well over 60 percent—the percentages drop with some education and reach single digits if a person in prison completes a college program. The chapter shows that educational potentials are greater in prisons for women and might, with a realization of what works, be carried into prisons for men.
Martha L. Raimon, Luz Alvarez, Sunshine Brooks, Casey Deas, and Lorrayne Patterson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520252493
- eISBN:
- 9780520944565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520252493.003.0081
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
The author, a legal services lawyer, describes in this chapter her work with formerly incarcerated women in two advocacy programs at the Women's Prison Association and Home (WPA) and at the Women in ...
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The author, a legal services lawyer, describes in this chapter her work with formerly incarcerated women in two advocacy programs at the Women's Prison Association and Home (WPA) and at the Women in Prison Project (WIPP) of the Correctional Association of New York. The goal of the WPA's program, the Women's Advocacy Project (WAP), is to develop leaders able to craft solutions to the many-faceted challenges facing incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women. Similarly, ReConnect, part of WIPP, trains women in advocacy and leadership. Both programs work to enhance women's natural leadership skills so that they can engage in collective policy advocacy. The participants in both programs have had varying levels of involvement with the criminal justice system, but they share a desire to bring about improvements in criminal justice policies that affect women in and out of jail and prison. The author's principal role in these workshops was to teach participants about family law, especially laws relating to custody and foster care.Less
The author, a legal services lawyer, describes in this chapter her work with formerly incarcerated women in two advocacy programs at the Women's Prison Association and Home (WPA) and at the Women in Prison Project (WIPP) of the Correctional Association of New York. The goal of the WPA's program, the Women's Advocacy Project (WAP), is to develop leaders able to craft solutions to the many-faceted challenges facing incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women. Similarly, ReConnect, part of WIPP, trains women in advocacy and leadership. Both programs work to enhance women's natural leadership skills so that they can engage in collective policy advocacy. The participants in both programs have had varying levels of involvement with the criminal justice system, but they share a desire to bring about improvements in criminal justice policies that affect women in and out of jail and prison. The author's principal role in these workshops was to teach participants about family law, especially laws relating to custody and foster care.
Emily L. Thuma
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042331
- eISBN:
- 9780252051173
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042331.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence is a history of grassroots activism by, for, and about incarcerated domestic violence survivors, criminalized rape resisters, ...
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All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence is a history of grassroots activism by, for, and about incarcerated domestic violence survivors, criminalized rape resisters, and dissident women prisoners in the 1970s and early 1980s. Across the country, in and outside of prisons, radical women participated in collective actions that insisted on the interconnections between interpersonal violence against women and the racial and gender violence of policing and imprisonment. These organizing efforts generated an anticarceral feminist politics that was defined by a critique of state violence; an understanding of race, gender, class, and sexuality as mutually constructed systems of power and meaning; and a practice of coalition-based organizing. Drawing on an array of archival sources as well as first-person narratives, the book traces the political activities, ideas, and influence of this activist current. All Our Trials demonstrates how it shaped broader debates about the root causes of and remedies for violence against women as well as played a decisive role in the making of a prison abolition movement.Less
All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence is a history of grassroots activism by, for, and about incarcerated domestic violence survivors, criminalized rape resisters, and dissident women prisoners in the 1970s and early 1980s. Across the country, in and outside of prisons, radical women participated in collective actions that insisted on the interconnections between interpersonal violence against women and the racial and gender violence of policing and imprisonment. These organizing efforts generated an anticarceral feminist politics that was defined by a critique of state violence; an understanding of race, gender, class, and sexuality as mutually constructed systems of power and meaning; and a practice of coalition-based organizing. Drawing on an array of archival sources as well as first-person narratives, the book traces the political activities, ideas, and influence of this activist current. All Our Trials demonstrates how it shaped broader debates about the root causes of and remedies for violence against women as well as played a decisive role in the making of a prison abolition movement.
