“For decades, Barbara Owen has provided incisive and authentic insights on the incarceration of women. This book shows the profound neglect and violence women face in the criminal justice system, and the unique ways in which gender compounds the punishment of confinement. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to see justice-involved women regain their human and civil rights in the United States and beyond.”—Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison
“This is a masterful piece of scholarship, providing readers with a thorough understanding of the distressing conditions facing incarcerated women throughout the U.S. These authors have given us a comprehensive stock of information about women’s prisons while allowing ample space for the voices of incarcerated women to be heard. The effect is chilling and deeply moving.”—Katherine Irwin, coauthor of Jacked Up and Unjust and Beyond Bad Girls
“Profoundly humanistic and sensitively informed by the intersection of social, cultural, historical, and structural sources of identity and opportunity. In this remarkable book we see how cumulative disadvantages and harms associated with gender find their fullest, and often cruelest, expression in the state-sponsored harms meted out in prisons for women. The mix of methods and the theoretical sophistication found in this volume set a new standard for prison research, if not for social research generally. This book is destined to be a classic.”—Robert Johnson, coeditor of A Woman Doing Life and Life without Parole
“The authors have engaged in the best kind of research—the kind that is informed by rigorous fieldwork, courageous writing, and nuanced analysis. They clearly understand women’s and girls’ experience in custodial settings and are unafraid to amplify what is known but also to chart new and interesting territory.”—Brenda V. Smith, Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law, and former Commissioner, National Prison Rape Elimination Commission
