Available From UC Press

In a Box

Gender-Responsive Reform, Mass Community Supervision, and Neoliberal Policies

Merry Morash

In a Box draws on the experiences of more than one hundred Michigan women on probation or parole to analyze how court, state, and federal policies hamper the state’s efforts at gender-responsive reforms in community supervision. Closely narrating the stories of six of these women, Merry Morash shows how countervailing influences keep reform-oriented probation and parole agents and the women they supervise “in a box.” Supervisory approaches that attempt to move away from punitive frameworks are limited or blocked by neoliberal social policies. Inspired by the interviewees’ reflections on their own experiences, the book offers recommendations for truly effective reforms within and outside the justice system.

Merry Morash is Professor of Criminal Justice and University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University. She is the author of Women on Probation and Parole: A Feminist Critique of Community Programs and Services.

"Merry Morash, a scholar long focused on efforts to make the criminal system more gender responsive, shows that this is hard work. Speaking directly to women who have experienced correctional supervision, she powerfully documents how the punitive nature of neoliberal policies undermines even earnest efforts of probation and parole agents to address women's unique needs."—Meda Chesney-Lind, author of The Female Offender: Girls, Women, and Crime

"In a Box provides much-needed scholarship about women on probation and parole with an incredibly comprehensive dive into their lives and the often-insurmountable quagmires they encounter due to judicial practices, welfare cuts, and lack of access to needed services. The six women who constitute the bulk of the qualitative analyses are portrayed with great care, insight, and dignity."—Joanne Belknap, author of The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime, and Justice

"Compelling and sensitively told, In a Box offers an original and timely perspective on community supervision and its impact on justice-involved women. Policymakers, students, and academics alike will find much of value in Merry Morash's deeply researched, nuanced book."—Jayne Mooney, author of The Theoretical Foundations of Criminology: Place, Time, and Context

"Drawing on extensive research, this rich and insightful work casts a much-needed critical eye on the obstacles placed in the paths of system-impacted women even as they attempt to escape criminalization."—Vera Lopez, author of Complicated Lives: Girls, Parents, Drugs, and Juvenile Justice

260 pp.6 x 9

9780520393516$29.95|£25.00Paper

Feb 2024