NCJ Number
239497
Journal
Women and Criminal Justice Volume: 22 Issue: 2 Dated: April - June 2012 Pages: 135-155
Date Published
April 2012
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This study analyzed contemporary women's prison writings in the United States over a 50-year period.
Abstract
Although women have been writing about their prison experiences throughout history and around the world, their published narratives are rarely acknowledged as a legitimate source of data about prison life deserving of analysis in its own right. What can scholars learn about women's prisons by reading the unsolicited words of incarcerated women? Based on a content analysis of 22 prison narratives penned by U.S. women and published from 1960 to 2010, this article presents a typology for describing the women who have written about their prison experience and identifies the prominent theme of the narratives. Every single writer focused on her relationshipswith other prisoners, with prison guards, and with those in the outside worldand the nature of those relationships varied according to whether the author's crime was political and whether the author obtained celebrity status. Published by arrangement with Taylor and Francis.