|
...laudable contribution to prison writings, particularly since it promotes the voices of women prisoners themselves from around the world. Women are the fastest-growing segment of the prison population worldwide and most are imprisoned for economic and drug-related crime, behaviors that are often the way women cope with a life of violence, marginalization, and socioeconomic deprivation. Women's imprisonment is simultaneously shaped by local and global factors, such as the U.S.-led war on drugs, the worldwide movement of peoples across borders, legally or illegally, the push for neoliberal social policies and free trade, and increasingly punitive law-and-order agendas. Importantly, however, such influences are clearly structured along the lines of gender, race, and class, which often means that those most affected are the least able to cope. Statistics that look only at the gender breakdown of prisoners miss out on the important variables of race and class. Thus, they severely underestimate the impact of this global increase in punitiveness on women of color, indigenous women, and the economically disadvantaged.
In her "Introduction," Sudbury (2005: xix) notes that "this volume seeks to liberate women prisoners from the criminologists and learn what other academic disciplines as well as activists and former prisoners have to tell us about the prison boom and its impact on women of color." This approach makes the collection an immensely important contribution to research and writings on prisons and decidedly increases the scope of the reading audience to include the whole spectrum of the social sciences, as well as practitioners within the legal and criminal justice system. That prisoners own voices are promoted is noteworthy because prison cultures silence and disempower women. As the authors discuss throughout the book, it...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
have been removed from this article.
More articles from Social Justice
Review of Bobby Sands: Nothing but an Unfinished Song.(Book review), December 22, 2006
Review of Denis O'Hearn's work on Bobby Sands, Unfinished Song.(Nothin..., December 22, 2006
The prison fix.(Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizin..., December 22, 2006
Looking for additional articles?
Search our database of over 3 million articles.
Looking for more in-depth information on this industry?
Search our complete database of Industry & Market reports by text, subject, publication
name or publication date.
About Goliath
Whether you're looking for sales prospects, competitive information, company
analysis or best practices in managing your organization,
Goliath can help you meet your business needs.
Our extensive business information databases empower business
professionals with both the breadth and depth of credible,
authoritative information they need to support their business
goals. Whether it be strategic planning, sales prospecting,
company research or defining management best practices -
Goliath is your leading source for accurate information.
|
%20%20&position=1)