A journey into the experiences of incarcerated women in rural areas, revealing how location can reinforce gendered violence Incarceration is all too often depicted as an urban problem, a male problem, a problem that disproportionately affects people of color. This book, however, takes readers to the heart of the struggles of the outlaw women of the rural West, considering how poverty and gendered violence overlap to keep women literally and figuratively imprisoned. Outlaw Women examines the forces that shape women's experiences of incarceration and release from prison in the remote, predominantly white communities that many Americans still think of as "the Western frontier." Drawing on dozens of interviews with women in the state of Wyoming who were incarcerated or on parole, the authors provide an in-depth examination of women's perceptions of their lives before, during, and after imprisonment. Considering cultural mores specific to the rural West, the authors identify the forces that consistently trap women in cycles of crime and violence in these regions: felony-related discrimination, the geographic isolation that traps women in abusive relationships, and cultural stigmas surrounding addiction, poverty, and precarious interpersonal relationships. Following incarceration, women in these areas face additional, region-specific obstacles as they attempt to reintegrate into society, including limited social services, significant gender wage gaps, and even severe weather conditions that restrict travel. The book ultimately concludes with new, evidence-based recommendations for addressing the challenges these women face.

This very vivid memoir describes the prison experiences of a Cork Fenian activist, John Sarsfield Casey. 'The Galtee Boy' was a name used by Casey when he sent letters for publication to newspapers, one of which was used against him at his trial in 1865. His memoir was written after he had returned from deportation and describes the period from his arrest in 1865, his trial in Cork and conditions in Mountjoy, Millbank, Pentonville and Portland prisons. His memoir is the most extensive surviving account from the Fenian side of the experiences of those prisoners detained in Cork. Biographies of people mentioned in the memoir are given in an appendix.

Arrested as a Freedom Rider in June of 1961, Carol Ruth Silver, a twenty-two-year-old recent college graduate originally from Massachusetts, spent the next forty days in Mississippi jail cells, including the Maximum Security Unit at the infamous Parchman Prison Farm. She chronicled the events and her experiences on hidden scraps of paper which amazingly she was able to smuggle out. These raw written scraps she fashioned into a manuscript, which has waited, unread for more than fifty years. Freedom Rider Diary is that account.Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961 to test the US Supreme Court rulings outlawing segregation in interstate bus and terminal facilities. Brutality and arrests inflicted on the Riders called national attention to the disregard for federal law and the local violence used to enforce segregation. Police arrested Riders for trespassing, unlawful assembly, and violating state and local Jim Crow laws, along with other alleged offenses, but they often allowed white mobs to attack the Riders without arrest or intervention. This book offers a heretofore unavailable detailed diary from a woman Freedom Rider along with an introduction by historian Raymond Arsenault, author of the definitive history of the Freedom Rides. In a personal essay detailing her life before and after the Freedom Rides, Silver explores what led her to join the movement and explains how, galvanized by her actions and those of her compatriots in 1961, she spent her life and career fighting for civil rights. Framing essays and personal and historical photographs make the diary an ideal book for the general public, scholars, and students of the movement that changed America.

Pyrooz and Decker pull apart the bars on prison gangs to uncover how they compete for control. While there is much speculation about these gangs, there is little solid research. This book draws on interviews with 802 inmates - half of whom were gang members - in two Texas prisons; one of the largest samples of its kind. Using this data, the authors explore how gangs organize and govern, who joins gangs and how they get out, the dark side of gang activities including misconduct and violence, the ways in which gang membership spills onto the street, and the direct and indirect links between the street and prison gangs. Competing for Control captures the nature of gangs in a time of transition, as prison gangs become more horizontal and their power is diffused across groups. There is no study like this one.

Having left South Africa at the age of four as a political refugee with his parents, photographer Koto Bolofo returned to his home country with his wife in 1992, two years after Nelson Mandela had been released from prison. Bolofo got free access to the notorious and by now deserted prison of Robben Island, where Mandela had been held for the majority of the twenty-seven years of his confinement in a cell of barely 6 square metres in Section B. The photographer and his wife eagerly began documenting the site's abandoned interiors and surroundings, dreading the prison's potential closure. Meanwhile, it was converted into a well-frequented museum in 1997 and included on the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 1999. The black and white photographs of this volume conspicuously favour close-up depictions of details as opposed to general views: leftover items, barbed wire fences, spacious dormitories viewed through a spyhole, the key in the lock to Mandela's cell which is so tiny it cannot be taken as a whole--all this is conveying the gloomy sense of claustrophobia and suppression that characterise the place. The camera is constantly searching for the few rays of light that penetrate the ubiquitous grimness and silence of cruelty.

Before September 11, 2001, few Americans had heard of immigration detention, but in fact a secret and repressive prison system run by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has existed in this country for more than two decades. In "American Gulag", prisoners, jailers, and whistle-blowing federal officials come forward to describe the frightening reality inside these INS facilities. Journalist Mark Dow's on-the-ground reporting brings to light documented cases of illegal beatings and psychological torment, prolonged detention, racism, and inhumane conditions. Intelligent, impassioned, and unlike anything that has been written on the topic, this gripping work of investigative journalism should be read by all Americans. It is a book that will change the way we see our country. "American Gulag" takes us inside prisons such as the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, the Corrections Corporation of America's Houston Processing Center, and county jails around the country that profit from contracts to hold INS prisoners. It contains disturbing in-depth profiles of detainees, including Emmy Kutesa, a defector from the Ugandan army who was tortured and then escaped to the United States, where he was imprisoned in Queens, and then undertook a hunger strike in protest. To provide a framework for understanding stories like these, Dow gives a brief history of immigration laws and practices in the United States - including the repercussions of September 11 and present-day policies. His book reveals that current immigration detentions are best understood not as a well-intentioned response to terrorism but rather as part of the larger context of INS secrecy and excessive authority. "American Gulag" exposes the full story of a cruel prison system that is operating today with an astonishing lack of accountability.

In Search of Safety takes a close look at the sources of gendered violence and conflict in women's prisons. The authors examine how intersectional inequalities and cumulative disadvantages are at the root of prison conflict and violence and mirror the women's pathways to prison. Women must negotiate these inequities by developing forms of prison capital-social, human, cultural, emotional, and economic-to ensure their safety while inside. The authors also analyze how conflict and subsequent violence result from human-rights violations inside the prison that occur within the gendered context of substandard prison conditions, inequalities of capital among those imprisoned, and relationships with correctional staff. In Search of Safety proposes a way forward-the implementation of international human-rights standards for U.S. prisons.

A Closer Look at Prisons and Prison Inmates first explores how inmates perceive prisons in general, as well as particular aspects of the facilities where they serve time. In that sense, and after reviewing the literature regarding prison conditions and inmates' perceptions about prisons, a Prison Perception Scale is developed and assessed. Additionally, the authors examine how popular depictions of women in prison both interrupt and reinforce damaging stereotypes of incarcerated women. A content analysis of the popular Netflix series "Orange is the New Black" is provided in order to examine the hypothesis that incarcerated women are rarely presented as survivors in media. The closing chapter discusses some cause of recidivism if inmates such as lack of socialization, lack of job training, inability to adjust to social pressure, inability to reintegrate into the society after incarceration, lack of social support, mal-adjustment, lack of education, substance abuse, stigmatization and abuse.

Understanding and Improving Prisoner Reentry Outcomes "Mass imprisonment and mass prisoner reentry are two faces of the same coin. In a comprehensive and penetrating analysis, Daniel Mears and Joshua Cochran unravel the causes of this pressing problem, detail the challenges confronting released prisoners, and provide an evidence-based blueprint for successfully reintegrating offenders into the community. Scholarly yet accessible, this volume is essential reading-whether by academics or students-for anyone wishing to understand the chief policy issue facing American corrections." Francis T. Cullen Distinguished Research Professor, University of Cincinnati Prisoner Reentry is an engaging and comprehensive examination of prisoner reentry and how to improve public safety, well-being, and justice in the "era of mass incarceration." Renowned authors Daniel P. Mears and Joshua C. Cochran investigate historical trends in incarceration and punishment policy, the salience of in-prison and post-prison contexts and experiences for reentry, and the importance of understanding group differences in offending, punishment, and social context. Using extensive reliance on both theory and empirical research, the authors identify how reentry reflects criminal justice policy in America and, at the same time, has profound implications for crime prevention and justice. Readers will develop a diverse foundation for current policies, identify the implications of reentry for families, community, and society at large, and gain a conceptual and empirical toolkit for analyzing and improving the lives of those released from prison.

The number of people incarcerated in federal prisons increased dramatically over the past three decades. While research indicates that the expanded use of incarceration during the 1980s and 1990s contributed to the declining crime rate, the effect was likely small, and it has likely reached the point of diminishing returns. Chapter 1 provides information on the use of risk and needs assessment instruments. This includes a discussion of the Risk-Needs-Responsivity principles, which have become the dominant paradigm for reducing the likelihood of recidivism among convicted offenders and concludes with a discussion of the issues policymakers might consider if they debate legislation to expand the use of risk and needs assessment in the federal prison system. The justice system and the Bureau of Prisons also have a responsibility to help rehabilitate that person and help the inmate have a successful reentry back into our communities as reported in chapter 2.

In Search of Safety takes a close look at the sources of gendered violence and conflict in women's prisons. The authors examine how intersectional inequalities and cumulative disadvantages are at the root of prison conflict and violence and mirror the women's pathways to prison. Women must negotiate these inequities by developing forms of prison capital-social, human, cultural, emotional, and economic-to ensure their safety while inside. The authors also analyze how conflict and subsequent violence result from human-rights violations inside the prison that occur within the gendered context of substandard prison conditions, inequalities of capital among those imprisoned, and relationships with correctional staff. In Search of Safety proposes a way forward-the implementation of international human-rights standards for U.S. prisons.

"Interrupted Life" is a gripping collection of writings by and about imprisoned women in the United States, a country that jails a larger percentage of its population than any other nation in the world. This eye-opening work brings together scores of voices from both inside and outside the prison system including incarcerated and previously incarcerated women, their advocates and allies, abolitionists, academics, and other analysts. In vivid, often highly personal essays, poems, stories, reports, and manifestos, they offer an unprecedented view of the realities of women's experiences as they try to sustain relations with children and family on the outside, struggle for healthcare, fight to define and achieve basic rights, deal with irrational sentencing systems, remake life after prison; and more. Together, these powerful writings are an intense and visceral examination of life behind bars for women, and, taken together, they underscore the failures of imagination and policy that have too often underwritten our current prison system.

In 2006, after a scandal that gripped the country, the British government began to transform its prison system. Under pressure to find and expel foreigners, Her Majesty's Prison Service began concentrating non-citizens in prisons with 'embedded' border agents. Today, prison officers refer anyone suspected of being foreign to immigration authorities and prisoners facing deportation are detained in special prisons devoted to confining non-citizens. Those who cannot be deported linger, sometimes for years, indefinitely detained behind prison walls. The British approach to foreign nationals reflects a broader trend in punishment. Over the past decade, penal institutions across England, the United States, and Western Europe have become key sites for border control. Offering the first comprehensive account of the imprisonment of non-citizens in the United Kingdom, Punish and Expel: Border Control, Nationalism, and the New Purpose of the Prison draws on extensive empirical data, based on fieldwork in five men's prisons, to explore the relationship between punishment and citizenship. Using first-hand testimonies from hundreds of prisoners, prison officers, and high-level policy makers, it describes how prisons create a national identity and goes inside citizenship classes and 'all-foreign' prisons, documenting the treatment of non-citizens by other prisoners and staff. Passionately argued and meticulously researched, Punish and Expel links prisons to the history of British colonialism and the contemporary politics of race, whilst challenging readers to rethink their approach to prisons, and to the people held inside them.

Aside from capital punishment, incarceration represents the most severe and most costly punishment that state governments can administer to its citizens. The use of incarceration has garnered increasing attention over the years, particularly in the United States where incarcerated populations have undergone approximately forty years of nearly continuous growth. In examining the differences in prisonization and survival strategies between the sexes, research has found that male inmates often enlist gang members for protection, while women recreate family for emotional support. This book examines the conventional identities of both sexes behind the walls of imprisonment, and global trends in incarceration. The book also contributes to the discussion on the education of women in situations of deprivation of liberty and provides an in-depth investigation of reform through interpreting how a selected group of men who have desisted from heroin-use understand and present their change process. Finally, this book discusses the psychological implications of being incarcerated and the patterns and prospects of imprisonment.

Experience has shown that if a jail does not meet the basic human needs of inmates, the inmates will find a way to satisfy their needs in ways that may be unfavorable to the orderly operation of the jail. Understanding what motivates human behavior provides jail administrators with a very useful tool for managing inmates since it helps explain both good inmate behavior and bad. This book not only provides guidance to jail practitioners as they implement this element, but it also provides self-assessment checklists to determine how well the jail is doing in the delivery of basic needs and suggestions for area of improvement. Violence, vandalism, and unsanitary conditions prevail in many jails na tionwide, frustrating jail practitioners who must ensure the safety and security of inmates, staff, and the public. These conditions often result from insufficient attention to inmate behavior management. Thankfully, over the past 25 years, important lessons about managing and controlling inmate behavior have emerged. One lesson is that a jail cannot control inmate be havior by focusing primarily on physical containment. A jail must actively manage inmate behavior to achieve a safe, clean, and secure environment, and this book provides tools for managing inmate behavior in this manner.

A revelatory and necessary survival memoir of five years of illegal detainment and torture in Guantanamo Bay

On September 11, 2001, in a cafe in London, Ahmed Errachidi watched as the twin towers collapsed. He was appalled by the loss of innocent life. But he couldn't possibly have predicted how much of his own life he too would lose because of that day. In a series of terrible events, Ahmed was sold by the Pakistanis to the Americans in the diplomatic lounge at Islamabad airport and spent five and a half years in Guantanamo. There, he was beaten, tortured, humiliated, and very nearly destroyed. But Ahmed did not give in. This very ordinary, Moroccan-born London chef became a leader of men. Known by the authorities as The General, he devised protests and resistance by any means possible. As a result, he spent most of his time in solitary confinement. But then, after all those years, Ahmed was freed, his innocence admitted. This is Ahmed's story. It will make readers rethink what it means to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It will also make readers look anew at courage, survival, justice, and the War on Terror.

The overall number of inmates in the Bureau of Prisons' (BOP) three main types of segregated housing units, Special Housing Units (SHU), Special Management Units (SMU), and Administrative Maximum (ADX), increased at a faster rate than the general inmate population. Inmates may be placed in SHUs for administrative reasons, such as pending transfer to another prison, and for disciplinary reasons, such as violating prison rules; SMUs, a four-phased program in which inmates can progress from more to less restrictive conditions; or ADX, for inmates that require the highest level of security. From fiscal year 2008 to February 2013, the total inmate population in segregated housing units increased approximately 17 percent, from 10,659 to 12,460 inmates. By comparison, the total inmate population in BOP facilities increased by about 6 percent during this period. This book examines the trends in the BOP's segregated housing population; the extent to which the BOP centrally monitors how prisons apply segregated housing policies; and the impact segregated housing has on institutionalised safety and inmates.

In this book, the authors present current research in the study of the practices, types and challenges in prisons and prison systems. Topics discussed include the Chinese prison system for female offenders; a study of solitary confinement; an exploratory study on child care in prisons; the challenges of re-entry from prison to society; offence paralleling behaviours in incarcerated offenders; women offenders and the criminal justice system; conducting treatment in the prison system and rehabilitation research; violence prevention booster programs and the effects on knowledge; attitude and recidivism; and an assessment of HCV and HIV within correctional institutions.

: This book examines the federal prison population in the United States with a focus on growing inmate crowding and the eligibility and capacity impact to reduce inmates' time in prison. Issues discussed include the effects of a growing federal prison population on operations within the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities and the extent to which BOP has taken actions to mitigate these effects. Also discussed is the extent to which BOP utilizes its authorities to reduce a federal prisoner's period of incarceration.

A critical and cutting-edge examination of modern prison labor The United States is home to the most expansive prison system on Earth. In addition to holding nearly a quarter of the world's legal captives, this nation puts them to work. Close to two-thirds of those held in U.S. state prisons hold some sort of job while incarcerated. For these imprisoned people, the carceral institution is not only a place of punishment, but a workplace as well. Yet, very little is known about the world of work behind bars. In order to illuminate the "black box" that is modern prison labor, this book marshals 18 months of ethnographic observations within one of America's medium-security prisons as well as 82 interviews with currently-incarcerated men and the institutional staff members tasked with overseeing them. Pulling together these accounts, it paints a picture of daily labors on the inside, showing that not all prison jobs are the same, nor are all imprisoned workers treated equally. While some find value and purpose in higher-paying, more desirable jobs, others struggle against monotony and hardship in lower-paying, deskilled work assignments. The result is a stratified prison employment system in which race, ethnicity, nationality, and social class help determine one's position in the labor hierarchy and, as a result, their experiences of incarceration and ability to prepare for release. Through insightful first-hand perspectives and rich ethnographic detail, Orange-Collar Labor takes the reader inside the prison workplace, illustrating the formal prison economy as well as the informal black market on which many rely to survive. Highlighting moments of struggle and suffering, as well as hard work, cooperation, resistance, and dignity in harsh environments, it documents the lives of America's working prisoners so often obscured from view.

'There are 3,000 drugged-up psychopaths, armed to the teeth with blades, shooters and bombs. That's the only way I can describe Yare. It's a murderous viper's nest of assassins, cut throats and killers.' When James Miles and his best friend Paul Loseby were caught smuggling ten kilos of cocaine out of Caracas, Venezuela, they couldn't deny their guilt. Young and naive, the lads had thought the one-off drug mule job would be a passport to a better life. But in reality it was a ticket to hell ... They were sentenced to thirty years and flung into the world's deadliest prison system, ending up in the notorious Yare. A place where drugs and weaponry are currency and the rules are: there are no rules. This is the gripping true-life story of how two men endured untold savagery in the most appalling conditions. It's about what it's like to witness murder and rape every day, fearing you'll be next. How it feels to join a dangerous Latino gang and eat dead rats in order to survive. And, what you do when you're at the centre of a riot between thousands of men with machine guns. As seen on Channel 5's Banged Up Abroad, this is the most shocking prison story ever told and an inspiring account of human endurance.

The U.S. prison system has exploded in size and economic importance during the past three decades, due to a variety of factors including mandatory sentencing laws and tougher drug enforcement efforts. At the end of 2008, more than 2.3 million adults were in local, state, or federal custody, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. More than 5 million more were on probation or parole. Overall, one in every 31 adults was under the authority of the correctional system in 2007. The record U.S. prison population is creating pressures on the federal and state governments as spending on corrections claims a larger share of tax dollars, potentially crowding public investment in other areas. This book explores U.S. prison growth and its economic impacts.

After he was denied access to report on Sing Sing, one of America's most notorious high security jails, journalist Ted Conover applied to become a prison guard. As a rookie officer, or 'newjack', Conover spent a year in the unpredictable, intimidating and often violent world of America's penal system. Unarmed and outnumbered, prison officers at one of America's toughest maximum security jails supervise 1,800 inmates, most of whom have been convicted of violent felonies: murder, manslaughter, rape. Prisoners conceal makeshift weapons to settle gang rivalries or old grudges, and officers are often attacked or caught in the crossfire. When violence flares up in the galleries or yard an officer's day can go from mundane to terrifying in a heartbeat. Conover is an acclaimed journalist, known for immersing himself completely in a situation in order to write about it. With remarkable insight, Newjack takes the reader as close to experiencing life in an American prison as any of us would ever want to get. It's a thrillingly told account of how the gruelling world of the prison system brutalizes all who enter it - prison guards and prisoners alike.

This book presents research on prison privatisation in the US, with a focus on state prison privatisation. The basic thrust is to research the privatisation of a governmental function that is traditionally treated as a core function and involves the use of force. Specifically, the author researched the basic drives of prison privatisation and the variation of the magnitude of state prison privatisation among the 50 US states. The basic idea is to examine the influence of political and pragmatic factors to make sure the fundamental nature of the privatisation of imprisonment, and further, of core governmental functions. The author's general argument is that prison privatisation was pushed forward by the changing political environment. Pragmatic and economic concerns or demands are derived from the political changes and are of secondary but still direct importance. This book has a detailed exploration of the whole picture of prison privatisation, with rich data and analysis.

Davey Sommers should've ended up in a nice job, with a nice wife, living in a nice house... Instead, he ends up an eight-man unlock in prison, serving 17 years for assaulting a police officer, possession of firearms, obtaining money by intimidation and drug dealing. But then, Davey's never done what's expected of him. We've seen how prison works from one side of the door - now Ronnie Thompson has teamed up with Davey Sommers to tell the story of what it's like from the other side. BANGED UP is a gritty account of one man's descent into crime - from small-time dealing to big time. And it's about the realities of being a 'face' in prison - having to keep your fearsome reputation intact, even while you're behind bars. Life inside is revealed in all its gory detail - the smells, the tastes, the unsavoury company (and that includes the screws). Perhaps that's why Davey thought he'd try his luck and escape rather than serve his time... This is a story of drugs, violence, life on the run and, ultimately, justice.