A sober, intelligent study of the changing dynamics of a women's
prison. The Connecticut Correctional Institute in Niantic,
nicknamed "The Farm" by its inmates, has a long and honorable
tradition. Its prisoners historically grew their own vegetables and
cared for farm animals; the prison is located in a lovely rural
spot. Rierden (Journalism/Fairfield Univ.) studied the inmates from
1992 to 1995, as the prison population began to shift from one-time
offenders to serious repeat offenders, some with AIDS, many with
serious drug problems. Rierden's narrative focuses on several older
inmates, including Delia Robinson, a matronly woman with a violent
streak triggered by alcohol. Robinson had spent long stretches in
Niantic, the first when she killed another woman, the second after
she killed her abusive son. It takes Robinson years to admit her
alcoholism and her responsibility for her son's depraved, short
life. It's to Rierden's credit that the reader understands why the
other inmates revere the woman they call Miss D; her slow emergence
from the prison system takes on heroic proportions. Other inmates
are of more questionable character; unlike Delia, Bonnie Foreshaw
vehemently denies she murdered a pregnant woman and blames race
bias for a conviction in what she insists was an accidental
shooting. Rierden reports without comment Bonnie's exculpatory
account along with those of several eyewitnesses, who tell a far
different story. Niantic is, as Rierden reports, the object of much
interest, both as a model for the old-style system of reforming
prisoners and as a relic in a new era showing much less interest in
rehabilitation. Bucking that trend, largely through the efforts of
longtime guards and a thoughtful warden, a drug rehabilitation
center has been established, and the prison itself has been
restored to much of its old glory as a farm for damaged people. An
intelligent, absorbing look at prison reform and, more
particularly, at the issue of women in prison. (Kirkus Reviews)
Written by a journalist, this book depicts the day-to-day struggles
and concerns of inmates a the Connecticut Correctional Institution
in Niantic (renamed the Janet S. York correctional Institution),
the state's only prison for women. Build in 1917 as a work farm for
prostitutes, unwed mothers, and other women of allegedly immoral
character, the Farm, as it is still called, has long served as a
barometer of prevailing social attitudes toward women. In the
summer of 1992, Andi Rierden obtained permission from the warden at
Niantic to conduct research on life inside the institution. During
the next three and a half years, she spent more than fifteen
hundred hours among the women, recording interviews, strolling the
grounds with inmates and corrections officers, sharing meals,
attending classes and group counseling sessions, and tracking
former inmates after their release. The stories these women tell
shed light ton a wide range of issues, from the effects of more
stringent drug laws and sentences to the rise of violence among
inmates. In the process it becomes clear that the ideal of
rehabilitation has been largely abandoned and replaced by a belief
in punishment and retribution.
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