In this timely book, renowned criminologist and activist Renny Golden sheds light on the women behind bars and the 350,000 children they leave behind. In exposing the fastest growing prison population-a direct result of Reagan's War on Drugs-Golden sets up new framework for thinking about how to address the situation of mothers in prison, the risks and needs of their children and the implications of current judicial policies.

In this timely book, renowned criminologist and activist Renny Golden sheds light on the women behind bars and the 350,000 children they leave behind. In exposing the fastest growing prison population-a direct result of Reagan's War on Drugs-Golden sets up new framework for thinking about how to address the situation of mothers in prison, the risks and needs of their children and the implications of current judicial policies.

In narrative poems that take us back to New Mexico during the nineteenth century, Renny Golden resurrects the spirits of native people and of those who came West. To read these poems is to hear the voices of Padre Martinez and Bishop Lamy, Geronimo and General Crook, Billy the Kid and Sister Blandina. "Blood Desert is history that breaks into song, and readers are drawn into a chorus of voices that have gone unheard--women, indigenous peoples and more. What marvelous poetry, what powerful stories! Readers will not be able to put this book down."--Demetria Martinez, author of Mother Tongue and Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana. "From the end of Spanish colonial rule in 1821, to the United States invasion of 1846, to the surrender of Geronimo, these poems provide a lyrical alternative history that enlightens the reader."--Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Roots of Resistance: A History of Land Tenure in New Mexico.

The Music of Her Rivers pays homage to the rivers that taught the poet--the Rio Grande and the Chicago and Illinois Rivers. Sharp-eyed and empathetic, Golden serves as a witness, documenting place, history, and people, especially those left voiceless due to violence or discrimination--from the refugee border crossers of the Rio Grande to the Irish immigrants and former slaves struggling to build lives in Chicago in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Each poem captures the enduring challenges of Native peoples, laborers, naturalists, and immigrants through its haunting and consuming verse. Throughout the collection the nuanced representation of the landscape allows the rivers to become witnesses and actors themselves.