Women in Prison

A brief journey inside a Michigan women's prison narrated by, and dedicated to, Connie Hanes, an inmate who later committed suicide in her cell. Cosponsored by Amnesty International and U of M Office of Vice President for Research. Produced by Carol Jacobsen --- Part of the Play Gallery, a collaborative in experimental time-based arts by the University of Michigan School of Art & Design and Michigan Public Media.

Flozelle Woodmore, 39, has lived her entire adult life in prison. Classified as a trouble-free, minimum-security prisoner, she lives with seven women in a cell designed for two including maximum-security inmates and others with serious emotional disorders.

Violence in the Lives of Incarcerated Women. Research indicates that women’s imprisonment is largely attributable to drug addiction, prostitution, and retaliation against abusive partners; survival strategies to cope with overwhelming physical, sexual, and psychological victimization. Many were first arrested as juveniles because they ran away from home to escape abuse.

Treatment of Incarcerated Women With Substance Abuse and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder NCJRS

Sexual Misconduct and Shackling of Pregnant Women

Locked up - Locked down: A mother's love for her child An article by an incarcerated mother about not giving up hope for her child. "While inside, we need to fight within ourselves to stay together because though we don't know where our children are- we still care. I tell my story to uplift other incarcerated mothers, and to reach my son. This goes out to you, my beloved. "

Free Battered Women (FBW), is a grassroots coalition of currently and formerly incarcerated women, their families, activists, attorneys, students, community members, and other dedicated individuals who strive to end the re-victimization of battered women in prison.

Incarcerated Parents and Their Children - In 1999 an estimated 721,500 State and Federal prisoners were parents to 1,498,800 children under age 18.

Longest imprisoned Female Political Prisoner - Ngawang Sangdrol has had her sentence extended by nine years. With a total of 18 years behind bars, she will be the longest imprisoned female political prisoner in Tibet.

Female juvenile delinquents - Juvenile courts in the US processed 1,755,100 delinquency cases in 1997. 23% of the delinquency cases processed in 1997 involved a female offender, compared with 19% in 1988. Between 1988 and 1997, the number of delinquency cases involving females increased 83%.

Keeping Incarcerated Mothers and Their Daughters Together - Girl Scouts Beyond Bars - Children of prison inmates are the hidden victims of their parents' crimes. Like children of divorced or deceased parents, they often show signs of distress caused by the lack of a stable home life and parental separation, such as depression, aggression, poor school performance, and truancy. Many times they also follow their parents' criminal behavior patterns. To keep mothers and daughters connected and to enhance parenting skills, Girl Scouts Beyond Bars involves mothers in their daughters' lives through a unique partnership between a youth services organization and State and local corrections departments.

Juvenile Female Offenders: A Status of the States Report - Describes State efforts to develop and implement programs and policies to address at-risk girls and juvenile female offenders. The strategies presented in this report include developing gender-specific programs for girls, providing training for juvenile personnel who work with adolescent females, and focusing on the prevention of delinquent behavior in girls through the establishment of front-end, community-based services.

Tender Murderers: Women Who Kill by Trina Robbins, Max Allan Collins
"She wasn't even five feet tall, weighed 90 pounds, wrote poetry, and died young, riddled with bullets and with a machine gun in her lap." The infamous Bonnie Parker, immortalized in the movie Bonnie and Clyde, is only one of a select group of 20 women killers whose stories are told in Tender Murderers. Others include Charlotte Corday, of Marat-Sade fame; Belle Starr, the "Petticoat Terror of the Plains"; and Phoolan Devi, India's "bandit queen," who died as she lived. Trina Robbins, award-winning author and cartoonist, even includes a section on "Women Who Missed," such as Valerie Solanas, founder of the Society for Cutting Up Men and attempted assassin of Andy Warhol, and Amy Fisher, the "Long Island Lolita." From murderous moms and molls to plucky pirates and Appalachian ax-handlers, Tender Murderers is a rogue's gallery of fascinating female killers. Photographs are included.

August 6, 2007

Kari & Associates
PO Box 7126
Olympia, WA 98507

Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett -- Elaine Bartlett, spent sixteen years in Bedford Hills prison for selling cocaine--a first offense--under New York's Rockefeller drug laws. The book opens on the morning of January 26, 2000, when Bartlett is set free and returns to New York City. At 42, she has virtually nothing: no money, no job, no real home. All she does have is a large and troubled family, including four children, who live in a decrepit housing project on the Lower East Side. "I left one prison to come home to another," Elaine says. Over the next months, she clashes with her daughters, hunts for a job, visits her son and husband in prison, negotiates the rules of parole, and campaigns for the repeal of the laws that led to her long prison term. Russell Simmons, founder of Def Jam Records, says: "At a time when the prison-industrial complex is destroying African American families and neighborhoods, Elaine Bartlett is more than a survivor: she is a heroine. The future of our communities depends on women like her."