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Title
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Women in Prison: Gender and Social Control
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Author
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Barbara H. Zaitzow and Jim Thomas
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Publisher
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Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc.
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Published Year
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2003
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Published in:
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Corrections Compendium September/October 2004
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Review:
Please skip over the first paragraph in the introduction to Women in Prison: Gender and Social Control. If you read the book’s introductory paragraph, you will probably become discouraged and miss all the good information that follows. The paragraph is superfluous at any rate. In the introduction, the work of Italian existential dramatist Luigi Priandello (1867-1936) is used as an illustration of the blend of comedy and tragedy that exists in everyday life. This juxtaposition results in the blurring of reality, which is then applied to gendered constraints of women in prison.
As noted in the summary to Chapter 1, which serves as an introduction itself, the contributors have developed themes around prison life and the impact of gender as shaped by the broader social, historical and cultural factors. Written by Jim Thomas, this chapter outlines the seven themes that unite the chapters. These themes are: things are rarely what they seem they are in the prison culture; prison sustains male power and privilege, even in women’s facilities; gender matters; not all women experience deprivation and control in the same way, and men and women “do time” differently; abuse and violence against women as it is perpetrated by men is not a “women’s problem”; maintaining/developing identity as a woman; and femininity has power instead of being powerless.
Overall, the seven contributors and two editors do an excellent job of presenting and examining the complex issues that face both female offenders and staff working with them. Their work is based on research and studies that are then used or can be used for practical application by practitioners.
One chapter not to be missed by anyone working with female offenders is Esther Heffernan’s “Gendered Perceptions of Dangerous and Dependent Women: ‘Gun Molls’ and ‘Fallen Women.’” This historical perspective explores the way the beliefs about women have shaped the prison system. It also relays the struggles that staff have faced to change the impact of those beliefs. As Heffernan notes, the title of this chapter reflects the “clash of wills and words” that took place in the 1930s in the Federal Bureau of Prison reports. Mary Belle Harris, the visionary superintendent of the Federal Industrial Institution for Women at Alderson, W.Va., and the male heads of the bureau waged a battle about the management and treatment of female offenders that has had an impact on all of us today. Her leadership resulted in female offenders being viewed and treated as women and not being treated the same as men.
Other chapters explore specific concerns such as abuse, sexuality and children of incarcerated women. In Lori B. Girshick’s “Abused Women and Incarceration,” she discusses the effects of physical and sexual abuse and neglect of girls and women and the implications for working with them in prison. The chapter “Imprisoned Mothers and Their Children” by Susan F. Sharp and M. Elaine Eriksen outlines the scope of the issue and the impact on children, which is usually a negative one.
This book should be recommended reading — minus the first paragraph and subsequent references to it — for anyone working with female offenders. Many of the issues discussed in relationship to prison are still issues that must be addressed by all women as well as female offenders and staff working with female offenders. It contains relevant data that is current as well as a historical perspective.
It would also provide valuable information for criminal justice students in sensitizing them to the issues surrounding female offenders. The differences between male and female offenders are highlighted and should give thought to the different approaches in working with these groups of offenders.
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Reviewer:
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Judy Anderson, warden of Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution, a maximum-security women’s prison in Columbia, S.C.
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[To purchase this book from the ACA online store, click below.]
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