The Prison Experience: Special Issues of Women in Prison

Confined to an institution and further burdened by patriarchal assumptions and stereotypes, incarcerated women struggle to retain a sense of self-worth for themselves and often for their children. Scholarship on the subject typically has either ignored or trivialized the role of gender as an organizing feature of society. The result is a lack of emphasis on the role played by gender in the lives of women in a correctional setting. In this theoretically informed and empirically grounded textbook, Morash and Schram explain the realities of prison life for women from a feminist perspective. The hope for reform begins with an informed public so that a system premised on deterrence and punishment can also offer opportunities for rehabilitation.