Breaking women : gender, race, and the new politics of imprisonment / Jill A. McCorkel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McCorkel, Jill A., author.

Contributor:

ebrary, Inc.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Female offenders--Rehabilitation--United States.

Female offenders.

Women prisoners--Services for--United States.

Women prisoners.

Corrections--United States.

Corrections.

Women prisoners--Services for.

Female offenders--Rehabilitation.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 272 pages)

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, 2013.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

In Breaking Women, Jill A. McCorkel draws upon four years of research in a major U.S. women's prison to uncover why tougher drug policies have so greatly affected those incarcerated there, and how the very nature of punishment in women's correctional facilities has been deeply altered as a result. Through compelling interviews with prisoners and state personnel, McCorkel reveals that popular "habilitation" drug treatment programs, designed to be responsive to the supposed gendered and culturally specific needs of women offenders, are punitive and degrading. Forcing women to accept a view of themselves as inherently damaged addicts in exchange for an earlier release, these programs often leave prisoners feeling lost and alienated and fail to provide any meaningful therapeutic alternative to mass incarceration. A fascinating yet sobering study, Breaking Women offers a vivid account of the contemporary penal system. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I The End of Rehabilitation

1 Getting Tough on Women: How Punishment Changed 21

2 Taking Over: The Private Company in the Public Prison 50

3 From Good Girls to Real Criminals: Race Made Visible 70

Part II The Practice of Habilitation

4 The Eyes Are Watching You: Finding the Real Self 97

5 Diseased Women: Crack Whores, Bad Mothers, and Welfare Queens 122

Part III Contesting the Boundaries of Self

6 Rentin' Out Your Head: Navigating Claims about the Self 155

7 Unruly Selves: Forms of Prisoner Resistance 181.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Electronic reproduction. Palo Alto, Calif. : ebrary, 2013. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ebrary affiliated libraries.

OCLC:

856739137

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.