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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McCorkel, Jill A., author.

Contributor:

JSTOR (Online Service)

Lipman Criminology Library Fund.

Series:

UPCC book collections on Project MUSE. Global Cultural Studies.

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)

polychrome

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:

Getting tough on women: how punishment changed

Taking over: the private company in the public prison

From good girls to real criminals: race made visible

The eyes are watching you: finding the real self

Diseased women: crack whores, bad mothers, and welfare queens

Rentin' out your head: navigating claims about the self

Unruly selves: forms of prisoner resistance

Conclusion: what if the cure is worse than the disease?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-261) and index.

Electronic reproduction. New York Available via World Wide Web.

Print version record.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Lipman Criminology Library Fund.

Other Format:

Print version: McCorkel, Jill A. Breaking women.

ISBN:

9780814789483

081478948X

Publisher Number:

99983994141

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.