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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McCorkel, Jill A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Female offenders--Rehabilitation--United States.

Female offenders.

Women prisoners--Services for--United States.

Women prisoners.

Corrections--United States.

Corrections.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (289 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Winner of the 2014 Division of Women and Crime Distinguished Scholar Award presented by the American Society of CriminologyFinalist for the 2013 C. Wright Mills Book Award presented by the Society for the Study of Social ProblemsCompelling interviews uncover why tough drug policies disproportionately impact women in the American prison systemSince the 1980s, when the War on Drugs kicked into high gear and prison populations soared, the increase in women’s rate of incarceration has steadily outpaced that of men. As a result, women’s prisons in the US have suffered perhaps the most drastically from the overcrowding and recurrent budget crises that have plagued the penal system since harsher drugs laws came into effect. In Breaking Women, Jill A. McCorkel draws upon four years of on-the-ground research in a major US 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 detention centers has been deeply altered as a result. Through compelling interviews with prisoners and state personnel, McCorkel reveals that popular so-called “habilitation” drug treatment programs force women to accept a view of themselves as inherently damaged, aberrant addicts in order to secure an earlier release. These programs were created as a way to enact stricter punishments on female drug offenders while remaining sensitive to their perceived feminine needs for treatment, yet they instead work to enforce stereotypes of deviancy that ultimately humiliate and degrade the women. Theprisoners are left feeling lost and alienated in the end, and many never truly address their addiction as the programs’ organizers may have hoped. A fascinating and yet sobering study, Breaking Women foregrounds thegendered and racialized assumptions behind tough-on-crime policies while offering a vivid account of how thecontemporary penal system impacts individual lives.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction. Searching for Red’s Self

1. Getting Tough on Women

2. Taking Over

3. From Good Girls to Real Criminals

4. The Eyes Are Watching You

5. Diseased Women

6. Rentin’ Out Your Head

7. Unruly Selves

Conclusion. What If the Cure Is Worse Than the Disease?

Notes

Bibliography

INDEX

About the Author

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jun 2020)

ISBN:

0-8147-8948-X

OCLC:

854974604