14. Women in the Criminal Legal System: Female Defendants, in Prisons and other Restrictive Spaces
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The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
― Fyodor Dostoevsky
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International Network for Incarcerated Girls and Women
“INIGW members advocate for the rights of incarcerated girls and women in their respective countries/states, and we support each other and other groups & individuals advocating for incarcerated females in various locations.”
https://theinigw.wixsite.com/inigw
Sisters Walking Together [formerly Red Light Exposé or Resist Exploitation Embrace Dignity]
" To support incarcerated & recently released Indigenous women in their Creator-given cultural and spiritual identity & to advocate for justice in the prison system with and for them.."
https://embracedignity.org
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560562749187
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[Solitary confinement] is terrible. That is terrible. You're in a grave. You can't do anything. Everything's brought to you and you're in a room all day, except to come out of the showers. So when I would come out, I would entertain myself by singing, doing little mock concerts. And then when I was in the room, I would develop a routine. Like I have a lot of hair under here, so I would take my hair down and take all day to braid it on purpose. Stretch the hours out. Then I might write. And I would clean the floor. And I would look out the window. And then I'd devote a whole day to just reading. I was Christian then, trying to be. So I would read the whole Bible. I would break it down into sections. You're in a grave and you're trying to live. That's how to best describe it: trying to live in a grave. You're trying to live 'cause you're not dead yet, but nobody hears you when you call out, 'Hey, I'm alive!”
― Megan Sweeney, The Story Within Us: Women Prisoners Reflect on Reading
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American Psychological Association. “Incarcerated women: Poverty, trauma and unmet need.” (2019)
https://archive.ph/RNfI8
Julie Bindel. “When abused women fight back: Those trapped in violent relationships are still being let down by the justice system.” [UK, 2021]
https://archive.ph/wip/aaQlT
_____. "Why are we locking up abused women?: The Domestic Violence Bill doesn't do enough to protect victims from the actions of violent partners." [UK, 2020]
https://archive.ph/wip/jTtce
_____. “The women jailed for fighting back: The re-trial of Fri Martin shows how little the justice system cares for victims of domestic violence.” [UK, 2021]
https://archive.ph/JCCmx
_____. "Aileen Wuornos was no monster: Why do we continue to sensationalise this tormented woman's desperate life?" [2020] https://archive.ph/pjUdo
Raymond L. Daye. "Even worse than the "Rape Club," Carswell 'Hospital of Horrors" outpaces California prison in sexual abuse allegations." [2024]
https://tinyurl.com/rsmtzcct
Renee Gerlich. “Cassandra lives: From politics to the courtroom, women are disbelieved.” [2020]
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
https://archive.ph/ydivH
Julia Hing. "'This is breaking my heart:" Inside women's prisons with Amie Ichikawa. An interview with Amie Ichikawa." [2025] https://archive.ph/a4ZmC
Jimmy Jenkins. “Arizona inducing the labor of pregnant prisoners against their will.” [2023]
https://archive.ph/FY4wa
Victoria Law. “Against carceral feminism.” [2014]
https://archive.ph/wip/FKA5T
Sam Levin. “Ex-guard charged with 95 counts of sexual abuse in California women’s prison: Gregory Rodriguez accused of abusing 13 people over a decade, as advocate say case highlights systemic sexual violence in prisons.” [2023]
https://archive.ph/wip/T2sNt
Richard Luscombe and agencies. “Appeal raises $150,000 for girl ordered to pay family of accused rapist she killed: Judge had ‘no other option’ but to impose restitution on human trafficking victim given probation with risk of 20 years’ prison.” [2022]
https://archive.ph/LBblu
The Marshall Project. "What is prison like for women and girls: The Marshall Project teams up with Teen Vogue to listen." [2017]
https://archive.ph/wip/cKJIH
Hugh Ryan. "The Women's House of Detention: A queer history of a forgotten prison." [2022]
https://archive.ph/wip/tZsKA
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By 1980, when I came out of prison, The Sun did a campaign to stop putting vice girls in prison. We've talked about it ever since and nothing has been done about it.
― Cynthia Payne
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Feminist Criminology PERIODICAL
Peer reviewed journal.
“…research related to women, girls, and crime within the context of a feminist critique of criminology. Published five times a year by SAGE Publications as the official journal of the Division on Women and Crime of the American Society of Criminology, this international publication focuses on research and theory that highlights the gendered nature of crime.
The feminist critique of criminology incorporates a perspective that the paths to crime differ for males and females. Therefore, research that uses sex as a control variable often fails to illuminate the factors that predict female criminality.”
https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/journal/feminist-criminology#
If an inmate swears at a guard, fights, or hides contraband like cigarettes or candy [Sheriff Arpaio has banned coffee, cigarettes, hot lunches, girlie mags & TV], she's kicked out of the tents and sent to lockdown--a tiny cell 10x12 feet that houses 4 women, instead of the 2 it was built for. There's no tv, no phone, & no a/c. Even though most of these women have drug problems, programs like NA or AA are considered 'privileges' forbidden to those locked down. The only way to get out of lockdown is to volunteer for the chain gang--the first & only female chain gang in the United States (as of Aug 1997). Volunteers sign a paper that says they know & accept the conditions on the chain--cleaning Phoenix streets, painting the center strip of miles of highway, & burying AZ's indigent. The accusation of 'cruel & unusual punishment' is quashed by the argument that the chain gang is purely voluntary. After all, if you prefer, you can spend the whole year in lockdown.
― Jane Evelyn Atwood, Too Much Time: Women in Prison