ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Women and Prison project is a website, installation + zine created entirely from the work + lives of America's incarcerated women. Women and Prison: A Site for Resistance is a project of Beyondmedia Education. Learn more about the project.
NEWS FROM THE WEB
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Packed Prison Riles Female Inmates
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FROM THE STORE
Women and Prison Promotional Poster
Writers’ Block: Stories from the Inside
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Featured Stories
Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex
by
Angela Davis
In this essay, Angela Davis discusses the operation and impact of the Prison Industrial Complex. Through her examination of the economy of incarceration, Davis demonstrates how private corporations benefit from the incarceration of increasing numbers of people of color. Davis argues that although the prison boom has increased the profits of global corporations, it “devours the social wealth” of our communities by draining them of their human and economic resources.
Letter to a Formerly Incarcerated Mother
by
Donnie Belcher
This letter of reconciliation expresses the complex experience of having an incarcerated mother. Belcher describes both the anger of growing up with her mother in prison and the love that transcends that anger.
Excerpt from Banished Pride
by
Gina Autrey
I have a hard time trusting others. My friendship is not something that is given freely. I can count on one hand the people who I truly consider to be my friend.
Pregnant, in Prison and Denied Care
by
Rachel Roth
“But what happens to pregnant women in prison before they wind up in chains at a hospital?” asks Rachel Roth. Roth tells three chilling stories of medical neglect and lack of compassion for women awaiting childbirth behind the prison walls.
Interview with Brenda Myers
by
Brenda Myers
In this interview, Brenda explains how being sexually abused as a child contributed to her involvement in the sex industry as she got older. Beginning as a dancer in clubs, she eventually ended up working on the street where she was more vulnerable to abuse by her customers. After one particularly traumatic experience, Brenda decided to leave prostitution and currently works as an H.I.V. prevention specialist. From her 25 years as a sex worker and her current involvement in the Prostitution Awareness Round Table, Brenda offers remarkable insight into the various forms of prostitution in the city of Chicago.