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
Nov 30, 2011
Closed women’s prison has new job
Colorado Women’s Correctional Facility in Canon City has a new mission to provide job for inmates.
Nov 28, 2011
Treatment of female prisoners criticised
A number of women prisoners were ordered to strip naked in front of male staff and asked to sit on a special chair, known as the BOSS, which scans internal cavities for contraband.
Nov 28, 2011
Prison through the eyes of a child
A five-year-old boy who was born inside a Prey Sar Correctional Centre, says he would like to leave the prison and be free, but he doesn’t want to leave his mother.
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FROM THE STORE
Women and Prison Promotional Poster
Writers’ Block: Stories from the Inside
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Newest Stories
Will the Justice Department Stand Up for Women Raped in Prison?
by
Rachel Roth
Eight years ago, Congress acknowledged the brutal fact of systemic sexual assault behind bars by unanimously passing the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). The Justice Department is now poised to issue final rules to implement the law, which makes federal funding to prisons and jails contingent on improved staff training, availability of medical and psychological services for people who suffer sexual assault, investigations and publicly available data about reported assaults.
Why Does Popular Culture Treat Prison Rape As a Joke?
by
Anna Clark
There’s no soap-dropping counterpart "joke" referring to the abuse of female inmates. Ultimately, these distorted punch-line/silence memes enforce each other and perpetuate the reality of prison rape.
Illegal Strip Searches at the Cook County Jail
by
Tori Marlan
Marlan, a journalist for the Chicago Reader, investigates the recent successful lawsuit against the Cook County Sheriff for conducting group strip searches of women in the Cook County Jail.
Featured Stories
Fighting the “Labia Lift”
by
Krystal Voss
Colorado prisoner Krystal Voss tells about the invasive strip search policy at the Denver Women’s Correctional Center. During routine strip searches, women are required to spread their labia to allow staff to search for contraband.