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
Where Abolition Meets Action: Women Organizing Against Gender Violence
by
Victoria Law
The last decade has seen a growing movement toward abolishing prisons. At the same time, antiviolence organizers have called on prison abolitionists to take the issue of gender violence seriously and to develop initiatives to address it in the context of prison abolition. Fueled by increasing recognition that women of color, immigrant, queer, transgender, poor, and other marginalized women are often further brutalized – rather than protected – by the police, grassroots groups, and activists throughout the world, are organizing community alternatives to calling 911. Such initiatives, however, are not new. Throughout history, women have acted and organized to ensure their own and their loved ones’ safety. This article, which originally appeared in the journal Contemporary Justice Review, examines both past and present models of women’s community self-defense practices against interpersonal violence.
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.