Silja Talvi


Bio

Silja Talvi is a senior editor at In These Times, an investigative journalist and essayist with credits in many dozens of newspapers and magazines nationwide, including The Nation, Salon, Santa Fe Reporter, Utne, and the Christian Science Monitor. She is at work on a book about women in prison (Seal Press/Avalon/Perseus). Her articles on social issues – with a particular emphasis on criminal justice, ethnicity and gender – have garnered a dozen Society of Professional Journalists Western Washington regional awards. Talvi was honored in 2006 to receive a New American Media award for immigration – related reporting. In 2005, 2006, and 2007, she received four consecutive PASS awards from the national Council on Crime and delinquency for a magazine feature on the impact of Three Strikes sentencing on African American men; the privatization incarceration trend; Taser weaponry; and the interstate transfer of prisoners.

1 submission.

Why A Book About Women In Prison: (Excerpt From Women Behind Bars) 'Health Care Can Be Deadly'
by Silja Talvi

This question is entirely valid, the deeper I began to delve into the underlying reasons for the rapid growth of girls and women in lock-up, the more insight I gained into a world that few outsiders see, much less understand. Once I began to pay particularly close attention to the ways in which females in the criminal justice system were portrayed in the media, it became clear to me that stereotypes and judgments about “fallen women” from centuries ago were still holding fast.

 activism  health  movement-building  prison-life