The Women's House of Detention

The Women's House of Detention PDF Author: Hugh Ryan
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 9781645036654
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This singular history of a prison, and the queer women and trans people held there, is a window into the policing of queerness and radical politics in the twentieth century. The Women's House of Detention, a landmark that ushered in the modern era of women's imprisonment, is now largely forgotten. But when it stood in New York City's Greenwich Village, from 1929 to 1974, it was a nexus for the tens of thousands of women, transgender men, and gender-nonconforming people who inhabited its crowded cells. Some of these inmates--Angela Davis, Andrea Dworkin, Afeni Shakur--were famous, but the vast majority were incarcerated for the crimes of being poor and improperly feminine. Today, approximately 40 percent of the people in women's prisons identify as queer; in earlier decades, that percentage was almost certainly higher. Historian Hugh Ryan explores the roots of this crisis and reconstructs the little-known lives of incarcerated New Yorkers, making a uniquely queer case for prison abolition--and demonstrating that by queering the Village, the House of D helped defined queerness for the rest of America. From the lesbian communities forged through the Women's House of Detention to the turbulent prison riots that presaged Stonewall, this is the story of one building and much more: the people it caged, the neighborhood it changed, and the resistance it inspired.

The Women's House of Detention

The Women's House of Detention PDF Author: Hugh Ryan
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 9781645036654
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This singular history of a prison, and the queer women and trans people held there, is a window into the policing of queerness and radical politics in the twentieth century. The Women's House of Detention, a landmark that ushered in the modern era of women's imprisonment, is now largely forgotten. But when it stood in New York City's Greenwich Village, from 1929 to 1974, it was a nexus for the tens of thousands of women, transgender men, and gender-nonconforming people who inhabited its crowded cells. Some of these inmates--Angela Davis, Andrea Dworkin, Afeni Shakur--were famous, but the vast majority were incarcerated for the crimes of being poor and improperly feminine. Today, approximately 40 percent of the people in women's prisons identify as queer; in earlier decades, that percentage was almost certainly higher. Historian Hugh Ryan explores the roots of this crisis and reconstructs the little-known lives of incarcerated New Yorkers, making a uniquely queer case for prison abolition--and demonstrating that by queering the Village, the House of D helped defined queerness for the rest of America. From the lesbian communities forged through the Women's House of Detention to the turbulent prison riots that presaged Stonewall, this is the story of one building and much more: the people it caged, the neighborhood it changed, and the resistance it inspired.

Orange Is the New Black

Orange Is the New Black PDF Author: Piper Kerman
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0385530269
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES With a career, a boyfriend, and a loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles the reckless young woman who delivered a suitcase of drug money ten years before. But that past has caught up with her. Convicted and sentenced to fifteen months at the infamous federal correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, the well-heeled Smith College alumna is now inmate #11187–424—one of the millions of people who disappear “down the rabbit hole” of the American penal system. From her first strip search to her final release, Kerman learns to navigate this strange world with its strictly enforced codes of behavior and arbitrary rules. She meets women from all walks of life, who surprise her with small tokens of generosity, hard words of wisdom, and simple acts of acceptance. Heartbreaking, hilarious, and at times enraging, Kerman’s story offers a rare look into the lives of women in prison—why it is we lock so many away and what happens to them when they’re there. Praise for Orange Is the New Black “Fascinating . . . The true subject of this unforgettable book is female bonding and the ties that even bars can’t unbind.”—People (four stars) “I loved this book. It’s a story rich with humor, pathos, and redemption. What I did not expect from this memoir was the affection, compassion, and even reverence that Piper Kerman demonstrates for all the women she encountered while she was locked away in jail. I will never forget it.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love “This book is impossible to put down because [Kerman] could be you. Or your best friend. Or your daughter.”—Los Angeles Times “Moving . . . transcends the memoir genre’s usual self-centeredness to explore how human beings can always surprise you.”—USA Today “It’s a compelling awakening, and a harrowing one—both for the reader and for Kerman.”—Newsweek

Memoirs from the Women's Prison

Memoirs from the Women's Prison PDF Author: Nawāl Saʻdāwī
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520088887
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
"If Kafka had been a feminist, his prisoner might have had Nawal el Sa'adawi's feistiness, maybe, like her, he would have hoed a prison garden, led veiled and unveiled cellmates in rebellious calisthenics, strategized with a murderess to foil state illogic. This book gives me hope, even makes me laugh."—Cynthia Enloe, author of The Morning After

In the Mix

In the Mix PDF Author: Barbara A. Owen
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791436073
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Describes life inside the world's largest women's prison, from the point of view of the women themselves.

Diary of a Survivor

Diary of a Survivor PDF Author: Ana Rodriguez
Publisher: St Martins Press
ISBN: 9780312130503
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
The incredible story of a young medical student arrested in Cuba in 1962 documents the life of Ana Rodriguez and her steadfast refusal to give in to political intimidation, re-education, or rehabilitation during nineteen years as a political prisoner.

Inside This Place, Not of It

Inside This Place, Not of It PDF Author: Ayelet Waldman
Publisher: McSweeney's
ISBN: 1940450535
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
People in U.S. prisons are routinely subjected to physical, sexual, and mental abuse. While this has been documented in male prisons, women in prison often suffer in relative anonymity. Women Inside addresses this critical social justice issue, empowering incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women to share the stories that have previously been silenced. Among the narrators: •Irma Rodriguez, in prison on drug charges. While in prison in 1990, Irma was diagnosed HIV positive, but after a decade and a half of aggressive and toxic treatment, Irma learned that she never had HIV. •Sheri Dwight, a domestic violence survivor who was sent to prison for attempting to kill her batterer. While in prison, she underwent surgery for abdominal pain and learned more than four years later that she had been sterilized without her consent.

Captive Revolution

Captive Revolution PDF Author: Nahla Abdo
Publisher: Pluto Press
ISBN: 9780745334943
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Women throughout the world have always played their part in struggles against colonialism, imperialism and other forms of oppression. However, there are hardly any academic books on Arab political prisoners, fewer still on the Palestinians who have been detained in their thousands for their political activism and resistance. Nahla Abdo's Captive Revolution seeks to break the silence on Palestinian women political detainees, providing a vital contribution to research on women, revolutions, national liberation and anti-colonial resistance. Based on the stories of the women themselves, Abdo draws on a wealth of oral history and primary research in order to analyse Palestinian women's anti-colonial struggle, their agency and their treatment as political detainees. Making crucial comparisons with the experiences of women political detainees in other conflicts, and emphasising the vital role Palestinian political culture and memorialisation of the 'Nakba' have had on their resilience and resistance, Captive Revolution is a rich and revealing addition to our knowledge of this little-studied phenomenon.

Arrested Justice

Arrested Justice PDF Author: Beth E. Richie
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814708226
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Illuminates the threats Black women face and the lack of substantive public policy towards gendered violence Black women in marginalized communities are uniquely at risk of battering, rape, sexual harassment, stalking and incest. Through the compelling stories of Black women who have been most affected by racism, persistent poverty, class inequality, limited access to support resources or institutions, Beth E. Richie shows that the threat of violence to Black women has never been more serious, demonstrating how conservative legal, social, political and economic policies have impacted activism in the U.S.-based movement to end violence against women. Richie argues that Black women face particular peril because of the ways that race and culture have not figured centrally enough in the analysis of the causes and consequences of gender violence. As a result, the extent of physical, sexual and other forms of violence in the lives of Black women, the various forms it takes, and the contexts within which it occurs are minimized—at best—and frequently ignored. Arrested Justice brings issues of sexuality, class, age, and criminalization into focus right alongside of questions of public policy and gender violence, resulting in a compelling critique, a passionate re-framing of stories, and a call to action for change.

Women's Prison

Women's Prison PDF Author: Gene Kassebaum
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135147121X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
A thoroughly researched pioneering work based on personal interviews with inmates and prison personnel and on data compiled from questionnaires and inmate record files, Women's Prison reveals that homosexual liaisons are the primary foundation of the social structure of female inmates; shows that homosexual behavior can be a superficial kind of adjustment to particular situational privations; amplifies and broadens the application of earlier findings on men's prisons; opens the way for future studies involving the delineation of homosexual roles in the free community.This study began with both of the authors' interest in gathering data on women in prison to see whether there were female prisoner types consistent with the reported characteristics of male prisoners. Early in the course of this study it became apparent that the most salient distinction to be made among the female inmates was between those who were and those who were not engaged in homosexual behavior in prison, and further, of those who were so involved, between the incumbents of masculine and feminine roles.It has become increasingly apparent that prison behavior is rooted in more than just the conditions of confinement. Unlike their male counterparts who establish the so-called inmate code, women prisoners suffer intensely from the loss of affectional relationships and form homosexual liaisons as the primary foundation of their social organization. The great majority of homosexually involved inmates have their first affair in prison, returning to heterosexual roles outside prison.Women's Prison is a revealing study of social structure and homosexuality for sociologists; of vital interest to social workers, parole officers and chaplains dealing with female inmates as well as penologists and criminologists; and provocative reading for the non-specialist.

Jailbirds

Jailbirds PDF Author: Mim Skinner
Publisher: Seven Dials
ISBN: 9781841883328
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
FIVE THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT WOMEN'S PRISONS 1. You can buy clothes from the Avon catalogue. 2. The Governor gets called the 'Gold Command' when there's an emergency. 3. Tampons are unlimited, soap is not. 4. The best paid job a prisoner can do is sewing pillow cases for other prisons. 5. More than half the women in prison have been victims of more serious crimes than the crimes they've committed. Life in UK prisons is a secret world that only leaks out of its barbed wire walls in contradictory sensationalist headlines and Panorama documentaries: disgraceful conditions versus phones and TV, drug epidemics and gangs versus self-harm and overcrowding. So what's the truth? What do prisoners really do each day? Why are they in there while we're not? And what happens once they leave? Helped by some women who've been inside, Mim Skinner - a prison teacher and community support worker - is here to set the record straight and shine a light on what it's really like to work and live inside as a woman. As eye-opening and funny as it is engrossing and heartbreaking, this is the first account of the unique world that exists inside a UK high-security women's prison and the stories of the women imprisoned there.