Women's accounts of their prison experiences: A retrospective view of their subjective realities
✍ Scribed by Mark R Pogrebin; Mary Dodge
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2001
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 113 KB
- Volume
- 29
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0047-2352
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This article examines the subjective experiences of previously imprisoned women. Their retrospective narratives of prison life reveal overt behavioral and underlying structural tensions that create an atmosphere of fear and violence. Furthermore, attitudes of indifference between inmates and correctional staff often contribute to fostering an environment of neglect. The study, based on in-depth interviews with fifty-four female subjects, describes and analyzes several aspects of the socialization process for inmates as related by women on parole. The research shows that the ''pains of imprisonment'' for women are suffered to a greater degree than previously acknowledged. Prison for these women is a social world filled with anxiety and, perhaps, represents a punishment well beyond what the law intended.