Overview

The number of women in United States prisons has increased dramatically since the 1980s, and has in proportion outpaced that of men’s incarceration. Despite these numbers, incarcerated women, and women lifers specifically, represent a relatively small percentage of the overall correctional and lifer populations. As such, women lifers are easy to overlook, discount, and diminish as such a small group. Many women lifers perceive themselves as a forgotten group; most often those whom we “lock up” and “throw away the key”. They feel excluded from prison programming within and from their own families outside. They feel stigmatized by staff and other women in prison. Aging fast, many have real fears about declining health and losing family members over lengthy stretches of time. However, women lifers are some of the most resilient and strongest women who survive life in prison with the support of each other and religious faith, often transforming themselves in the process of doing time. While most of the women had extensive histories of trauma, abuse, and mental health issues, few had prior experience as offenders. Despite the term “lifer”, many of these women will be released from prison after serving long sentences. Beyond this basic profile, there is much more to learn and share about the lives of women lifers. Focusing on women’s pathways into prison, the ways they cope with life behind bars, and their diverse reentry needs, Meredith Dye and Ronald Aday give voice to women lifers and place their experiences within the larger context of penal harm policies. The authors look at their physical and mental health, family connections, adjustment to prison, prison supports and activities, and experiences with abuse/trauma; while also looking at the growing public and policy concerns over mass incarceration in general. Women Lifers provides insight into the lives of incarcerated women before, during, and following a life sentence, especially the population of those serving life sentences. With the growing numbers of women lifers in the United States, the authors emphasize the importance for the public and policymakers to understand the unique circumstances that brought these women to prison, the policies that keep them there, and the major challenges they face in carving out a successful life in prison and beyond.

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9781538113028

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Reviews

In a shattering analysis of the misogynist structures that produce and punish women lawbreakers, Women Lifers charts the injustices affecting more than 200 incarcerated women who share their heartbreaking insights and methods of survival both inside and outside of prison. This book offers the kind of desperately needed research that has the power to generate policy change in a tyrannical system that threatens the freedom of us all. -- Carol Jacobsen, professor, University of Michigan, and author of For Dear Life: Women's Decarceration and Human Rights in Focus In the worlds of academic debate and penal reform much attention is given to the need to provide alternatives to imprisonment for women serving short custodial sentences and to the need to minimise the disruption to their lives that such sentences can entail. Women Lifers: Lives Before, Behind, and Beyond Bars takes us into oft-hidden territory: the reasons for the increase in the number of female lifers, and more particularly, how women find themselves in the predicament of long-term imprisonment and what it is like for them. The book presents us with compelling and moving stories from women lifers, focusing on their pathways in to prison, their lives in prison and how they have adjusted, and then on expectations, hopes, and for those eligible, preparation for release. The authors have made women lifers and the issues which pervade their lives both visible and memorable through sensitive and nuanced research. This is a very important, lucid and thought-provoking book which deserves wide readership. -- Loraine Gelsthorpe, Director, and Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK Women Lifers: Lives Before, Behind, and Beyond Bars exposes the experiences of individuals who are largely voiceless and invisible in the penal system - women serving life sentences. The book is not only an authoritative text on female offenders, but more importantly, it captures, in their own words, the struggles, wisdoms, and hopes of women living life behind bars. -- Mary Ellen Mastrorilli, Associate Professor of the Practice, Boston University Metropolitan College

In a shattering analysis of the misogynist structures that produce and punish women lawbreakers, Women Lifers charts the injustices affecting more than 200 incarcerated women who share their heartbreaking insights and methods of survival both inside and outside of prison. This book offers the kind of desperately needed research that has the power to generate policy change in a tyrannical system that threatens the freedom of us all. -- Carol Jacobsen, professor, University of Michigan, and author of For Dear Life: Women's Decarceration and Human Rights in Focus

In a shattering analysis of the misogynist structures that produce and punish women lawbreakers, Women Lifers charts the injustices affecting more than 200 incarcerated women who share their heartbreaking insights and methods of survival both inside and outside of prison. This book offers the kind of desperately needed research that has the power to generate policy change in a tyrannical system that threatens the freedom of us all. -- Carol Jacobsen, professor, University of Michigan, and author of For Dear Life: Women's Decarceration and Human Rights in Focus In the worlds of academic debate and penal reform much attention is given to the need to provide alternatives to imprisonment for women serving short custodial sentences and to the need to minimise the disruption to their lives that such sentences can entail. Women Lifers: Lives Before, Behind, and Beyond Bars takes us into oft-hidden territory: the reasons for the increase in the number of female lifers, and more particularly, how women find themselves in the predicament of long-term imprisonment and what it is like for them. The book presents us with compelling and moving stories from women lifers, focusing on their pathways in to prison, their lives in prison and how they have adjusted, and then on expectations, hopes, and for those eligible, preparation for release. The authors have made women lifers and the issues which pervade their lives both visible and memorable through sensitive and nuanced research. This is a very important, lucid and thought-provoking book which deserves wide readership. -- Loraine Gelsthorpe, Director, and Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK

In a shattering analysis of the misogynist structures that produce and punish women lawbreakers, Women Lifers charts the injustices affecting more than 200 incarcerated women who share their heartbreaking insights and methods of survival both inside and outside of prison. This book offers the kind of desperately needed research that has the power to generate policy change in a tyrannical system that threatens the freedom of us all. -- Carol Jacobsen, professor, University of Michigan, and author of For Dear Life: Women's Decarceration and Human Rights in Focus In the worlds of academic debate and penal reform much attention is given to the need to provide alternatives to imprisonment for women serving short custodial sentences and to the need to minimise the disruption to their lives that such sentences can entail.   Women Lifers: Lives Before, Behind, and Beyond Bars takes us into oft-hidden territory: the reasons for the increase in the number of female lifers, and more particularly, how women find themselves in the predicament of long-term imprisonment and what it is like for them.   The book presents us with compelling and moving stories from women lifers, focusing on their pathways in to prison, their lives in prison and how they have adjusted, and then on expectations, hopes, and for those eligible, preparation for release.  The authors have made women lifers and the issues which pervade their lives both visible and memorable through sensitive and nuanced research.  This is a very important, lucid and thought-provoking book which deserves wide readership. -- Loraine Gelsthorpe, Director, and Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK Women Lifers: Lives Before, Behind, and Beyond Bars exposes the experiences of individuals who are largely voiceless and invisible in the penal system – women serving life sentences. The book is not only an authoritative text on female offenders, but more importantly, it captures, in their own words, the struggles, wisdoms, and hopes of women living life behind bars. -- Mary Ellen Mastrorilli, Associate Professor of the Practice, Boston University Metropolitan College

Author Information

Meredith Dye, PhD, is a professor of sociology at Middle Tennessee State University. Her research focuses on the effects of incarceration, prison suicide, and women in prison. Recent publications have appeared in Women and Criminal Justice, Prison Journal, and Criminal Justice and Behavior. Ronald H. Aday, PhD, is a professor of sociology at Middle Tennessee State University. He has published several books including Crime and the Elderly, Aging Prisoners: Crisis in American Corrections, and Women Aging in Prison as well as over fifty articles and book chapters.

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