They Always Call Us Ladies

Sheds light on the lives of her fellow inmates at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, showing who these women are, how they ended up in prison, and the treatment of women behind bars

Harris, who gained notoriety when convicted of murdering Dr. Herman Tarnower in the 1980 "Scarsdale Diet case" and who wrote a defense of herself in Stranger in Two Worlds , is serving a 15-year-to-life sentence at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester, New York. This log is marred by a self-pitying tone and a shapeless narrative structure as she takes up the cause of prison reform. Her account of her work in the prison children's center and gritty portraits of fellow inmates are interspersed with a sometimes horrific history of Bedford Hills and the U.S. prison system. This muffled cry from hell leaves little doubt that Bedford Hillsand most other women's prisons in the U.S.is a human warehouse that further degrades inmates instead of redirecting their lives. In Harris's depiction, mental illness, drugs and racism are epidemic at the facility, which is woefully unequipped to handle an onslaught of AIDS cases.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This is a sad book. Harris, famed for killing Dr. Herman Tarnower, the Scarsdale Diet author, has written a book about women in prison, specifically the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility (New York), where she is currently serving a sentence of 15 years to life. Prisoners now are called "ladies," not "girls," but prison life is still harsh, almost as nonrehabilitative as when women's prisons first opened 100 years ago. Particularly brutal is the impact on children of female prisoners. Coming from broken or single-parent families, lacking the chance to bond, these children are particularly susceptible to society's evils. Harris offers no major solutions, but hopes that as the result of this expose, some changes will be made. Sandra K. Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.