Women Behind Bars: Gender And Race in US Prisons - Softcover

Young, Vernetta D.; Reviere, Rebecca

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1588263959 ISBN 13: 9781588263957

Publisher: Lynne Rienner Pub, 2005

Synopsis

Today's prisons are increasingly filled with poor, dark-skinned, single mothers locked up for low-level drug involvement with serious ramifications for the corrections system. Women Behind Bars offers the first comprehensive exploration of the challenges faced by incarcerated women in the United States. Young and Reviere show conclusively that serving time in prisons designed by and for men not only does little to address what landed women, particularly women of color, there in the first place, but also undermines their prospects for an improved life on the outside. Using a multifaceted race/class/gender lens, the authors make a convincing argument that women in prison are punished twice: first by their sentences, and again because the policies that govern time behind bars were not designed to address women's unique problems and responsibilities.

About this title

About the Author:

Vernetta D. Young is professor of sociology at Howard University. Rebecca Reviere is professor of sociology at Howard University.

Review:

Important and timely ... Should be required reading for anyone who is serious about preserving families.... Students of race, class, and gender will most certainly get a view of women and children in [Women Behind Bars] that is not often apparent in texts that cover those dimensions of life in the United States. --Mary Thierry Texeira, Gender & Society

I highly recommend Women Behind Bars for criminology classes and especially for classes on women and crime. --Karen Hayden, Teaching Sociology

The integration of race into the discussion of women and corrections is important, particularly in the classroom. This book, unlike most, does not address the issue of race as an afterthought, but instead shows its relevance by integrating it throughout. --Stephanie Bush-Baskette, Rutgers University

About this edition

• Publisher: Lynne Rienner Pub
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1588263959
• ISBN 13: 9781588263957
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 219