Description
Book SynopsisOklahoma has long held the dubious honor of having the highest female incarceration rate in the US, nearly twice the national average. In this compelling new book, sociologist Susan Sharp sets out to discover just what has gone so wrong in the state of Oklahoma—and what that might tell us about trends in female incarceration.
Trade Review"Sharp is a leading expert on women in prison and she continues her record of outstanding scholarship with this work.
Mean Lives, Mean Laws will make a much needed contribution to policy studies of criminology and criminal justice." -- Barbara Owen * author of In the Mix: Struggle and Survival in a Women's Prison *
"No one is better poised to write a scholarly book on incarcerated women and no state is more appropriate to study than Oklahoma.
Mean Lives, Mean Laws is historically, theoretically, and methodologically remarkable. But even more importantly, the self-reported rates and words of real incarcerated women about their harsh lives before, in, after, and sometimes upon re-entry to prison are powerful testimonies to how the U.S. system is fundamentally flawed in responding to women and girls as victims and offenders." -- Joanne Belknap * author of The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime, and Justice *
"Sharp truly cares about incarcerated women and has devoted her life to convincing state bureaucrats to reform the ways they are treated in Oklahoma, possibly the most conservative state in the union and definitely the one with the highest rate of female incarceration." * Women's Review of Books *
Table of ContentsContents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
1 Mean Lives: A Theoretical Framework
2 Mean Laws: The Rise in Female Imprisonment
3 Mean Women or Mean Lives? Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adult Abuse of Women Prisoners
4 The Prison Experience
5 Going Back Again by Juanita Ortiz
6 Coming Home and Staying Out
7 The Children and Their Caregivers
8 Winds of Change
9 Lessons Learned and Moving Forward
Appendix A Research Methods
Appendix B Oklahoma Children of Incarcerated Parents
Notes
References
Index
