Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

Woman in prison for murder asks Gov. for parole

Thursday, February 26, 2009

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/02/26/state/n19322...
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_11795688

A woman who sat in a car while her husband robbed and killed a shop owner in 1980 asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for parole Thursday.
------------------------------

Please spread the word and mobilize folks you know in NYC!!!

Free the NJ 4

The guards wouldn't allow Mai'a to have pen or pencil while she was in detention, but once released she made these sketches of what the inside is like:

Sketches of the Jail, part 1

Sketches of the Jail, part 2

My dear mama friend Mai'a, who has done human rights work on the West Bank, Chiapas and other places, attempted to enter Israel with her family last month. "after a couple of hours they deny us entry to the country and insist on sending us back to the states. we ask to speak to our embassy. the airport folks tell us that we will have to go to detention if we want to talk to the embassy.

I'll be doing several events/talks in the Bay Area in March:

Thursday, March 12th, 6 pm
with Building Bloc’s Artist Mutual PenPal Project
Babylon Falling, 1017 Bush Street (@Jones), San Francisco
http://www.babylonfalling.com/

Friday, 3/13 at The Green Arcade, 7 pm
1680 Market Street (at Gough)
San Francisco CA 94102

From Cities to Cells (and Back Again): The City and Incarceration

Start: 03/28/2009 - 1-2:30 pm

with:
Jacqueline Robarge, Rowena Simmons, and Carmen Shorter (Power Inside, Baltimore)
and Polly Riddims (Critical Resistance, Baltimore)

Why Are we Keeping Old Ladies Locked Up in Prison?

By Viji Sundaram, New America Media

See here: http://grassrootsfeminism.net/cms/node/117

More about Grassroots Feminism:

Grassroots Feminism: Establishing a transnational community platform and living history archive

The preconception of youth, and in particular of girls and young women, as culturally unproductive and as passive consumers of mass culture and media is still very much ingrained today. However, girls and young women are capable cultural producers who create a wide variety of their own films, music, media, and festivals.

Thanks to Lois at the Real Cost of Prisons Project for bringing this review (and the book!) to my attention.

The house that Charles built
Claire Tomalin enjoys a vivid account of Dickens's efforts to help destitute women
By Claire Tomalin

Mi Vida Dentro

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2009/01/rosa-jimenez-a.html

Rosa Jimenez, a 26-year-old Mexican woman currently serving a 99-year sentence in a Texas prison, might not have committed a crime, according to Lucía Gajá, 34, the Mexican director of the documentary “Mi Vida Dentro (My Life Inside).”

The film takes aim at the United States criminal-justice system and its treatment of Mexican undocumented female migrants. It is told through the case of Jimenez, who crossed illegally into the United States when she was 17 years old.