Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

400 more women claim payouts from $100 million in prison attacks
Aug. 20, 2009
By DAVID EGGERT

One of the California Department of Corrections' proposed solutions to the recent court ruling requiring it to reduce its prison population (currently at 190% capacity) by 40,000 is to ship some of its prisoners to other states. California should learn from Hawaii's experience of outsourcing its prison population:

Hawaii pulling its women inmates out of troubled Kentucky prison

Governor to Save Jailed Mothers From Shackling During Labor
By Helena Zhu

Friday, Sept 18, 7 pm

Mama Salon: An evening of readings from mama/mami writers:

Kerry Cohen is the author of Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity, as well as four young adult novels. Her essays have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Babble.com, and Portland Monthly, and are forthcoming in Best Sex Writing 2010, Brevity, and of course My Baby Rides the Short Bus.

After 13 years of living in the same place, an apartment that I, with the help of many friends and community members, have built bit by bit (and bathroom fixture by bathroom fixture), I'm moving. It's been a tedious and sometimes painful process to sort 13 years worth of belongings and prepare to say good-bye to 13 years worth of memories.

I recently received a letter from a woman imprisoned in Michigan who had shared many of her stories and experiences for Resistance Behind Bars. The state of Michigan closed the Robert Scott Correctional Facility this past May and transferred all 800+ women to the Huron Valley prison (which had been a men's prison with the capacity to hold 400 men). Her (and many other women's) ordeal in both moving and continuing the adjust to the substandard and inhumane living conditions at Huron Valley definitely put my own moving experience into perspective.

Here's what she writes (and for those of you who are interested, her story, along with those of many other women incarcerated throughout the country, will appear in the fall issue of the zine Tenacious: Art and Writings from Women in Prison):

This past Monday (August 10th), I was invited to participate in Grit TV's roundtable discussion on incarceration and the recent federal court ruling mandating that California, which is at 190% capacity for its prison population, decrease its prison population by over 40,000:

The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any industrialized nation. In the face of an unprecedented economic crisis, some states are beginning to consider reducing their prison populations.

Supermax prison: Obama's books objectionable
By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer

I'll be leading a workshop on incarceration, women and resistance at this year's Big She-Bang in NYC:

The Big She-Bang IV
A Celebration by Women, for Women

Contact: thebigshebang@gmail.com
FORTHEBIRDSCOLLECTIVE.ORG
myspace.com/forthebirdsnyc

Resistance Behind Bars has been reviewed in the latest issues of both Left Turn and HipMama!

Neither review is on-line, so get yourself to your favorite independent bookseller to check them out! If you lack an independent bookstore, you can order both on-line at their respective websites. (As an added bonus, you can read my essay--as well as that of my Allied Media Conference co-presenter, prison abolitionist and fellow mama Chiara Galimberti-- on motherhood and community support in HipMama!)

What is on-line is Hans Bennett's detailed review on Alternet. Check it out here.

Giving Birth in Chains: The Shackling of Incarcerated Women During Labor and Delivery
By Anna Clark