Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

Last June, the Guardian reported that women in the U.S. are increasingly being criminalized and prosecuted:

Outcry in America as pregnant women who lose babies face murder charges

Gibbs became pregnant aged 15, but lost the baby in December 2006 in a stillbirth when she was 36 weeks into the pregnancy.

Published today on Truthout.org

Patricia Wright is 60 years old, legally blind and wheelchair-bound. She also has Stage 4 cancer, which has spread to her breasts and to her brain. In November 2011, doctors removed one of three tumors from her brainstem and placed a steel plate in her head. It was Wright's seventh surgery that year alone.

If Wright were anyone else, she would go home and recuperate among family and loved ones.

Mass Incarceration in the Margins: Women, Trans & the Prison Industrial Complex
FORUM & DISCUSSION
Tanisha Douglas, Sonni Farrow, Reina Gossett, Victoria Law, Tina Reynolds & Laura Whitehorn
March 8th, 2012 7:30 PM

If you missed it, you can still hear the discussion:
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/58358
or

ANTHOLOGY CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:

Working Title: Challenging Convictions: Survivors of Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Writing on Solidarity with Prison Abolition.

DUE DATE: APRIL 15, 2012

Like much prison abolition work, the call for this anthology comes from frustration and hope: frustration with organizers against sexual assault and domestic violence who treat the police as a universally available and as a good solution; frustration with prison abolitionists who only use “domestic violence” and “rape” as provocative examples; and, frustration with academic

“Manhandled, arrested, cuffed, searched, and locked away in the Tombs” is how AlterNet described the story of protester Barbara Schneider Reilly, who spent 30 hours in jail after being arrested at an Occupy Wall Street-related protest in October 2011.

Reilly reported: “During the long, cold night in the Tombs, at some point we asked a female officer if we could have some blankets. ‘We have no blankets.’ Some mattresses since we were 12 or so people?

Oral History Collection Gives Voice to Incarcerated Women

Originally published on Truthout

"Manhandled, arrested, cuffed, searched and locked away" is how AlterNet describes the story of Barbara Schneider Reilly, who spent 30 hours in jail after being arrested at an Occupy Wall Street-related protest.

Reilly reported:

During the long, cold night in the Tombs, at some point we asked a female officer if we could have some blankets.

This past Friday, Truthout published an article on the record (and still-growing) numbers of incarcerated mothers in the United States. I was one of the people interviewed for the article (but that's not the only reason you should read it):

It is well known that the United States imprisons a higher percentage of its population than any other industrialized country.

Lois of The Real Cost of Prisons Project sent this to me a while back, but I only now had a chance to read it. For those of you interested in promoting safety and justice without relying on prisons, read this!

Partnership for Safety and Justice: Moving Beyond Sides: The Power and Potential of a New Public Safety Policy Paradigm By David Rogers & Kerry Naughton (December 2011).

(Author note: I am shocked (and delighted). Of course, let's see if this passes and then whether Maricopa County's infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio actually complies):

A bipartisan group of lawmakers hopes Arizona will join 14 other states in limiting how and when jails can shackle pregnant women.

Democrats have tried unsuccessfully to push legislation for the past two years. But this year, the effort may see some success. Republicans are sponsoring bills in both the House and Senate.

from Diana Block at California Coalition for Women Prisoners: