Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

Women make up about 7 percent of the U.S. prison population, a small (but growing) group that’s nearly always lost amid the male-centric coverage of overcrowded prisons and worsening conditions.

Invisible, then, are acts of resistance by incarcerated women, a colorful history explored by prison abolitionist Victoria Law in the progressive journal New Politics. Law, who recently wrote a book on the subject—Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women—digs deep, chronicling events as far back as the 1835 riot at New York’s first prison for women, where female inmates protested abominable conditions by “attacking and tearing the clothes off the prison matron and physically chasing away other officials with wooden food tubs.” She also reports on a range of recent and modern-day collective organizing campaigns against inedible food, abusive guards, meager libraries, and insufficient or nonexistent education programs....

For the full review, go here: The Hidden History of Resistance in Women's Prisons by Danielle Maestretti

And check out Maestretti's "Shelf Life" column in the March/April issue of the Utne Reader for coverage about Tenacious: Art and Writings from Women in Prison.