Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

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).

This paper is designed to foster critical dialogue and actual movement toward more proactive and thoughtful collaboration between crime survivor advocates and criminal justice reform advocates who have a shared stake in creating a system focused on long-term, evidence-based policies best equipped to create safe and healthy communities...

This paper contends that criminal justice reform organizations must develop a vision for change that benefits people directly harmed by crime and should collaborate with, if not incorporate, crime victims and victim service providers into their advocacy work. Given the power that tough on crime-oriented victim advocates have played in shaping public safety policy, it is hard to imagine that lasting and substantial change can be created without elevating an equally authentic but more progressive voice of crime victims. But in order for criminal justice reform organizations to build productive alliances with victim advocates, criminal justice reform groups cannot engage in this work as a tactic or think about victims as tools. True success will come from organizations developing a more holistic analysis that includes bringing real benefits to people directly harmed by crime.

Building a system focused on prevention that more adequately supports survivors of crime and violence hardly conflicts with progressive critiques of the current criminal justice system. But incorporating the concerns of crime survivors and victims into a progressive criminal justice reform agenda will take work to shift analytical issue frames, goals, language, and organizational culture. The rewards for taking this step will be plentiful, ranging from increased credibility, a larger and more powerful base of support, the decreased power and influence of a key tough on crime lobby, and the ability to change a broken criminal justice system in ways that truly benefit all the people most impacted: survivors of crime, people convicted of crime, and the families of both...

Unfortunately, some of the people most hurt by the financial impact of tough on crime policies have actually been crime victims. The impact of crime extends beyond the incident itself—many crime survivors are left to deal with physical, psychological, and/or financial consequences of the crime, and ripple effects may be felt throughout the survivor’s families, friends, and communities. Some crime survivors need outside assistance to rebuild their lives; unfortunately, not all will be able to access services due to financial and other constraints. Crime survivors who are unable to access the help they need are at increased risk of further victimization, mental health issues, substance abuse, and suicide. As prison budgets have eaten up increasingly larger and larger portions of states’ public safety dollars, there is deep disparity in available funding for victims’ services. For example, in Oregon the Department of Corrections budget for the 2009-11 biennium was $1.4 billion, while dedicated state funding for domestic and sexual violence services was less than $5 million. This dynamic is beginning to lead a number of victim advocates to join the chorus of voices looking for change.

Read and/or download the full report at: http://www.safetyandjustice.org/files/Moving%20Beyond%20Sides%20ES%20Fin...