The number of women in United States prisons has increased dramatically since the 1980s, and has in proportion outpaced that of men's incarceration. Despite these numbers, incarcerated women, and women lifers specifically, represent a relatively small percentage of the overall correctional and lifer populations. As such, women lifers are easy to overlook, discount, and diminish as such a small group. Many women lifers perceive themselves as a forgotten group; most often those whom we "lock up" and "throw away the key". They feel excluded from prison programming within and from their own families outside. They feel stigmatized by staff and other women in prison. Aging fast, many have real fears about declining health and losing family members over lengthy stretches of time. However, women lifers are some of the most resilient and strongest women who survive life in prison with the support of each other and religious faith, often transforming themselves in the process of doing time.
While most of the women had extensive histories of trauma, abuse, and mental health issues, few had prior experience as offenders. Despite the term "lifer", many of these women will be released from prison after serving long sentences. Beyond this basic profile, there is much more to learn and share about the lives of women lifers. Focusing on women's pathways into prison, the ways they cope with life behind bars, and their diverse reentry needs, Meredith Dye and Ronald Aday give voice to women lifers and place their experiences within the larger context of penal harm policies. The authors look at their physical and mental health, family connections, adjustment to prison, prison supports and activities, and experiences with abuse/trauma; while also looking at the growing public and policy concerns over mass incarceration in general.
Women Lifers provides insight into the lives of incarcerated women before, during, and following a life sentence, especially the population of those serving life sentences. With the growing numbers of women lifers in the United States, the authors emphasize the importance for the public and policymakers to understand the unique circumstances that brought these women to prison, the policies that keep them there, and the major challenges they face in carving out a successful life in prison and beyond.
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In this powerful report on a broken system, two sociology professors look at the depressingly large number of women sentenced to life in prison. They conducted in-depth surveys of female lifers in their home state, Georgia, but also take measure of the 112,000 women nationwide living federal and state prisons, a huge increase since 1980, when only 13,000 were incarcerated. Currently 6,700 women are serving life, life without parole, or 50 or more years behind bars, representing seven-percent of the overall correctional population and just four-percent of lifers. Most of the lifers are moms, and many, as one woman put it, watched their children "grow up in pictures." Interestingly, 83-percent of the women in the authors' sample indicated a history of being abused, and more than half reported no drug or alcohol problems before their incarceration. In prison, many live exemplary lives, turning to faith and mentoring younger women. Dye and Aday state that they want to give policymakers, prison officials, and the public "a better understanding of the lived experiences of this voiceless group of prisoners." Goal achieved. * Booklist * In a shattering analysis of the misogynist structures that produce and punish women lawbreakers, Women Lifers charts the injustices affecting more than 200 incarcerated women who share their heartbreaking insights and methods of survival both inside and outside of prison. This book offers the kind of desperately needed research that has the power to generate policy change in a tyrannical system that threatens the freedom of us all. -- Carol Jacobsen, professor, University of Michigan, and author of For Dear Life: Women's Decarceration and Human Rights in Focus In the worlds of academic debate and penal reform much attention is given to the need to provide alternatives to imprisonment for women serving short custodial sentences and to the need to minimise the disruption to their lives that such sentences can entail. Women Lifers: Lives Before, Behind, and Beyond Bars takes usinto oft-hidden territory: the reasons for the increase in the number of female lifers, and more particularly, how women find themselves in the predicament of long-term imprisonment and what it is like for them. The book presents us with compelling and moving stories from women lifers, focusing on their pathways in to prison, their lives in prison and how they have adjusted, and then on expectations, hopes, and for those eligible, preparation for release. The authors have made women lifers and the issues which pervade their lives both visible and memorable through sensitive and nuanced research. This is a very important, lucid and thought-provoking book which deserves wide readership. -- Loraine Gelsthorpe, Director, and Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK Women Lifers: Lives Before, Behind, and Beyond Bars exposes the experiences of individuals who are largely voiceless and invisible in the penal system - women serving life sentences. The book is not only an authoritative text on female offenders, but more importantly, it captures, in their own words, the struggles, wisdoms, and hopes of women living life behind bars. -- Mary Ellen Mastrorilli, Associate Professor of the Practice, Boston University Metropolitan College The authors provide all the necessary background and contextual information about women and crime for any reader to understand and appreciate the punitiveness of lifer policies in the US. At the same time, through extensive interviewing, the authors brilliantly disabuse lifers as violent bloodthirsty criminals. Instead, they vividly document how an abusive partner, a sub-par education, or a dead-end job can collide into the unthinkable - life behind bars. -- Miriam Northcutt Bohmert, PhD, Assistant Professor, Indiana University - Bloomington Overall, "Women Lifers" accomplishes what it set out to do. It highlights and gives a voice to a U.S. prison population that doesn't normally receive as much focus or analysis, and it allows the reader to see the women behind their sentences. It offers a lot of research and information that can be used to suggest reform in various parts of the correctional system, and hopefully it can be used as a source to better understand the lifer population in the U.S. It also has the added value that many of its findings and conclusions can apply to prison populations beyond just the lifer population, so corrections professionals should examine it for findings that will educate them on matters that relate to inmates of all sentence levels. * American Correctional Association *
Meredith Dye, PhD, is a professor of sociology at Middle Tennessee State University. Her research focuses on the effects of incarceration, prison suicide, and women in prison. Recent publications have appeared in Women and Criminal Justice, Prison Journal, and Criminal Justice and Behavior.
Ronald H. Aday, PhD, is a professor of sociology at Middle Tennessee State University. He has published several books including Crime and the Elderly, Aging Prisoners: Crisis in American Corrections, and Women Aging in Prison as well as over fifty articles and book chapters.
Chapter 1 Introduction to Women Lifers
Chapter 2 Life Before a Life Sentence
Chapter 3 Bruised, Bullied, and Battered
Chapter 4 Life Behind Bars: Living with a Life Sentence
Chapter 5 Family Matters
Chapter 6 Health Concerns and Practices
Chapter 7 Enduring Grief and Loss
Chapter 8 Keeping the Faith
Chapter 9 Life Beyond Bars: Hopes, Expectations, and Fears for Release
Chapter 10 Conclusions: Challenging the Existing Narrative about Women Lifers
