
Invisible Women
What's Wrong With Women's Prisons
Angela Devlin(Author)
Waterside Press
Published on 31. March 1998
Book
Paperback/Softback
398 pages
978-1-872870-59-5 (ISBN)
Description
This, Angela Devlin's classic text, was written at a time when there were few, if any, special arrangements for women in prison in England and Wales. It was a driving force in the creation of a dedicated female prison estate with its own director, regimes and regulations that took account of women's different needs. Until then, the media tended to focus mainly on high profile women prisoners like Myra Hindley and Rosemary West. Most women became 'invisible' as soon as they passed through the prison gates and were subsumed into a world that was predominantly masculine and insensitive to their own situation.
The author spent five years visiting prisons taking women, interviewing female prisoners and those whose job it is to care for them - prison officers, education, probation and healthcare staff, chaplains and counsellors. The result is a book that is accessible to the general reader as well as the prison professional. It vividly recreates the realities of prison life for women prisoners.
Devlin describes the over-use of medication as a means of control; overcrowding; expenditure cuts; staff shortages; the violence resulting from drug misuse; the plight of ethnic minority and foreign national women; and the self-mutilation and suicide attempts of female prisoners in desperate need of help.
Invisible Women has stood the test of time. It enables readers - especially who have never set foot inside a prison - to see the unique impact of imprisonment on women.
The author spent five years visiting prisons taking women, interviewing female prisoners and those whose job it is to care for them - prison officers, education, probation and healthcare staff, chaplains and counsellors. The result is a book that is accessible to the general reader as well as the prison professional. It vividly recreates the realities of prison life for women prisoners.
Devlin describes the over-use of medication as a means of control; overcrowding; expenditure cuts; staff shortages; the violence resulting from drug misuse; the plight of ethnic minority and foreign national women; and the self-mutilation and suicide attempts of female prisoners in desperate need of help.
Invisible Women has stood the test of time. It enables readers - especially who have never set foot inside a prison - to see the unique impact of imprisonment on women.
Reviews / Votes
'What a marvelous book ... Excellent'-- Justice of the Peace; 'Another important contribution to the struggle of ensuring women prisoners' voices are heard and, as such, has much to commend it'- Journal of Law and Society.More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Winchester
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-872870-59-5 (9781872870595)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
03/1998
1st Edition
Waterside Press
€39.49
Available for download
Person
Angela Devlin is a writer, broadcaster and exponent of prisoners' rights whose work has attracted wide interest and acclaim: Criminal Classes (Waterside Press, 1995), Prison Patter: A Dictionary of Prison Slang (Waterside Press, 1996); Invisible Women: What's Wrong With Women's Prisons (Waterside Press, 1998), Anybody's Nightmare: The Sheila Bowler Story (Taverner Publications, 1998) and Going Straight After Crime and Punishment with Bob Turney (Waterside Press, 1999). Anybody's Nightmare, the true story of a wrongful conviction for murder, was later dramatised for ITV and featured the character 'Angela Devlin' campaigning for the case to be re-opened (The conviction was eventually quashed and the defendant acquitted after a new trial).
Content
Introduction: Why a Book About Women's Prisons? And Why Now?; Who Goes to Prison?; Sweatboxes; Muns Inside; Green and Friendly; Kicking Off; Screws and Cons; Turning the Screw; Twisted Sisters?; Drugs - A Conspiracy of Silence; Poor Mules and Strong Fighters; In Sickness and in Health?; Slashers and Swingers; The Dreaded 'TOB'; Devils' Advocates?; Rag Dolls and Muppet Shops; Gate Fever and Liberty Clothes; Epilogue: What of the Future?; Appendix: Visits and Interviews; Bibliography; Index.