Posts Tagged ‘Women’
Women Working Behind Bars
Highlighting the fact that women make up 7% of the U.S. prison population, a Forbes.com commentary focuses on findings that the female prison population is growing at twice the rate of their male counterparts.
Click here to read the Forbes commentary.
Posted by hcdmedia
Inside and Out: Women, Prison, and Therapy
Elaine Leeder’s book Inside and Out: Women, Prison, and Therapy takes a look at the growing problem of female incarceration. Leeder’s uses her feminist perspective to dispel stereotypes about women offenders. The book also includes an in-depth analysis of how violence has affected women and led to increased criminality.
Inside and Out: Women, Prison, and Therapy can be purchased on Amazon.com.
Posted by hcdmedia
Born Behind Bars
In Mexico it is legal for children born to incarcerated mothers to stay inside prison until the age of six. At Santa Martha Acatitla Prison for Women in Mexico City, around 50 children are living among women serving sentences for drug dealing, kidnapping, and murder. Caroline Bennett captures the lives of these women and children on black and white film.
Posted by hcdmedia
Doing Time Together: Love and Family in the Shadow of the Prison
This book by Megan Comfort profiles the lives of women who have husbands, fiancees, and boyfriends behind bars. The author spent time with women who were visiting men at San Quentin State Prison.
“Tangling with the prison’s intrusive scrutiny and rigid rules turns these women into ‘quasi-inmates,’ eroding the boundary between home and prison and altering their sense of intimacy, love, and justice. Yet Comfort also finds that with social welfare weakened, prisons are the most powerful public institutions available to women struggling to overcome untreated social ills and sustain relationships with marginalized men. As a result, they express great ambivalence about the prison and the control it exerts over their daily lives.” (The University of Chicago Press)
Check out the book here
Posted by hcdmedia
The Medea Project – Helping Female Inmates
The Medea Project is an ongoing theatrical performance that focuses on issues of incarcerated women. Founded by Rhodessa Jones, these art-based performances are geared toward reducing the number of incarcerated women in the United States. Jones began the theater while conducting classes at the San Francisco County Jail.
photo from: Can We Get There By Candlelight (2002)
The newest dramatic story entitled Rubba Girl is “A cautionary tale using flash animation that tells the story of one girl coming to know herself as well as supporting safe sex and a right to ones own body. It is a coming of age story told from the point of view of the incarcerated woman.”
Check out more about this initiative at The Medea Project.
Posted by hcdmedia
Life on the Outside
Written by Jennifer Gonnerman, Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett is a moving story of a woman’s struggle to reenter society after spending sixteen years in prison. Find more on the book’s website.
Posted by hcdmedia
Proposed Ban on Shackling Pregnant Inmates
New York State is considering a law that bans the shackling of pregnant women inmates. The shackling of pregnant women has been considered by many to be barbaric, but it is routine at many prisons and jails around the country. Read more about the proposed ban here.
Posted by hcdmedia
Photography of Female Prisoners in Louisiana
Ava Berkofsky, a talented photographer, spent time in women’s prisons across America taking pictures of female prisoners. Here are some of her compelling images from Louisiana. Visit Ava’s website to see more.
Posted by hcdmedia
Women in a New Mexican Prison
For more of Ava Berkofsky’s photography of women prisoners visit her website.
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Rihanna’s domestic violence news story
Domestic Violence is a important issue around the world and in the United States. Victims of domestic violence often do not speak up. Sometimes when they do they are blamed for causing problems in the relationship.
But in February everyone was talking about domestic violence after pictures of R&B star Rihanna’s bruised face surfaced on the internet. Rihanna had gotten the bruises from her boyfriend, the wildly popular R&B star – Chris Brown.
This high profile incident of relationship abuse was met with a lot of discussion. Shockingly hoards of teenage fans of Chris Brown pledged to support him. Many of these girls blamed Rihanna for Chris abusing her. (more…)
Posted by hcdmedia