In the Mix: Struggle and Survival in a Women's Prisonn (Suny Series in Women, Crime and Criminology)

Rating:
Summary: Understanding Women in Prison
Review: This is a fascinating book about women in prison and the different world they inhabit. Author Barbara Owen, a criminologist and experienced prison researcher, used a quasi-ethnographic method to study a large prison for women -- in her words, she did a lot of "hanging around." While doing so she talked in great depth to both inmates and prison staff, and we learn a lot from those conversations and her insightful analyses of them.

This book helps us to understand the lives of women inmates and what led them to prison. Many suffered abuse and trauma of various kinds, and most would be considered "marginalized" women in society. Owen explores the contexts of the choices the women made as each progressed down her "pathway to prison." The author illuminates how the prison experience is much different for women than for men prisoners. While men often "do time" on their own, women emphasize relationships, both with other inmates as well as with family members left behind. A prison for women is much safer than one for men. Most women inmates seek a useful way to structure their lives in prison and prepare for a better future, though some do not. Those who want to continue the way of life that led them to crime and prison become involved "in the mix", prison slang for the negative side of the culture and activities there.

If the reader is interested in why women get involved in crime (much less so than men, by the way) and what happens in a prison for women, this highly readable book is for you.

Rating:
Summary: Understanding Women in Prison
Review: This is a fascinating book about women in prison and the different world they inhabit. Author Barbara Owen, a criminologist and experienced prison researcher, used a quasi-ethnographic method to study a large prison for women -- in her words, she did a lot of "hanging around." While doing so she talked in great depth to both inmates and prison staff, and we learn a lot from those conversations and her insightful analyses of them.

This book helps us to understand the lives of women inmates and what led them to prison. Many suffered abuse and trauma of various kinds, and most would be considered "marginalized" women in society. Owen explores the contexts of the choices the women made as each progressed down her "pathway to prison." The author illuminates how the prison experience is much different for women than for men prisoners. While men often "do time" on their own, women emphasize relationships, both with other inmates as well as with family members left behind. A prison for women is much safer than one for men. Most women inmates seek a useful way to structure their lives in prison and prepare for a better future, though some do not. Those who want to continue the way of life that led them to crime and prison become involved "in the mix", prison slang for the negative side of the culture and activities there.

If the reader is interested in why women get involved in crime (much less so than men, by the way) and what happens in a prison for women, this highly readable book is for you.