Inside This Place, Not of It

Narratives from Women's Prisons

Voice of Witness, Robin Levi, Ayelet Waldman

• Publisher: Verso
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781786632289
• eBook ISBN:
  9781786632296
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Human Rights
• Index: Social Sciences

Inside This Place, Not of It reveals some of the most egregious human rights violations within women's prisons in the United States. In their own words, the thirteen narrators in this book recount their lives leading up to incarceration and their experiences inside- ranging from forced sterilization and shackling during childbirth, to physical and sexual abuse by prison staff. Together, their testimonies illustrate the harrowing struggles for survival that women in prison must endure.

ENDNOTES

Introduction: A Battalion of Survivors

¹ Throughout this volume, we use the inclusive term “black people” to describe all people of African descent, including those whose families have lived in the United States for generations, and those who have arrived more recently and may not identify as African American.

Olivia Hamilton

¹ A social work and child resources organization.

² A federal program promoting school readiness for young children (ages three to five) in low-income families by offering educational, nutritional, health, and social services.

³ Pitocin is an intravenous medication commonly used to induce labor.

⁴ Most prisons separate parents and their new-born infants after 48 hours. As well as causing emotional distress, the separation of mothers and their children also threatens the health of infants by posing serious barriers to breastfeeding. The Fifth Circuit of Appeals ruled in the 1981 case Dike v. School Board of Orange County, Florida, that the right to nurse is protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. However, the same court determined in Southerland v. Thigpen that the state could overlook this guarantee in prison. Some states, like New York, have taken steps to recognize the universality of this right, guaranteeing women in prison the ability to breastfeed their children for a year after birth, though in other states the reality of prison life has rendered breastfeeding impossible.

In at least thirteen states, babies can be placed in prison nurseries, though access is often limited to women with short sentences for non-violent offenses, and some parents prefer for their children to be raised outside prison walls.

Sheri Dwight

¹ Beginning in 1987, some states began to allow evidence of battered woman syndrome—a pattern of symptoms arising from persistent abuse—as a defense in a criminal trial. For more details, see the glossary and timeline.

² Justice Now is an Oakland-based nonprofit, and the first teaching law clinic in the country solely focused on the needs of people in women’s prisons.

³ California Department of Corrections.

⁴ 602 is the process to file grievances in the California Department of Corrections. For more details, see the glossary.

⁵ The laws determining how long after a specific event occurs that legal action regarding that event can be brought to court. Variations occur, according to type of alleged crime and by jurisdiction.

Maria Taylor

¹ Felony murder is a legal concept that assigns criminal responsibility to all participants in a felony in which a death occurs, whether or not the participants knew or intended to harm or kill anyone. Levying a murder conviction against an individual who neither intended to kill nor took any action to do so has been legally controversial, and the felony murder rule has been abolished in all common law countries except the United Sates and Australia. (Guyora Binder, “The Origins of the American Felony Murder Rule.” Stanford Law Review October, 2004)

Sarah Chase

¹ The medications in this group are often used to treat depression, anxiety, seizures, bipolar disorder, alcohol withdrawal, and symptoms of schizophrenia.

² A regular prison security procedure where inmates return to their assigned cells to be counted by prison staff.

³ A colloquial term for administrative segregation or solitary confinement, where a person in prison is isolated from the general prison population for disciplinary or security reasons. For more details, see the glossary.

⁴ Due to cuts in federal and state grants for prison education, the Department of Corrections has been forced to cut its free course offerings. Many women are thus required to pay local community colleges for credits necessary to obtain their degrees. The community college closest to Sarah Chase charges $103 per credit hour—$1,236 for a full semester. These fees mean that a college education is unobtainable for many people making prison wages.

Teri Hancock

¹ For details about Michigan’s Assaultive Offender Program, see the glossary.

² Mail to a person in prison from an attorney or officer of the court, or legal documents related to their case, has greater privacy privileges than regular mail. For more details, see the glossary and Appendix VIII.

Emily Madison

¹ A service agency in Detroit for at-risk children and youth.

² The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a federal agency that oversees public housing and tenants’ rights.

³ Segregation/segregated housing, which is isolated from the general prison population. For more details, see the glossary.

Anna Jacobs

¹ A Quonset hut is a prefabricated building with a long, rounded roof made of corrugated steel.

Francesca Salavieri

¹ Post-traumatic stress disorder. For a description and a list of symptoms, see the glossary.

Marilyn Sanderson

¹ Alprazolam, a medication used to treat anxiety disorders and panic disorders. Side effects include memory impairment.

² Post-traumatic stress disorder. For a description and a list of symptoms, see the glossary.

³ In a letter to the Colorado Department of Corrections before it had ended this practice, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wrote that “it is virtually inconceivable that the new requirement that prisoners hold open their labia contributes anything to prison security,” and noted, “prisoners at the DWCF [Denver Women’s Correctional Facility] have complained that the new breed of search exacerbates prior sexual trauma—an effect no doubt compounded by threats of being doused with pepper spray for noncompliance.”

⁴ A state-government board that meets to review clemency applications, with the power to commute sentences and grant reprieves and pardons for certain charges. People in prison may apply for clemency if their cases meet certain criteria defined by state law, and after all other judicial remedies have been exhausted.

Taisie Baldwin

¹ People in prison can be moved to segregated housing, away from the general prison population, for protection or for disciplinary reasons. For more details, see the glossary.

² For detai...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword: Standing without Sweet Company
• Introduction: A Battalion of Survivors
• Olivia Hamilton
• Sheri Dwight
• Maria Taylor
• Sarah Chase
• Teri Hancock
• Emily Madison
• Anna Jacobs
• Francesca Salavieri
• Marilyn Sanderson
• Taisie Baldwin
• Victoria Sanchez
• Charlie Morningstar
• Theresa Martinez
• Appendices
• Endnotes
• Acknowledgements
• About the Editors