Feminist Ethnographies of Women in Prison

The US has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world and, within that, women represent one of the fastest growing segments of the prison and jail population. Demographic studies and arrest data show that, by far, women in jails and prisons come from communities characterized by economic and political neglect. Richie shares that violence against women is fundamentally linked to other forms of gender inequality and what happens when disadvantages are concentrated generation after generation in some neighborhoods.