It took me a while to get into this book but once I did, I pretty much read it in one sitting, and I did not see time fly. That first line might seem like a strange way to start a review for an history book, but this book is a lot more than pure history, but it is also well documented history (peep ...more

"Who Would Believe a Prisoner?" is an incise record and analysis of the first women's carceral facilities in Indiana, and how the violence of those institutions affect current women in facilities. The book is broken into three parts: Indiana's first prisons/reformatories, control over women's sexual ...more

Gosh, I am so thankful to all of the fantastic women and archivists behind The Indiana Women's Prison History Project in collaboration with The New Press for gracing me with a copy of this book. Who Would Believe a Prisoner?: Indiana Women's Carceral Institutions is a heartbreaking yet brutally hone ...more

I cannot express how powerful it is to read a book on incarcerated women WRITTEN BY incarcerated women. I learned so much about the lifestyle of the incarcerated women and how much religion and misogyny played a role. Here’s a tidbit on a “lustful” woman:

“I’ve heard tell that this sort of woman’s va ...more

The Indiana Women’s Prison History Project beat the odds to make this book happen. Many administrators tried to silence these incarcerated female scholars. The societal purpose of prison was supposed to rehabilitate prisoners this book highlights the history of prisons in Indiana. The problems of th ...more

Vitally important, extremely well researched, and well constructed. This is such an interesting and critical examination of the conditions of incarcerated women. This book is on Hoopla so if your library has access to it, I can't recommend it enough.

I hadn't heard of lived epistemologies as a way o ...more

A neat concept for a book and a good way to dive into (disturbing) concepts related to women's/prison history. Overall the essays themselves weren't mind-blowing and pretty clearly written by students, but again the overall approach to the book was fascinating. ...more