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Outlaw Women: Prison, Rural Violence, and Poverty in the New American West
A journey into the experiences of incarcerated women in rural areas, revealing how location can reinforce gendered violence
Incarceration is all too often depicted as an urban problem, a male problem, a problem that disproportionately affects people of color. This book, however, takes readers to the heart of the struggles of the outlaw women of the rural West, considering how poverty and gendered violence overlap to keep women literally and figuratively imprisoned.
Outlaw Women examines the forces that shape women’s experiences of incarceration and release from prison in the remote, predominantly white communities that many Americans still think of as “the Western frontier.” Drawing on dozens of interviews with women in the state of Wyoming who were incarcerated or on parole, the authors provide an in-depth examination of women’s perceptions of their lives before, during, and after imprisonment. Considering cultural mores specific to the rural West, the authors identify the forces that consistently trap women in cycles of crime and violence in these felony-related discrimination, the geographic isolation that traps women in abusive relationships, and cultural stigmas surrounding addiction, poverty, and precarious interpersonal relationships.
Following incarceration, women in these areas face additional, region-specific obstacles as they attempt to reintegrate into society, including limited social services, significant gender wage gaps, and even severe weather conditions that restrict travel. The book ultimately concludes with new, evidence-based recommendations for addressing the challenges these women face.
Incarceration is all too often depicted as an urban problem, a male problem, a problem that disproportionately affects people of color. This book, however, takes readers to the heart of the struggles of the outlaw women of the rural West, considering how poverty and gendered violence overlap to keep women literally and figuratively imprisoned.
Outlaw Women examines the forces that shape women’s experiences of incarceration and release from prison in the remote, predominantly white communities that many Americans still think of as “the Western frontier.” Drawing on dozens of interviews with women in the state of Wyoming who were incarcerated or on parole, the authors provide an in-depth examination of women’s perceptions of their lives before, during, and after imprisonment. Considering cultural mores specific to the rural West, the authors identify the forces that consistently trap women in cycles of crime and violence in these felony-related discrimination, the geographic isolation that traps women in abusive relationships, and cultural stigmas surrounding addiction, poverty, and precarious interpersonal relationships.
Following incarceration, women in these areas face additional, region-specific obstacles as they attempt to reintegrate into society, including limited social services, significant gender wage gaps, and even severe weather conditions that restrict travel. The book ultimately concludes with new, evidence-based recommendations for addressing the challenges these women face.
272 pages, Paperback
Published August 6, 2019
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October 14, 2024
"There was that woman [in the prison treatment program] I don’t even remember which one, who said she was ‘addicted to money.’ She said she would do anything for money. That didn’t really come together for me. I don’t think money is like drugs or alcohol. You need money to survive.”
This is a powerfully told elaboration of research of Dewey, Zara and Connolly. Denser elaboration of their research perspective, background materials and feminist operating model are interleaved between sections focused on composite characters, created as a result of the researchers time with women in Wyoming's only female prison. With a state of less than 1 million people, the authors chose not to create composite characters as their only option to preserve the privacy of the women they worked with.
The result is undeniably artificial - it is still readable enough, but you aren't in danger of thinking these characters might be real women.
the vignettes of their lives shown are also clearly designed to showcase the authors' research findings, which revolve around the experiences of addiction, trauma, domestic violence and poverty in creating the choice landscape that the women's offending occurs within.
The book can be highly evocative: Tammy, in particular, a young mother from a "known" criminalised family, raised in foster care and juvenile detention, drug affected and well-used to the role of authorities in her life, is desperate to conceal her learning disability, knowing this will make reunification with her daughter, now herself in foster care, less likely. With no support system outside her drug-involved family, she has little chance of meeting parole conditions or avoiding reincarceration.
The authors detail the special, full-time treatment unit in the prison for drug-affected residents who can end up their choice or court order. Here, the women are not allowed to communicate with others outside the unit, must hold regular accountability sessions at which residents apologise for rule infractions and agree to counsel each other, and are encouraged to talk about their trauma. The authors show how women react very differently to this environment, which is preferred by many, but it nevertheless comes across as a depressing obsession with trying to exclusively focus on the individual drivers for these women's problems, not the structural ones which they are imprisoned in, no matter how many times they rehash their childhood abuse, and apologise for their missteps. One of the writers wrying notes (herself poaching a colleague's line) that these women have already surrendered too much to too many higher powers for that to be much use to them now.
Wyoming is an unusual prison - a fact that the authors freely concede. It is unusually isolated, unusually small, and unusually low security (the authors note that in their months of work, no women expressed that she felt unsafe in the prison). The absence of funding for education or activities mean that boredom, hopelessness and critical shortages of basic necessities are the main enemies of the women incarcerated there. Nevertheless, this is a useful addition to anyone's understanding of the dynamics of incarceration.
This is a powerfully told elaboration of research of Dewey, Zara and Connolly. Denser elaboration of their research perspective, background materials and feminist operating model are interleaved between sections focused on composite characters, created as a result of the researchers time with women in Wyoming's only female prison. With a state of less than 1 million people, the authors chose not to create composite characters as their only option to preserve the privacy of the women they worked with.
The result is undeniably artificial - it is still readable enough, but you aren't in danger of thinking these characters might be real women.
the vignettes of their lives shown are also clearly designed to showcase the authors' research findings, which revolve around the experiences of addiction, trauma, domestic violence and poverty in creating the choice landscape that the women's offending occurs within.
The book can be highly evocative: Tammy, in particular, a young mother from a "known" criminalised family, raised in foster care and juvenile detention, drug affected and well-used to the role of authorities in her life, is desperate to conceal her learning disability, knowing this will make reunification with her daughter, now herself in foster care, less likely. With no support system outside her drug-involved family, she has little chance of meeting parole conditions or avoiding reincarceration.
The authors detail the special, full-time treatment unit in the prison for drug-affected residents who can end up their choice or court order. Here, the women are not allowed to communicate with others outside the unit, must hold regular accountability sessions at which residents apologise for rule infractions and agree to counsel each other, and are encouraged to talk about their trauma. The authors show how women react very differently to this environment, which is preferred by many, but it nevertheless comes across as a depressing obsession with trying to exclusively focus on the individual drivers for these women's problems, not the structural ones which they are imprisoned in, no matter how many times they rehash their childhood abuse, and apologise for their missteps. One of the writers wrying notes (herself poaching a colleague's line) that these women have already surrendered too much to too many higher powers for that to be much use to them now.
Wyoming is an unusual prison - a fact that the authors freely concede. It is unusually isolated, unusually small, and unusually low security (the authors note that in their months of work, no women expressed that she felt unsafe in the prison). The absence of funding for education or activities mean that boredom, hopelessness and critical shortages of basic necessities are the main enemies of the women incarcerated there. Nevertheless, this is a useful addition to anyone's understanding of the dynamics of incarceration.
Displaying 1 of 1 review