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Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

Victoria Law (Goodreads Author)

4.45 · Rating details · 174 ratings · 24 reviews

In 1974, women imprisoned at New York's maximum-security prison at Bedford Hills staged what is known as the August Rebellion. Protesting the brutal beating of a fellow prisoner, the women fought off guards, holding seven of them hostage, and took over sections of the prison. While many have heard of the 1971 Attica prison uprising, the August Rebellion remains relatively ...more

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Paperback, 288 pages

Published March 1st 2009 by PM Press (first published February 1st 2009)

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Jul 25, 2009 Elevate Difference rated it it was amazing

Of the many staggering statistics in Victoria Law’s eight-year study, Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles Of Incarcerated Women, the following fact will make your jaw drop: the number of incarcerated women in United States prisons has almost doubled from 68,468 to 104,848 between 1995 and 2004.

Like their male counterparts, this population of women is overwhelmingly comprised of African Americans and Latinas, which can be largely attributed to racial profiling—not, as popular mythology might su Of the many staggering statistics in Victoria Law’s eight-year study, Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles Of Incarcerated Women, the following fact will make your jaw drop: the number of incarcerated women in United States prisons has almost doubled from 68,468 to 104,848 between 1995 and 2004.

Like their male counterparts, this population of women is overwhelmingly comprised of African Americans and Latinas, which can be largely attributed to racial profiling—not, as popular mythology might suggest—an ad hoc increase in crime amongst these ethnic groups. Law’s fascinating text is born from her personal experience as a teenager who narrowly avoided incarceration herself, and the friendships she cultivated with women who were not so lucky. As Law raised her own consciousness about the prison-industrial—complex, she began investigating incarcerated women’s involvement in prisoners-rights movements and was told flat-out by other activists that “Women don’t organize.”

Resistance Behind Bars is a compelling testament to the untruth of this statement, and offers innumerable examples of women’s prison uprisings. One such instance is a 1975 sit-down demonstration for improved medical care at the North Carolina Correctional Center for Women, in which women fought back against prison guards attempting to beat and herd them into a gymnasium. Creatively, these prisoners used volleyball net poles, chunks of concrete and anything else immediately available, causing the state to invoke the aid of over 100 guards from other prisons to pacify the rebellion.

Law’s exhaustively researched text includes anecdotal information she harvested from interviews, letters, and conversations with prisoners as well as government reports and major media sources. Most importantly, Law highlights the deeply gendered nature of women’s prison experiences, which cuts across virtually all aspects of incarcerated life. Sexual abuse, motherhood, physical labor, education, medical care, and the extent to which women prisoners’ activism receives media attention are all areas that Law treats with a distinct sense of urgency. What’s more, Resistance Behind Bars has bonus features that underpin Law’s activist project: a list of resources organized according to region for how readers can get involved in the prisoners-rights movement, and an annotated list of recommended readings.

Review by Heather Brown ...more

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Feb 17, 2014 Broadsnark rated it really liked it

Shelves: recommended

A while back, I wrote about how frustrating it was that people were not paying attention to the prison hunger strikes in California and elsewhere. But as little attention as men's resistance gets, women's resistance gets even less. And while it is true that there are many more men than women in prison, it is also true that, per the sentencing project:

The number of women in prison, a third of whom are incarcerated for drug offenses, is increasing at nearly double the rate for men. These women oft

The number of women in prison, a third of whom are incarcerated for drug offenses, is increasing at nearly double the rate for men. These women often have significant histories of physical and sexual abuse, high rates of HIV infection, and substance abuse. Large-scale women's imprisonment has resulted in an increasing number of children who suffer from their mother's incarceration and the loss of family ties

Long before Orange is the New Black, Victoria Law wrote about the history of prisons and how women have resisted. The book is broken down by issues - health care, sexual abuse, education, labor... For each issue Law shares the stories that prisoners have shared with her about how the system has affected them. She puts their stories in historical and political context. And she shows how those women pushed back.

I've read a lot of books, articles, and research about women in prison over the last 10 years, but this book covered new territory. Most people focus only on the victimization of the women. Rarely do you hear from the women themselves. Even more rarely do you hear about the grievances, court cases, self organized groups, hunger strikes, whistle blowing - about the women's agency.

And unlike most of the material I come across, this book is written from a radical perspective. It doesn't set out a handful of legislative reforms that could make things better. In fact, it shows how legislative reforms have hurt the women. Even reforms like The Prison Rape Elimination Act that were ostensibly meant to help prisoners, ended up hurting women prisoners. Women are written up for sexual misconduct if they have any contact with other women in the prison. No hugs. No high fives.

Instead of legislation, you will get an extensive list of recommended reading, some resources for prisoners, and encouragement to reach out to these women and support them in how they chose to resist. ...more

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Feb 08, 2015 Alan Mills rated it really liked it

Shelves: prison-criminal-justice

Excellent book for those new to the topic. Law mixes startling statistics (the number of women in prison DOUBLED in recent years), and tells some great anecdotes about how women are both abused, and marginalized, even compared to the terrible treatment given male prisoners. However, digging through the anecdotes, what becomes clear is that with two big exceptions, there is very little resistance behind bars by women.

The two exceptions--scattered throughout the book, and thus not as clear as they ...more

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Jun 17, 2018 honeybean rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, anarchy, incarceration

This book had me in tears at many points. It really brought the injustice done to women in prison to light: including such horrific acts as shackling pregnant women during childbirth, sexual assault, differentiating power plays, poor healthcare, and the refusal to acknowledge transgender women as women, ultimately leading to rape and HIV-related preventable deaths. I would love if everyone read this book, if just to learn about the monstrosity that is the American penal system.

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Nov 06, 2018 Courtney rated it it was amazing

Shelves: references

Loved this book. Recommended for anyone interested in prison abolition, activism, working with women prisoners and/or even those who want to learn more about the subjects. I will definitely reread and am excited to use this as a reference for my semester project and possible future projects.

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Feb 23, 2017 Carlee rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mass-incarceration

This book opened my eyes to the day-to-day devastation that incarceration inflicts upon women and the myriad of ways women have resisted a system that seems to strive to destroy them physically, mentally, and emotionally. I am particularly thankful for the new section included "A Note on Transgender, Transsexual, Intersex and Gender-Variant People in Prison" as well as the section on resistance in immigration facilities as there is practically nothing known about their experiences with incarcera ...more

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Jan 28, 2017 Sara rated it it was amazing

I loved this book. It does a great job of capturing the diverse ways, both large and small, that women in prison resist the daily injustices they are faced with. The stories of resistance are given context with a thoughtful presentation of what those injustices look like, both through statistics and through personal stories.

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Sep 14, 2017 océ rated it it was amazing

The reality that women face in prison often go unheard. This book not only shines a light on the harsh, inhumane conditions that are inherent to imprisonment, but the ways in which women have resisted them.

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May 05, 2017 Melissa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: prison-industrial-complex

A powerful and accessible read that also provides resources for further involvement. While the experiences of some incarcerated women surface repeatedly throughout the book, this work emphasizes the many movements and works done by incarcerated women and their allies nationwide without relying on the heroine narrative of one or two extraordinary individuals.

Right from the get go, Law must combat sexist ideology on what women do and do not do, can and cannot do. It's not that the protests and or ...more

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Jul 21, 2019 Maud rated it it was amazing

Hi wow amazing!! the facts were not surprising (we all know prison abuses its inmates and is totally destructive of society, racist, classist, all that) but striking to see them laid out one after the other.
And yet there’s such hope here of women (including a now additional chapter on trans women) advocating for themselves, giving so much for others, sharing resources, providing the love that these prisoners usually find no where else in their lives.
Especially cool to me was the last chapter on ...more

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Aug 01, 2017 Ryan Hartman rated it really liked it

Another book that I should have read years ago. Even for someone as deep in prison abolition work as I am, there was still some shocking statistics in this study. My only complaint was that it was out of date, which obviously isn't the author's fault ...more

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Jan 13, 2018 Leslie rated it liked it · review of another edition

While I love the overall message of the book, it is extremely repetitive and could have been arranged better.

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Nov 22, 2018 Heatherblakely rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Great starting off point for those who are, like me, new to the subject of prison reform/replacement and the issues within prisons. Some of the language is a little out-dated, obviously, but there is an effort to be inclusive (there was an added chapter about immigration detainment centers as well as how trans people are being treated in prisons).

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Apr 03, 2009 Kate rated it really liked it

Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women is a premier effort to increase the visibility of women’s prison resistance in the United States. Victoria Law has dedicated much of her life to prisoners’ resistance, honing in on the lack of discussion about the specific plight that women face in prison, and their efforts to challenge the prison system. Law started off self-publishing prisoners’ stories in zines and circulating them in publications like Clamor, Punk Planet, and off ou Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women is a premier effort to increase the visibility of women’s prison resistance in the United States. Victoria Law has dedicated much of her life to prisoners’ resistance, honing in on the lack of discussion about the specific plight that women face in prison, and their efforts to challenge the prison system. Law started off self-publishing prisoners’ stories in zines and circulating them in publications like Clamor, Punk Planet, and off our backs. A lot of this work is represented and revisited here, in Law’s first book, Resistance Behind Bars.

The major success of Resistance Behind Bars is that it is written so that every person can understand it -- Law uses effective statistics as well as stories and examples of prison life straight from the voices of the women living them. While maintaining this easy-to-understand framework, Law employs a thorough understanding of the gender, race, and class dynamics that contribute to the unique struggle of women prisoners as well as the invisibility of this struggle.

The invisibility of women prisoners’ specific struggle, as well as their acts of resistance, is largely due to the “un-sexy” labor historically allotted to women. While male prisoners may have more time to concern themselves with organizing, women often still have a slew of other concerns from both outside and inside the prison system - such as childcare, adequate healthcare, and visitation rights, among many others. Resistance Behind Bars sheds light on all the different forms of resistance - from creating AIDS awareness groups, to communal teaching, to emotional support, to skill-sharing, to labor and hunger strikes, and so on, that these women take on, in spite of all the stakes against them.

Law redefines and broadens the notions of resistance to include the everyday individual challenges that women prisoners fight both for themselves and for their sisters. Along with Law’s unique and powerful document, she includes a thorough resource list, a recommended reading list on prison issues, and a glossary for further accessibility. Resistance Behind Bars is a must-read for anyone interested in prison resistance as well as gender, race, and class struggles across the board.

-- Kate Wadkins (for Maximum Rocknroll) ...more

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Jan 12, 2012 Gregory Nipper rated it it was amazing

Anyone interested in this excellent book should be sure to get the new 2nd printing (with the large handcuff on the cover; on GoodReads here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...).
It's been expanded and improved considerably, updating many of the facts, statistics, references, community organizations and recommended readings throughout the book. It also has a new epilogue and a brand-new chapter on "Transgender, Transsexual, Intersex and Gender-Variant People in Prison." ...more

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May 14, 2013 Monica rated it really liked it

Although this book is not particularly well-written, it is very interesting. It was an eye-opening read that gives the reader a lot to think about, far beyond the topic of resistance by women prisoners.

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Mar 20, 2015 Black Bibliophile rated it really liked it

Super informative. Very telling. It was an amazing read, I read the second edition first, and ill read the first edition second. Its a essential component of educating oneself about prison labor, especially regarding the treatment of women and grassroots prisoner organizing among female inmates.

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Mar 20, 2012 Samantha Onorato added it

brilliant book that sheds some much needed light on the struggles of incarcerated women. I also love that Law has a list of resources for scholars, activists, and anyone who wants to take a stand against the sexist, racist, transphobic prison industrial complex

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