Interrupted Life: Experiences of Incarcerated Women in the United States

by Rickie Solinger, Paula C. Johnson, Martha L. Raimon

Interrupted Life is a gripping collection of writings by and about imprisoned women in the United States, a country that jails a larger percentage of its population than any other nation in the world. This eye-opening work brings together scores of voices from both inside and outside the prison system including incarcerated and previously incarcerated women, their advocates and allies, abolitionists, academics, and other analysts. In vivid, often highly personal essays, poems, stories, reports, and manifestos, they offer an unprecedented view of the realities of women's experiences as they try to sustain relations with children and family on the outside, struggle for healthcare, fight to define and achieve basic rights, deal with irrational sentencing systems, remake life after prison; and more. Together, these powerful writings are an intense and visceral examination of life behind bars for women, and, taken together, they underscore the failures of imagination and policy that have too often underwritten our current prison system.

Genres: Nonfiction

480 pages, Paperback

First published December 26, 2009

Reviews

[Ally Puri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing book filled with poetry, short stories, interviews, research, and photographs of the negative effect the War on Drugs and the for-profit prison system has had on women (especially WOC) and their children.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interrupted Life: Experiences of Incarcerated Women. Ed. Rickie Solinga et al. Alternately horrifying & inspiring; a call to action.

Reviewed @reallyReads