In Search of Safety: Confronting Inequality in Women's Imprisonment (Gender and Justice Book 3)

Based on extensive mixed-methods data, this book examines gendered violence and conflict in women’s prisons. Conflict and violence in the prison are located in intersectional inequalities and cumulative disadvantage, reflecting their pathways to prison. Women in prison share common characteristics, many mediated by structural, historical, and cumulative disadvantage. T pathways approach is expanded to include women’s experience within these structural clusters of intersectional inequalities. In their search for safety, women must negotiate these inequities through developing forms of prison capital. The history and philosophies underpinning women’s imprisonment, the gendered impact of prison and drug policy, and the variations in rates of imprisonment for differentially-situated women are also used to contextualizes the imprisonment of women. Prison conditions, aggravated by crowding, inadequate medical and mental health care and the lack of gender-informed operational practice, contribute to the gendered harm of imprisonment. A women’s search for safety is described through the lens of prison capital, forms of human, social and cultural capital women leverage to combat the gendered harm of imprisonment. Forms of capital combine with the intersectional inequality of imprisonment to condition the context for trouble and harm among women and with staff. The harm of women’s imprisonment can be located in human rights violations inside. The way forward is found in implementing international human rights standards in U. S. prisons, focusing on the promise of the __Bangkok Rules.__

In Search of Safety takes a close look at the sources of gendered violence and conflict in women’s prisons. The authors examine how intersectional inequalities and cumulative disadvantages are at the root of prison conflict and violence and mirror the women’s pathways to prison. Women must negotiate these inequities by developing forms of prison capital—social, human, cultural, emotional, and economic—to ensure their safety while inside. The authors also analyze how conflict and subsequent violence result from human-rights violations inside the prison that occur within the gendered context of substandard prison conditions, inequalities of capital among those imprisoned, and relationships with correctional staff. In Search of Safety proposes a way forward—the implementation of international human-rights standards for U.S. prisons. 
 

In Search of Safety takes a close look at the sources of gendered violence and conflict in women's prisons. The authors examine how intersectional inequalities and cumulative disadvantages are at the root of prison conflict and violence and mirror the women's pathways to prison. Women must negotiate these inequities by developing forms of prison capital--social, human, cultural, emotional, and economic--to ensure their safety while inside. The authors also analyze how conflict and subsequent violence result from human-rights violations inside the prison that occur within the gendered context of substandard prison conditions, inequalities of capital among those imprisoned, and relationships with correctional staff. In Search of Safety proposes a way forward--the implementation of international human-rights standards for U.S. prisons. -- Provided by publisher Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Intersectional Inequality and Women's Imprisonment -- 2. Pathways and Intersecting Inequality -- 3. Prison Community, Prison Conditions, and Gendered Harm -- 4. Searching for Safety through Prison Capital -- 5. Inequalities and Contextual Conflict -- 6. Intersections of Inequality with Correctional Staff -- 7. Gendered Human Rights and the Search for Safety -- Appendix 1: Methodology -- Appendix 2: Tables of Findings -- Glossary -- B -- C -- D -- F -- G -- I -- J -- H -- J -- K -- L -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- W -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z Looks at the sources of gendered violence and conflict in women's prisons. The authors examine how intersectional inequalities and cumulative disadvantage are at the root of prison conflict and violence, reflecting the women's pathways to prison.