Female Learners in the Carceral Space: How Carceral Conditions Impede Academic Success for Incarcerated Women

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 12:40 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Learning Within the School-Prison Nexus (Table 25)

Abstract

This narrative inquiry explores how power dynamics, authority structures, systemic oppression, and gender inequalities within jails shape incarcerated women's rehabilitative and academic journey. By incorporating the perspectives of incarcerated women through their self-produced podcasts in my class and conducting qualitative interviews with individuals involved in supporting the rehabilitative process, this paper seeks to illuminate the challenges women face pursuing an education in confinement.
The study reflects on the compounding and cumulative disadvantages that shape women's paths to incarceration, contributes to the understanding of the complex dynamics at play in correctional facilities, and puts forth a series of recommendations aimed at reforming the system and facilitating women's educational success within correctional settings.

Author

• Isabel Reichert, San Francisco State University