Pathways and Inequality Within Women's Prisons

• In Event: Women in Prison: Rates, Experiences, and Reentry

Abstract

This paper explores the role of inequality in reproducing harm within women’s prisons. Based on 10 years of empirical work on gendered conflict in women’s and jails, we examine women’s pathways within prison. In enhancing the pathways approach, the authors examine how intersectional inequalities and cumulative disadvantage are at the root of prison conflict and violence, often reproducing their experience in the free world. We will look at three sources of harm as they play out within the gendered context of substandard prison conditions, inequalities among women who are imprisoned, and conflict with correctional staff.

Authors

• Barbara Owen, California State University, Fresno

• James B. Wells, Eastern Kentucky University

• Joy Pollock, Texas State University School of Criminal Justice