court-advocacy
Illegal Strip Searches at the Cook County Jail
by Tori Marlan
Marlan, a journalist for the Chicago Reader, investigates the recent successful lawsuit against the Cook County Sheriff for conducting group strip searches of women in the Cook County Jail.
court-advocacy guard-prisoner-relations sexual-violence
Fight for Clemency for Women in Prison for Defending Themselves Against an Abuser
by Michelle VanNatta & Margaret Byrne
The Illinois Clemency Project for Battered Women, was a project made up of prisoners, law students, lawyers, and feminists, who assisted imprisoned women with requesting and fighting for clemency within the state of Illinois.
court-advocacy domestic-violence
A Case of Battered Justice: Theresa Cruz fighting Domestic Violence and State Violence
by Diana Block
This article is a story about Theresa Cruz, a woman who was sentenced to seven years to life after allegedly planning the murder of a man who had abused and stalked her for five years. Cruz’s case is reviewed and for a short period of time she is released, only to be placed back into prison two weeks later. Cruz’s experience is an example of what many battered women have had to face in challenging the law.
activism court-advocacy domestic-violence
Will the Justice Department Stand Up for Women Raped in Prison?
by Rachel Roth
Eight years ago, Congress acknowledged the brutal fact of systemic sexual assault behind bars by unanimously passing the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). The Justice Department is now poised to issue final rules to implement the law, which makes federal funding to prisons and jails contingent on improved staff training, availability of medical and psychological services for people who suffer sexual assault, investigations and publicly available data about reported assaults.
court-advocacy guard-prisoner-relations health immigration movement-building prison-life prison-industrial-complex sexual-violence state-violence
The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997: Its Impact on Prisoner Mothers and their Children
by Gail T. Smith
Gail Smith outlines the reasons the ASFA of 1997 is harmful and detrimental to imprisoned women and their children. With most children of prisoners being in ‘temporary’ foster care, the ASFA actually makes these children legal orphans and breaks any ties that imprisoned mothers and their children once had.