guard-prisoner-relations
Fighting the 'Labia Lift'
by Krystal Voss
Colorado prisoner Krystal Voss tells about the invasive strip search policy at the Denver Women’s Correctional Center. During routine strip searches, women are required to spread their labia to allow staff to search for contraband.
activism guard-prisoner-relations personal-narrative prison-life prison-industrial-complex sexual-harassment
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
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 Vermont Women’s Prison Project
by Traci Schlesinger & Mary Field Belenky
Based on extensive interviews with both staff and incarcerated women in one Vermont prison, this article examines the supportive relationships women form with one another and with “good” guards. The authors discuss the women’s and guards’ stories about positive changes within women’s behavior and outlook during their incarceration, emphasizing the importance of new-found relationships and trust in supporting such changes.
guard-prisoner-relations prison-life relationships
Why Does Popular Culture Treat Prison Rape As a Joke?
by Anna Clark
There's no soap-dropping counterpart "joke" referring to the abuse of female inmates. Ultimately, these distorted punch-line/silence memes enforce each other and perpetuate the reality of prison rape.
activism guard-prisoner-relations prison-life prison-industrial-complex sexual-harassment sexual-violence
Do I Have to Stand for This?
by Kimberly Burke
Kimberly Burke, a mother in prison tells a story of an interaction while her 7-year old son is visiting What convinces him to not want to come back. She uses her experience to talk about the large numbers of prisoners that never get a visitor. The enemy lines between prisoners and guards create a kind of hostile environment in which no one wants to be apart of.
children-of-prisoners guard-prisoner-relations personal-narrative prison-life
Prison Life: A Day
by Marilyn Buck
Marilyn Buck illustrates a prisoner’s determined efforts to reaffirm her own humanity in the face of constant indignities by describing one day of her own life in prison. Buck is a political prisoner serving eighty years in prison. She has been an active supporter of the Black Liberation movement and other struggles for self-determination.