Mean Lives, Mean Laws : : Oklahoma's Women Prisoners / / Susan F. Sharp.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Rutgers University Press Complete eBook-Package 2014-2015
• VerfasserIn: Sharp, Susan F.,
• MitwirkendeR: Ortiz, Juanita,
• TeilnehmendeR: Ortiz, Juanita.
• Place / Publishing House: New Brunswick, NJ : : Rutgers University Press, , [2014]; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: English
• Series: Critical Issues in Crime and Society
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (210 p.) :; 2 figures

Oklahoma has long held the dubious honor of having the highest female incarceration rate in the country, nearly twice the national average. In this compelling new book, sociologist Susan Sharp sets out to discover just what has gone so wrong in the state of Oklahoma-and what that might tell us about trends in female incarceration nationwide. The culmination of over a decade of original research, Mean Lives, Mean Laws exposes a Kafkaesque criminal justice system, one that has no problem with treating women as collateral damage in the War on Drugs or with stripping female prisoners of their parental rights. Yet it also reveals the individual histories of women who were jailed in Oklahoma, providing intimate portraits of their lives before, during, and after their imprisonment. We witness the impoverished and abusive conditions in which many of these women were raised; we get a vivid portrait of their everyday lives behind bars; and we glimpse the struggles that lead many ex-convicts to fall back into the penal system. Through an innovative methodology that combines statistical rigor with extensive personal interviews, Sharp shows how female incarceration affects not only individuals, but also families and communities. Putting a human face on a growing social problem, Mean Lives, Mean Laws raises important questions about both the state of Oklahoma and the state of the nation.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1. Mean Lives: A Theoretical Framework -- 2. Mean Laws: The Rise in Female Imprisonment -- 3. Mean Women or Mean Lives? Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adult Abuse of Women Prisoners -- 4. The Prison Experience -- 5. Going Back Again -- 6. Coming Home and Staying Out -- 7. The Children and Their Caregivers -- 8. Winds of Change -- 9. Lessons Learned and Moving Forward -- Appendix A. Research Methods -- Appendix B. Oklahoma Children of Incarcerated Parents -- Notes -- References -- Index -- About the Authors