The prison has often been the focus for concerns about human rights violations, and campaigns aimed at achieving social justice, for those with an interest in the criminalisation of women. To reduce the number of women imprisoned, a range of policy initiatives have been developed to increase the use of community-based responses to women in conflict with the law. These initiatives have tended to operate alongside reforms to the prison estate and are often defined as ‘community punishment’, ‘community sanctions’ and ‘alternatives to imprisonment’. This book challenges the contention that improved regimes and provisions within the criminal justice system are capable of addressing human rights concerns and the needs of the criminalised woman. This book aims to provide a critical analysis of approaches and experiences of penal sanctions, human rights and social justice as enacted in different jurisdictions within and beyond the UK. Drawing on international knowledge and expertise, the contributors to this book challenge the efficacy of gender-responsive interventions by examining issues affecting women in the criminal justice system such as mental health, age, and ethnicity. Crucially, the book will engage with the paradox of implementing rights within a largely punishment-orientated system. This book will be of interest to those taking undergraduate and post-graduate courses that examine punishment, gender and justice, and which lend themselves to an international / comparative aspect such as criminal justice/criminology, (international) criminal justice courses; sociology as well as professional training for practitioners (criminal justice, social work, health) who work with women in the criminal justice system.

In the last decade there has been growing international concern about the increasing numbers of women in prison, the effects that imprisonment has on their children, the realisation that gaoled women have different criminal profiles and rehabilitative needs to male prisoners, and the seeming intractability of the associated problems. In response there has been an overarching policy concern in many countries to fashion and co-ordinate gender-specific policies towards female offenders which aim both to slow down the rate of their offending and/or imprisonment, and also to engender flexible programmes which will reduce the time spent in custody and/or away from their young children. The major objective of this book is to describe and analyse contemporary opportunities for, and barriers to, both the reduction of female prison populations and the reduction of the pain of those women who continue to be imprisoned. It assesses the most important recent attempts to reduce both women's imprisonment and the damage it does, identifying and analyzing cross-jurisdiction and gender-specific lessons to be learned, and the unexpected consequences of some of the reform strategies. This book brings together leading scholars and practitioners in the field, providing a critique of the reform initiatives which have taken place, and a much-needed theorization of cross-national policy in this area. It will be essential reading for all with an interest in prisons and prison reform.

Examines the recent developments in penal policy, and asks whether they will make for more "justice". Drawing on international evidence the author asks whether making the punishment fit the crime can lessen the excessive penalization of the poor, the mentally disordered and racial minorities.

"Lynne Haney is already an important voice in the sociology of welfare but this book marks her debut as a major figure in the sociology of punishment and the study of governmentality. Offending Women is a fascinating work that combines rich ethnographic detail with a structural account of the changing contours of contemporary governance. Its original contributions to prison ethnography, women's studies, and the sociology of the penal-welfare state will make it a reference point in each of these disciplines."--David Garland, author of The Culture of Control "Offending Women is an exemplary piece of work. Haney's writing is engaging, crisp, and smart. She brilliantly assesses the various intentions of the state and incarcerated women and clarifies how these intentions are based on orientations toward punishment and 'healing' that demand fundamental rethinking."--Rickie Solinger, author of Pregnancy and Power and co-editor of Interrupted Life: Experiences of Incarcerated Women in the United States "Lynne Haney brings together her stupendous skills as an ethnographer and her theoretical insights into how states work to explain how the treatment of imprisoned women has changed over the past decade. An altogether brilliant book."--Myra Marx Ferree, University of Wisconsin

Black Girlhood, Punishment, and Resistance: Reimagining Justice for Black Girls in Virginia provides a historical comprehensive examination of racialized, classed, and gendered punishment of Black girls in Virginia during the early twentieth century. It looks at the ways in which the court system punished Black girls based upon societal accepted norms of punishment, hinged on a notion that they were to be viewed and treated as adults within the criminal legal system. Further, the book explores the role of Black Club women and girls as agents of resistance against injustice by shaping a social justice framework and praxis for Black girls and by examining the establishment of the Virginia Industrial School for Colored Girls. This school was established by the Virginia State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs and its first President, Janie Porter Barrett. This book advances contemporary criminological understanding of punishment by locating the historical origins of an environment normalizing unequal justice. It draws from a specific focus on Janie Porter Barrett and the Virginia Industrial School for Colored Girls; a groundbreaking court case of the first female to be executed in Virginia; historical newspapers; and Black Women’s Club archives to highlight the complexities of Black girls’ experiences within the criminal justice system and spaces created to promote social justice for these girls. The historical approach unearths the justice system’s role in crafting the pervasive devaluation of Black girlhood through racialized, gendered, and economic-based punishment. Second, it offers insight into the ways in which, historically, Black women have contributed to what the book conceptualizes as “resistance criminology,” offering policy implications for transformative social and legal justice for Black girls and girls of color impacted by violence and punishment. Finally, it offers a lens to explore Black girl resistance strategies, through the lens of the Black Girlhood Justice framework. Black Girlhood, Punishment, and Resistance uses a historical intersectionality framework to provide a comprehensive overview of cultural, socioeconomic, and legal infrastructures as they relate to the punishment of Black girls. The research illustrates how the presumption of guilt of Black people shaped the ways that punishment and the creation of deviant Black female identities were legally sanctioned. It is essential reading for academics and students researching and studying crime, criminal justice, theoretical criminology, women’s studies, Black girlhood studies, history, gender, race, and socioeconomic class. It is also intended for social justice organizations, community leaders, and activists engaged in promoting social and legal justice for the youth.

Social Justice, Criminal Justice is a thought-provoking examination of the U.S. legal system, focusing on how criminal justice and social justice are related. The book provides a solid foundation of key philosophical and theoretical issues and goes on to examine the function of the law as it relates to social justice issues. The authors present and explain the foundational legal documents of the United States, and critically examine how those same documents, which espoused the rhetoric of equality for all, contribute toward the perpetuation and maintenance of a system of exclusion for groups with minority status, such as racial and ethnic minorities, the poor, women, and the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community. Succinct but comprehensive, this text offers a careful examination of possible relationships between social justice theory and criminal justice practice and illuminates the role that the legal system has played in both preventing and assisting social change and power dynamics. For each identified group, important landmark court decisions are used to demonstrate the plight of the powerless and the quest for equal rights. The book provides an important perspective and understanding of the relationships among criminal justice, social justice, and the law. Suitable for undergraduate and early graduate courses in Social Justice, Justice Studies, Critical Issues, Ethics, and American Government and Law, this text provides easily digestible content for those interested in thinking critically about the U.S. legal system.

A compelling look at the crisis of disadvantaged women This powerful document takes a sobering look at the phenomenon of marginalized women pushed to the edges of society, holding on with the barest of hope and extraordinary bravery. Handicapped by the increasing societal inequality they face as an everyday fact of life, these women (and in many cases, their children) have been disconnected from the mainstream for reasons of age, race, gender, health, incarceration, domestic abuse, unwanted pregnancy, unemployment, and economic circumstance. They are poor in an affluent society, powerless in a powerful nation, and the suffering caused by their exclusion is poignant and troubling. Eloquently illustrated with poetry, art, and prose created by marginalized women, Women at the Margins: Neglect, Punishment, and Resistance makes a compelling argument for social change. The book offers a no-holds-barred look at how economic restructuring, welfare reform, neo-conservative ideology, and institutional exclusion have locked women into subservient, substandard roles, stripping them of their citizenship and rendering them expendable. Diverse authors track the life cycle of marginalized women, from teenage pregnancy to the lonliness of older women in poverty or prison. Women at the Margins: Neglect, Punishment, and Resistance addresses: the effects of welfare reform the forgotten group: women in prison and jail low-income women and housing women marginalized by substance abuse, poverty, and incarceration teenage pregnancy children and their incarcerated mothers recidivism and reintegration women, law, and the justice system and much more! Women at the Margins: Neglect, Punishment, and Resistance acknowledges the long history of the inequality faced by women living in exclusion but focuses on the present with a hopeful but realistic eye toward the future. It is an indispensible resource for sociology, social work, legal and penal system professionals, and academics, and an essential read for everyone.