The Farm: Life Inside a Women's Prison [Paperback]

Andi Rierden (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Rierden (journalism, Fairfield Univ.), who has covered New Haven and Bridgeport, Connecticut, for the Sunday New York Times, spent three and a half years at Connecticut's only prison for women, the Niantic Correctional Institution ("the Farm"), interviewing prisoners whose background often included urban violence, drugs, gangs, and abuse, as well as their counselors and correctional officers. The result is part sociological study, part hard-hitting journalistic account of the lives, past and present, of these women. Sometimes it takes patience to find the poignant vignettes amid the accounts of the prison's evolution, but it is usually worth the effort. Recommended for all crime collections.?Frances O. Sandiford, Green Haven Correctional Facility Lib., Stormville, N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A sober, intelligent study of the changing dynamics of a womens prison. The Connecticut Correctional Institute in Niantic, nicknamed ``The Farm'' by its inmates, has a long and honorable tradition. Its prisoners historically grew their own vegetables and cared for farm animals; the prison is located in a lovely rural spot. Rierden (Journalism/Fairfield Univ.) studied the inmates from 1992 to 1995, as the prison population began to shift from one-time offenders to serious repeat offenders, some with AIDS, many with serious drug problems. Rierden's narrative focuses on several older inmates, including Delia Robinson, a matronly woman with a violent streak triggered by alcohol. Robinson had spent long stretches in Niantic, the first when she killed another woman, the second after she killed her abusive son. It takes Robinson years to admit her alcoholism and her responsibility for her sons depraved, short life. Its to Rierdens credit that the reader understands why the other inmates revere the woman they call Miss D; her slow emergence from the prison system takes on heroic proportions. Other inmates are of more questionable character; unlike Delia, Bonnie Foreshaw vehemently denies she murdered a pregnant woman and blames race bias for a conviction in what she insists was an accidental shooting. Rierden reports without comment Bonnie's exculpatory account along with those of several eyewitnesses, who tell a far different story. Niantic is, as Rierden reports, the object of much interest, both as a model for the old-style system of reforming prisoners and as a relic in a new era showing much less interest in rehabilitation. Bucking that trend, largely through the efforts of longtime guards and a thoughtful warden, a drug rehabilitation center has been established, and the prison itself has been restored to much of its old glory as a farm for damaged people. An intelligent, absorbing look at prison reform and, more particularly, at the issue of women in prison. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press (June 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558490809
• ISBN-13: 978-1558490802
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #635,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An honest and sensative book, April 14, 1998

By 

Glenn A. Cheney (Hanover, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Farm: Life Inside a Women's Prison (Paperback)

This book offers an honest and sensative look at real human beings and their lives. Without getting overly romantic about their situation in prison, it yields a soft picture of a side of society we too easily forget, avoid or misunderstand. It expands your vision of the world and therefore is very much worth reading.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking and honest, December 29, 2005

By 

Jo Ann Champion (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Farm: Life Inside a Women's Prison (Paperback)

After having purchased, "Couldn't Keep It to Myself," by Wally Lamb and having enjoyed it immensely, I moved on to this collection of stories. I loved the honest protrayal of the women who are both incarcerated and in charge of the ward. The journalistic tone of this book certainly conveys the very humanity of these women, and that is something that I think we often don't consider when thinking of criminals. Certainly this is a heavier read than what most would choose for bedtime enjoyment, but it is a substantial work that deserves time and attention. I highly recommend Rierden's book to anyone.

4.0 out of 5 stars The Farm: Life Inside a Women's Prison By: Brianna, Sara, Victoria, Amanda, and Jenny, April 29, 2010

By 

Jennifer Adams (Sheboygan, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Farm: Life Inside a Women's Prison (Paperback)

The Farm: Life Inside A Women's Prison vicariously depicts daily life in the only state prison for women in Connecticut through stories obtained from interviews with inmates, correctional officers, and counselors over a three-and-a-half year period. The author, Andi Rierden, paints a transient picture of the evolution of a farm-based institution with a close-knit group of female inmates and correctional officers to a prison bursting at the seams with inmates plagued by lives of drugs, HIV/AIDS, violence, neglect, assault, sexually transmitted infections, and attempts to maintain care of their children from within prison walls. Rierden also describes the female inmates' endeavors to assuage their isolation through the formation of family units and intimate relationships within the prison community, drastically contrasting the independence found within male institutions. She depicts the prison authorities' efforts to maintain a rehabilitative focus in face of a growing emphasis on crime control. The author exhibits the difficulties inherent in establishing and maintaining effective programming, as well as the turmoil experienced by the female inmates as they transfer from one overcrowded unit to the next within the prison. The novel provides an honest and often brash account of the inmates' lives both inside and outside prison walls, suggesting neither their guilt nor innocence. The question remains-are the inmates "victims of circumstance" or guilty perpetrators? Decide for yourself by reading The Farm! We highly recommend this book to correction officers, as well as all interested in the field of criminal justice!