Inside And Out: Women, Prison, And Therapy [Paperback]

Elaine J. Leeder (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0789034301 | ISBN-13: 978-0789034304 | Publication Date: May 25, 2007 | Edition: 1

A critical perspective on the treatment of incarcerated women—and their children

Inside and Out: Women, Prison, and Therapy challenges conventional thinking about the therapeutic issues facing female prisoners and their children. Therapists, counselors, scholars, and activists examine the injustices of the criminal justice system and the roles feminist therapists can play in deconstructing and demystifying the lives of women prisoners by becoming more involved in clinical work.

Inside and Out: Women, Prison, and Therapy examines this growing problem from a feminist perspective, debunking stereotypes about women perpetrators with a thorough examination of gender-responsive treatment of women in a variety of settings. This unique book includes a macro analysis of gender and criminality; an assessment of violence and the abuse of women; parenting and the impact of incarceration on children; treatment approaches developed specifically for women prisoners; and an outline of what women need when leaving prison life. The book also examines crucial issues facing women prisoners, including sexual abuse and assault, substance abuse, mental and physical health concerns, human rights, violence, discrimination, and the unique problems of women prisoners of color.

Topics addressed in Inside and Out: Women, Prison, and Therapy include:

• designing and delivering gender-responsive programs for women
  
• developing therapeutic measures to correct and normalize marginalized women
  
• mistreatment of women prisoners in the United States
  
• domestic violence and its connection to criminalization
  
• counseling sexually abused women
  
• motherhood, crime, and prison
  
• the effects of incarceration on children and families
  
• women, addiction, and incarceration
  
• using drama therapy with incarcerated women
  
• feminist support groups
  
• transitioning after release from prison
  
• and much more

Inside and Out: Women, Prison, and Therapy is a vital professional resource for therapists and counselors who work with female prisoners and their families.

Editorial Reviews

Review

As soon as I opened this book, THESE DEEPLY COMPELLING STORIES REACHED OUT TO ME. These are not just the stories of imprisoned women, these are the stories of women...imprisoned. The authors reveal the real damage from the "war on

drugs" and how is has been especially focused on women. They discuss the impact of incarceration on children and families on the "outside" and how maternal loss affects them. They remind us how family and community violence disproportionately affects women. They address a public who wants to shut the doors on "criminals" and asks us to see their humanity. Inside and Out: Women, Prison and Therapy is NOT JUST A REFERENCE FOR THOSE INVOLVED IN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM, IT IS AN EYE-OPENING RESOURCE FOR ALL OF US -- Claudia Pitts, PhD, Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Assistant Professor, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, National-Louis University

FULL OF IMPORTANT INSIGHTS about these women and practical tools for helping them. The book is READABLE AND COHERENT, FILLED WITH LIVELY, LUCID PROSE well laced with examples from the writers' experiences working with these women in prison. WRITTEN WITH SENSITIVITY AND A STRONG SOCIAL ANALYSIS AND CONSCIENCE, all these chapters explore the variety of reactions of women and their social environment to their situation. . . . Women suffer many forms of oppression and these diverse chapters hang together in their ecological view of the politics of putting women in prison. The way women survive and still manage to maintain and nurture their relationships allows us to view the potential empowerment that workers can bring these women. The notion of pride and honoring those feminine experiences ADDS DEPTH AND AN EXCITING VIEW OF AN OLD PROBLEM. -- Professor Claire Rabin, DSW, Tel Aviv University, Israel; Co-Director, Family and Couples Therapy Training Program

THIS IS THE BEST BOOK I HAVE SEEN ON WOMEN UNDER CORRECTIONAL CONTROL in the U.S. IT IS THOROUGH, IT IS PRACTICAL, AND IT IS INSPIRING in its critical examination of the practices, policies, and social structures that criminalize ever-increasing numbers of poor women of color and entrap them in the criminal justice system. Every chapter OFFERS VALUABLE INSIGHT into the lives of women who become immersed in our correctional systems, examines the reasons for why it is so difficult for women to avoid recidivism and recover from the poverty, violence, trauma, addictions, family separations, and mental health and health problems that are only worsened by incarceration, and envisions practical solutions to complex problems. . . . Corrections workers, mental health professionals, drug treatment programs, social workers, judges and probation officers, policy makers, and the general public should READ THIS BOOK. I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN UNTIL I HAD READ EVERY CHAPTER. -- Mary E. Gilfus, PhD, MSW, Associate Professor, Simmons College, School of Social Work

Valuable first because US prisons and gender, race and class are major issues at this time in history. . . . Her authors identify many meaningful dimensions, human rights the failure of prisons, the sociocultural and global involvement. These complicated interconnections are the stuff of social action and feminist therapy today. The book is valuable secondly because it represents a range of perspectives and standpoints. . . . Finally the book is valuable because it presents a strong example of interdisciplinary and inter-perspective collaboration. I believe the text OFFERS A MODEL OF COLLABORATION THAT FORESHADOWS THE FUTURE OF PROGRESSIVE PEOPLES. -- Mary Ballou, PHD, Professor, Department of Counseling and Applied Educational Psychology, Northeastern University

About the Author

Elaine Leeder, PhD, is Professor and Dean of the School of Social Sciences at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California. She holds an MSW from the Wurzweiler School of Social Work of Yeshiva University, a Masters of Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Cornell University. From 1977 to 2001, she taught in the sociology department at Ithaca College and coordinated the social work minor. She teaches courses on social change, family violence and the treatment and prevention of family violence and social policy. She has written books and articles on radical women's history, treatment of child abuse perpetrators, domestic violence, and spirituality. She has authored several books, including The Family in Global Perspective: A Gendered Journey, and more than two dozen articles on sociological and psychological issues.

Product Details

• Paperback: 340 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (May 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789034301
• ISBN-13: 978-0789034304
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,047,957 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)