Too Much Time: Women in Prison [Hardcover]

Jane Evelyn Atwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 16, 2000

This is a documentary survey of the experience of women in prison by the award-winning photojournalist Jane Evelyn Atwood. Since 1980 the numbers of women in US prisons have increased tenfold. Similar statistics apply to the nine other countries around the world where Atwood has succeeded in penetrating the prison systems - photographing, interviewing women prisoners and their guards, gathering testimony. The result is a raw and moving account in words and pictures of society's attitude to the issues of women, crime and incarceration. The book raises questions about the relative treatment of men and women in prison and about the links between women's crimes and male violence. But more than a campaigning photo story, the book assembles an extraordinary body of experience. As Kathy Boudin, a teacher and writer imprisoned since 1981, comments: "as women in prison, we tell stories to each other - sitting in our cells, walking in the prison yard, in parenting groups - but we urgently need our stories to be heard beyond the walls and the razor wire. This book takes the reader into the lives of women in prison as they reflect on personal responsibility and social realities, guilt and reparation, change, loss and survival. It is in the power of prisoners' voices that the complex truth emerges."

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This is a documentary survey of the experience of women in prison by the award-winning photojournalist Jane Evelyn Atwood. Since 1980 the numbers of women in US prisons have increased tenfold. Similar statistics apply to the nine other countries around the world where Atwood has succeeded in penetrating the prison systems - photographing, interviewing women prisoners and their guards, gathering testimony. The result is a raw and moving account in words and pictures of society's attitude to the issues of women, crime and incarceration. The book raises questions about the relative treatment of men and women in prison and about the links between women's crimes and male violence. But more than a campaigning photo story, the book assembles an extraordinary body of experience. As Kathy Boudin, a teacher and writer imprisoned since 1981, comments: "as women in prison, we tell stories to each other - sitting in our cells, walking in the prison yard, in parenting groups - but we urgently need our stories to be heard beyond the walls and the razor wire. This book takes the reader into the lives of women in prison as they reflect on personal responsibility and social realities, guilt and reparation, change, loss and survival. It is in the power of prisoners' voices that the complex truth emerges."

Product Details

• Hardcover: 194 pages
• Publisher: Phaidon Press (March 16, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714839736
• ISBN-13: 978-0714839738
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 8.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,764,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compassionate photos and text about women in prison, October 9, 2000

By 

Aram J. Kevorkian (Paris FRANCE) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Too Much Time: Women in Prison (Hardcover)

This an extraordinary book of photographs and text about women in prison. The title of the book is an apt and ambiguous description of the plight of the women prisoners she describes, for two of her major points are that they generally lead more barren lives than men within prison walls and also are often given heavier sentences than men for comparable crimes.

Jane Evelyn Atwood is a compassionate American who has spent most of her adult life in France, and has become one of the outstanding photojournalists in the world. While other talented photographers earn a lot of money taking pictures of fashion models and high society, Atwood's committed outlook has led her to depict the less-fortunate specimens of the human race. Her subjects have included blind children and Parisian prostitutes. Years ago, she was the first to photograph the terrifying physical decline of a man dying of AIDS, which broke new ground when her reportage was published in Paris Match.

In Too Much Time, the striking and poignant photos, in black and white, are reason enough to buy the book but that would be only half the story because Atwood is one of those rare photographers who can write as well as they take pictures. Indeed, when I became engrossed with the text, not only her own words but also transcriptions of what American women prisoners told her, I almost forgot that it was a picture book.

5 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jails on pictures, April 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Too Much Time: Women in Prison (Hardcover)

The authors visited about 40 prisons. The pictures she took are of very good quality and very expressive. She interviewed the women in jail. The stories of those prisoners are really moving. It's a moving, respectful book about the life of women in jail.

2 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Awful, absolutely awful, April 22, 2005

By 

travish19 "travish19" (Western USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Too Much Time: Women in Prison (Hardcover)

This book is absolutely awful. It's full of ad hominem remarks and plays to the emotion of women being in prision. Why are most people (not just women) in prison there? Because they commited a crime!!! The author blames men for most of these women's crimes throughout the book - they were abused at a young age by men, they were poor . . . excuses. When will people take responsibility for their actions? The book has some beautiful photography - they should have taken the ink used for the text and put in some more pictures. Don't buy it, don't read it. I'm sorry I wasted my time.