The authors of Inside This Place, Not of It: Narratives From Women’s Prisons compare stories gathered for the book with last month’s report by Rashida Manjoo, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women. The bottom line: women in prisons face rape and abuse by guards, error-ridden medical care, and, in many states, shackling during labor.
“One of the most disturbing findings of the Special Rapporteur was “the general over-incarceration of women, commonly for nonviolent or drug-related crimes.” The number of women in prison has increased dramatically over the past few decades: Women are incarcerated at a rate of eight times that of 32 years ago.”
