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WGST 12A taken with Mukta Sharangpani, lecture notes taken during class....

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March 4-6 Cristina Rathbone, A World Apart: Women, Prison and Life Behind Bars -

Read 55 ish pages mon - fri

NOTES: ● Prologue about seeing little of prison she writes about ○ Denied access by Massachusetts Department of Correction ● Many states don’t allow media access to prisons, unable to conduct interviews ● Faced barriers in writing the book -- difficult to research prisons to begin with ● Girl Scouts Beyond Bars program ○ To maintain relationships between incarcerated mothers and daughters ○ Proven to help child ■ Also to reduce risk of mother returning to prison after release ● “There is horror in prison for sure, but there is also humor and vigor and downright bloody-mindedness -- just as there is every place human beings gather.” (location 89) ● Fluffy characterization ○ 70 y/o woman, teased blond hair, too much makeup ○ Sad, but not threatening ○ Spends time watching soap operas & going to Han Lan’s restaurant ○ Sent away on 3-year mandatory for drugs ● Denise Russell characterization ○ 32 y/o, long dark hair, high cheekbones ○ Good body from exercise, never been to prison before ● 90 square ft cells -- built for one, use as doubles (3) ● MCI-Framingham ○ Dark, noisy, crowded housing units ● “Despite all this, Framingham seemed more like a high school than a prison.” (4) ○ Guards wearing quasi-military uniforms, calf-length black leather boots ● “But the overwhelming majority were mothers, as well, their walls decorated not, as she’d imagined, with images of muscle-bound men but with photos of their kids and sheets of construction paper scrawled over with crayon -- valentines and birthday and Christmas cards saved year after year.” (5) ○ Contradicts narrator & reader’s ideas about prison ● “But even the handful in for murder looked more defeated than frightening. Most were long-term victims of domestic abuse who had killed their spouses, and though one or two of them did have an unnerving deadness to their eyes, they pretty much kept to themselves.” (5) ○ Lifers in for murder made a clique -- top of social hierarchy ● Charlene Williams ○ Popular black woman ○ Mother serving 15 years for first nonviolent drug offense ● Marsha Pigett ○ Redhead, victim of domestic abuse

○ Also in for drugs ● “Movement” ○ Only times in the day inmates are allowed to walk around different areas of the prison ● Denise believed she didn’t belong there ● Framingham concerned more about intimacy than violence ○ Often switch jobs, move roommates ● Sonia ○ Old woman for drugs -- new roommate of Denise ○ 2 weeks after being admitted to prison, 9 y/o son (Pat) threatened to kill himself ■ Pat’s father (Alan) history of violence, manic depression ● “Over 60 percent of the women at Framingham were on some kind of psychotropic drug to help with this process.” (9) ● “Across the nation more than nine out of ten incarcerated women are drug addicts, and a full half are actually drunk or high at the time of their arrest.” (9) ○ Framingham addicts divided into crackheads and smackheads ● How could all the accumulated weight of adult life, the rent and the food-on-thetable, the work, the men -- fending them off while keeping them keen…” (10) ○ Fending off men while keeping them keen ● Pat had been abused by his father at age 3 ○ Tried to press charges, police persuaded her not to -- said Pat would be taken away from her ○ Abuse on Pat was hard on Denise -- maybe her depressed / suicidal ● 3 months into Framingham, Pat ran out of insurance, goes to Hawaii to live with dad ● Very descriptive writing about self harm with razor blades (14) ● Canteen = prison store ○ Denise learning how to prepare nutritional meals to avoid eating at dining hall ■ Dining hall meals meant to kill the prisoners ● Wendy caught smuggling in floss through mail, gets sent to the Hole ● “If they didn’t, the pain drove them crazy, and every year one or two tried to kill themselves as a result, by hanging themselves with stripes of twisted sheet in their rooms.” (17) ● Christmas in prison especially painful ○ Half torn decorations ○ Party for kids in November ○ Guards more awful than usual ● Volunteers bring presents: hand lotion, soap, & toothbrush !!! ● $1.80 a week is half a weekly wage in prison (15) Witches: ● MCI Framingham description: ○ Stood for 128 years ○ Red brick walls

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○ Neatly cropped grass ○ Oldest running women’s prison in America (20) Eleanor Roosevelt was frequent visitor & supporter of Framingham Job trainings & entry-level college classes are unavailable at Framingham Women are mainly incarcerated for nonviolent, drug-related offenses (22) ○ Frequently accessories to their crimes (gf, wife, etc) ○ Almost all have serious drug problems themselves, half are victims of domestic abuse ○ Number of women in prison is increasing at faster rate than men in prison Hannah Sullivan was first inmate at Framingham -- imprisoned for being homeless, Nov 7, 1877 ○ Other women in first year were imprisoned for… “being stubborn,” prostitution, shoplifting, “committing” an abortion (24) First year at Framingham, 3 violent criminals, 243 behavioral ones (25)

Mirrors: ● For women, going to prison is a disgrace ○ For men, it is a rite of passage in many communities (29) ● Susan Grissin ○ First visitor in over 3 years ○ Most of her life as homeless crack addict (30) ○ Perpetually thin, toothless grin, most comfortable at Framingham ● “Nonetheless, the rate at which women of color are incarcerated is almost triple that of women of European decent.” (31) ● Susan was 12 y/o when mother left her on street in Boston, abusive mother ○ In and out of Framingham 12 times (theft, criminal trespassing, drugs) ○ Diagnosed as bipolar as a teenager, also depression ● 60% of female inmates who have open mental-health cases Sex: ● Sex between guards and inmates -- 3-11 pm shift (44) ● “...experts began to conclude that sexual relations between staff and inmates were inherently abusive and could never been truly consensual, even if initiated by inmates.” (54) ○ Power imbalance ● Female inmates put in the Hole, officer retires/transferred from Framingham ○ Difficult for inmates to come forward about sexual assault -- often receive backlash or punishment Part 2 -- Losses: ● “...violent armed robbers and men convicted of aggravated rape were having their time reduced by as much as 25 percent while sentences for nonviolent drug sales almost doubled.” (1995, 101) ○ War on drugs is becoming worse, why are we punishing drug offenses more than violent crimes ???

Jail Babes: ● Website dating service that specializes in selling names & addresses of female prisoners (113) ● ~ pages 130 talks about women leaders of Framingham ● Denise moved to MCI-Lancaster min security prison ○ Family visitation trailer for overnight visits w children under the age of 13 ● “Most of its residents were on prerelease status, which means they went out to work every day -- the women in a nearby Burger King mostly, the men in a hightech factory that paid almost twice as much.” (138) ○ This quote makes me angry and is surprising ■ I feel like people who have committed felonies often have very hard time finding work afterwards -- I would also assume that it’s harder for men b/c often more violent crimes but I guess not ? ● Pat holding knife against his neck (154) ● Carmen & Henry Charles visiting (155) ○ Older man, 60 y/o, black from Kansas ○ Gives money to her account to support her while in prison ● Jobs in flag factory pay ~$20/week ($10 cash, $10 to savings) ○ cleaners/kitchen staff makes $5 split 50/50 into savings also ● Louise: chef, artist ○ Embraced her decisions, good or bad (161) ○ “The depth of female sadness never ends, I thought.” (163) ● “Corrections is a huge business these days.” (164) ○ Over 2 mil people behind bars ■ Market is “bigger than major-league baseball” ■ Prison business booming cause for celebration ● County jails provide calorie intake of 2,800-3,000 per day ○ State prisons provide calorie intake of 3,000-3,600 per day ■ Country jails serve less time than state prisons (167) ● Tanya Dermott ○ 5’2”, charmer, straight teeth, mentally ill ■ Sociopath & paranoid schizophrenic ○ Assault led to 7 year sentence at Framingham ● Suicide in prison discussed page 171 ~ ○ Prison populations more prone to suicide than most ● ⅓ of women in prison in Massachusetts are “seriously mentally ill” (172) ○ More than 60% of Framingham women on psychotropic drugs ● Isolation cell in Health Services Unit ○ Where depressed / suicidal inmates are sent ○ No nurses station / infirmary ○ No beds or mattresses ○ Linoleum floor & toilet bowl without seat ○ Small, wire-mesh window on the doors to check (175) ● Inmates in Georgia stripped naked & hog-tied for being suicidal (182) Part 3 -- Escapes:

● Julie falls in love w Muscle officer at Lancaster (195) ○ Peter was serving time for armed robbery just like she was ● Male inmates treated differently than female inmates ○ Men come and go to dining hall as they please ○ Women forced to walk together in groups escorted by an officer, often catcalled by men (196) ● Love notes help initiate relationships at Lancaster, usually passed through mediators / three-way mail ○ Shows intimacy and emotional investment in relationship ● Pat settled in foster care -- Denise is ok? But Pat still having difficult time ○ Threatened to kill himself again ● “No one was quite sure why prisoners serving mandatory drug time were not allowed to participate in these work-release programs, or why it made sense to have murderers and armed robbers, but not drug dealers, dole out burgers at Burger King.” (202) ● “Keeping the peek” -- watching the door so male & female inmates can meet up and have alone time in the room ● Denise starting a relationship with Chuck from maintenance crew (206) ● Girl Scouts Beyond Bars Program trip to circus (9 girls in program, moms in jail) ● Wilson Cottage -- ¼ mile away from Framingham main facility ○ 25-30 mothers lived their w their children ○ Also 10 officers & volunteer child-care interns ● Miriam Van Waters -- woman who took over Framingham & transformed it w new ideas, classes, activities (232) ○ Wanted to get women at Framingham in touch with their “own valuable humanity” ○ Ran for 25 years of service before retired in 1957 ● “Indeterminate” sentences -- based on the idea that there was no telling just how long it would take to reform a female convict (reserved exclusively for women) (237) ● “97% of the 120 indentured women between 1932 and 1935 had remained selfsupporting upon release from Framingham.” (239) ● Moms will be home to teach their daughters how to use tampons (271) Epilogue: ● Michael Malone -- Massachusetts commissioner of corrections ● More than 2.1 mil people behind bars in the US (271) ○ Costs $38,000 per year per person Sources for Presentation: https://www.mass.gov/locations/mci-framingham https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Correctional_Institution_ %E2%80%93_Framingham https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_commissary

https://abolishprisons.org/2015/04/26/what-solitary-confinement-can-tell-us-aboutprison/...