Arts & Education
Girls on the Wall
In Heather Ross’ 2009 film, a group of incarcerated teenage girls get a shot at redemption in a most unlikely form: a musical based on their lives. As they write and stage their play, the girls must re-live their crimes, reclaim their humanity, and take a first step toward breaking free of the prison system.
Marking Time
Incarceration not only separates the imprisoned from their families and communities, it also exposes them to shocking levels of deprivation and subjects them to the arbitrary cruelties of the criminal justice system. In this examination of “carceral aesthetics”—art-making under penal captivity—Nicole Fleetwood finds that American prisons are filled with artists using their creative expression to forge community, communicate with the public, and connect with loved ones. Despite the isolation and degradation they experience, the incarcerated are driven to assert their humanity in the face of a system that dehumanizes them.
Razor Wire Women
Women make up the fastest-growing group within the U.S. prison population, yet prison scholarship largely overlooks the struggles of incarcerated women, and their voices are often silenced both in and out of the prison infrastructure. Offering nuanced portraits of incarcerated women’s lives, this collection of essays and art by Jodie Michelle Lawston illuminates the experiences and concerns of these women, including abuse and rape; the policing of women; incarcerated motherhood; mental health issues in prisons; incarcerated women’s artistic and cultural production; and prisons’ impact on families, health, and sexuality.