Abstract
In Women Doing Life, Lora Bex Lempert weaves together female crime statistics, feminist criminology, and powerful stories that she gathered from women who are imprisoned for life to provide an in-depth glimpse of the survival tactics and identity the formation of incarcerated women. Lempert uses superior methodology that includes focus group analysis, life-course interviews, and 2-week solicited diaries of 72 lifers in a facility in the State of Michigan. She aims to identify how these women navigate their identity within the harsh confines of imprisonment, sets the tone for the social context of separation of “us versus them,” and examines the women’s ideas for change at both the institutional and systemic level. Although Lempert takes special care to neutrally present the women’s stories and provide discussion about the women’s victims, the reader gets the sense that her book is an immense labor of love that may serve as the pinnacle of her life’s work.
One of Women Doing Life’s most significant contributions is Lempert’s six-stage typology of self-actualization and identity formation. These six stages include becoming a prisoner, navigating the mix, acting at a choice point, establishing a counternarrative, developing an internal compass, and rebuilding social bonds. Throughout her detailed explanations of these stages, Lempert focuses on the corrosive aspects of prison, in other words, the structural and continuing damage inflicted on human development by the system of corrections. She walks the reader through the personal identity breakdown that occurs from initial incarceration to the formation of a new prison identity, the individual strength, and agency that must be present for someone to withstand the prison environment and reveals tragic results that occur when one succumbs to the corrosion. The stories of trauma, rebuilding, and survival that are woven throughout her book make the reader wonder why life without parole exists when the capability for change and growth is evinced in the stories of women that if released could serve as powerful mentors and role models.
Included in the book is the undertone of the human rights violations that are occurring within the female correctional facilities, not limited to lifers being unable to participate in programs as they are “socially irrelevant,” the use of “the chair” as a humiliating search mechanism for women, and the lack of humanity demonstrated by correctional officers. Lempert brings statistics to life through her powerful storytelling capability, often to the point that the reader is left with bitter disgust and never-ending questions about the case studies she presents, including asking—what went wrong? When did it go wrong? And what can we do to fix it in the future?
Lempert’s last chapter is critical to the future of female corrections. Feminist criminologists and social workers have compiled evidence that gender-specific programming is a necessity. Research findings show the need for counseling, programming, support services, appropriate officer training, the importance of increasing the mother–child bond, and the significant consequences of mandatory sentencing and prosecutorial overcharging. In Chapter 10, Lempert provides suggestions from the women who participated in her study and extends their ideas by proffering important contributions such as creating a civilian review or oversight board for those sentenced to life without parole, allowing lifers to attend group counseling and programs and the options for 48 hour private visits with children. She concludes with a particularly troubling conversation on the “punishment that never ends” or what we know as felony disenfranchisement, the stigmatization of the “felon” label, and the ever-lasting impact of incarceration on both those that are incarcerated and their families.
Women Doing Life is an extraordinary book. It provides quantitative and qualitative material for practicing social workers, sociologists, and criminologists, or students who aspire to work in the field to better understand just how great the impact of incarceration is on women. It offers stories of despair, devastation, and the rebuilding of identity as a testament to the strengths of the women that are incarcerated. Ultimately, it leaves the reader with feelings of concern, sensations of sadness, and a recognition that hope blossoms in the darkness of despair.