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Abstract

This article examines how incarcerated and formerly incarcerated advocates in California women’s prisons diagnose and resist structural, gendered carceral violence. Grounded in an abolition-feminist and intersectional framework, the study treats inside-authored writing and interviews as theory-bearing, not illustrative. Using a sequential mixed-methods design, it analyzes a longitudinal archive of The Fire Inside (1996–2022)—the California Coalition for Women Prisoners’ inside–outside newsletter—focusing on a purposive subset of 22 inside-authored statements and draws on semi-structured interviews (n = 6; 2021–2022) with formerly incarcerated CCWP members. A unified codebook guided content analysis and triangulation across sources. Findings cohere around six themes: (a) gendered governance and credibility regimes, (b) policing of gender and sexuality, (c) inside theory and epistemic authority, (d) pedagogies of care and mutual aid, (e) tactical reforms as harm-reduction, and (f) abolitionist horizon and power shift. Together, these themes show how inside knowledge renders carceral governance legible; how peer education, legal literacy, and mutual aid function as counter-carceral infrastructures; and how grievances, appeals, and commutation pathways are used strategically to reduce harm now without being mistaken for transformation. The study argues that abolition-feminist praxis requires centering inside epistemic authority and reallocating power and resources away from punishment toward community-based safety, care, and accountability. In doing so, it contributes an empirically grounded account of how collective, inside-led resistance both names the structure of harm and builds the conditions for life beyond the carceral state.

Keywords

abolition feminism intersectionality women’s prisons inside knowledge carceral governance resistance

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“In the Belly of the Beast:” Feminist Lessons in the Politics and Practice of Abolition Feminism,Resistance,and Freedom

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