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

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.