Women in prison face challenges

by Rob Hebert, 1L
Law Weekly
March 17, 2009

On Wednesday, March 4, members of Georgetown Law’s student body presented Any One of Us: Words from Women in Prison, an ensemble performance piece about the detrimental effects of American law enforcement policy on the lives of women incarcerated for non-violent crimes.

The event was sponsored by Law Students for Reproductive Justice, the Progressive Alliance for Life, the American Constitution Society, Georgetown Human Rights Action, the Georgetown Journal of Gender & the Law, and the American Criminal Law Review. The program, commissioned by Eve Ensler, writer of the Vagina Monologues, features stories written by 50 female prisoners from Michigan, Florida, New York, and San Francisco. Their words offer a poignant illustration of the havoc wreaked by addiction and abuse.

Angela Harris began the performance with “You Cannot Live My Life,” a song about personal responsibility and the effects poor choices have on happiness.

This was followed by “The Early Years,” a series of overlapping and interconnecting stories from four women, performed by Monica Ashar, Kala Sherman-Presser, Jacqueline Smith, and Sarah Studley.

One story concerned a 17-year-old girl who was sentenced to 25-50 years in federal prison for aiding and abetting a murder after she drove a car in a marijuana deal that went bad. In prison, she was raped by a male guard three times her age.

Another typical story told of a girl who was raped in prison at thirteen, but never reported the incident because she feared retribution and ridicule. The stories all touched upon similar themes of sexual and physical abuse, shame, dependence, and neglect.

Some songs took a slightly different tack. “Bad Men,” performed by Erin Aycock, Summer Carlisle, and Nicole Eisenman, was a challenge directed at men who might become like these women’s abusers. The performers dared young men to “become men of substance” and “rise above their circumstances.”

“If I Wasn’t In Prison, Where Would I Be?” was a reflection on the ways in which the women’s choices and circumstances had relegated them to a life behind bars.

The audience did not leave with the impression, however, that incarceration was a pitfall for the poor and neglected alone. “Any One of Us,” performed by Katy Dyer, was a monologue about the exposure all women have to such life-altering developments.

After the performance, Professor Abbe Smith moderated a panel discussion on issues facing incarcerated women with Professor Jane Aiken, Amy Fettig of the ACLU National Prison Project, and Lorna Hogan, Associate Director of the Rebecca Project’s Sacred Authority Parent Advocacy Group.

Smith noted that women prisoners are feisty, irreverent, and funny, but their voices go unheard too often, even though they are the quickest-growing segment of the prison population. In many ways, the issues that face all prisoners hit women especially hard.

Women prisoners are more likely to be in jail for non-violent offenses, to suffer from sexual and physical violence, and to have untreated mental health or addiction issues. By some accounts, 10 percent of incarcerated women enter prison while pregnant.

“They are not given adequate medical care,” says Smith, “and they’re giving birth in shackles.” Women are more likely to be sexually assaulted while in prison as well. According to Smith, the system is set up so that prisoners cannot bring lawsuits against prison officials before exhausting administrative procedures. In effect, these women are often forced to bring their complaints directly to their abusers to have their complaint heard. Most never do out of fear of reprisal.

Women are also more likely to suffer having their families split up, Smith says. Many women are acting as their family’s sole provider when they are sent to prison. Once released, they often find it impossible to reconnect with children that have been placed in foster care. Women who give birth in prison have their babies taken away immediately. According to Allen, “It’s a terrible system that’s almost calculated to harm mothers in prison.”

Fettig is quick to note that there is hope. “Tough on crime doesn’t get the mileage it once did,” she says. “There’s an opportunity for dialogue there.” Programs like Any One of Us, she says, place the focus on the children and to break the cycle of addiction and incarceration that destroys generations. “We should be offering these women support, not punishment.”

Any One of Us, will be performed again on April 18, sponsored by D.C. non-profit Our Place, which helps women deal with life after prison by providing support in finding housing, employment, and counseling. For more information, visit http://www.ourplacedc.org/.