Corrections_Today_July_August_2019_Vol.84_No.4

Bookshelf

prison and how they prepare for the possibility of parole. In the newly-released book “Women Lifers: Lives Before, Behind, and Beyond Bars,” Middle Tennessee State University professors of sociology Meredith Huey Dye and Ronald H. Aday sought to understand female lifers through surveys conducted in three Georgia correctional facilities, the first in 2010, and then a follow-up eight years later. They spoke with over 200 women in the course of this survey, with the follow-up focusing on women who had served more than 15 years of their sentence. The women were asked, through a written survey, about their lives and conditions in their correctional facility, family history and support, and were offered additional surveys if the women indicated a history of abuse. This allowed the authors to get an idea of the state of the female lifer population in Georgia and to have a better understanding of what led these women to make choices that resulted in a lengthy prison sentence. The book examines the past lives of these incarcerated women and how it led to their current situation. The initial chapters detail how these women ended up in prison with life sentences, starting with the lifestyles and home situations they were raised in. These details matter, especially considering their economic and

educational backgrounds, as well as their familial histories. The third chapter details the various types of abuse that women can undergo, which can then result in actions that lead to a life sentence, with numerous heartbreaking testimonies from women who suffered child, physical, mental and emotional abuse throughout their lives. These findings support the comparative differences between life sentences for men and women, ensuring that the comparisons add a better understanding of various matters in the pre-prison life and sentencing. The book examines the past lives of these incarcerated women, and how it led to their current situation. The book further details the lives of these women in prison as the authors describe the various programs that are offered to lifers, the difficulties adjusting to prison life and culture, the struggles to maintain relationships outside the walls of the prison, and the physical, mental and emotional difficulties they face over the years. The book dedicates its concluding chapters to Georgia’s parole system and how these

Women Lifers: Lives Before, Behind, and Beyond Bars Written by Meredith Huey Dye and Ronald H. Aday, Rowman & Littlefield (2019), 274 pp. Reviewed by Alexander Carrigan, assistant editor, American Correctional Association, and freelance book critic. According to a 2016 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of women incarcerated in state and federal prisons has increased more than 700% since the 1980s, with women making up roughly 7% of the United States’ prison population. The number of women serving life sentences has also notably increased, with over 6,700 women serving life, life without parole or virtual life (50+ year sentences). Because of this notable growth in the female lifer population, it is becoming more important that this population be examined to better understand various facets of this group and how these women come to receive such sentences, how they survive in

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