Luana Ross

On the whole I found the title fairly misleading. We do get a bit of history at the beginning, and a particularly good case study at the end, but the central focus of the book seems to be on the hardships faced by women living in prisons. There is a particular focus on issues regarding mothering, rehabilitation, abuse, and discrimination against American Indian women. These topics are well-covered, and intriguing. However, much less attention is paid to how women actually wound up in the prisons, or how the concept of "the savage" was invented.… (meer)