The project
 
   
 
The Project

As a key component of this project, investigative journalist Silja J.A. Talvi seeks to engage a variety of audiences in a critical examination of why American girls and women are being locked up at such dramatic rates. Underlying this dialogue is her new book, Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System (Seal Press, an imprint of Perseus, 2007.) An exhaustive work of investigative journalism, Women Behind Bars takes a hard look at the reasons underlying an 838% increase in women’s imprisonment since 1980. Through interviews with hundreds of current and former prisoners and correctional employees, Women Behind Bars breaks down the immediate and long-term consequences of large-scale female incarceration, and compares our system to that of the three countries Talvi visited for comparative study: England, Finland, and Canada.

Inside American female detention centers, jails and prisons, Talvi found self-contained worlds that few outsiders ever see or think about. Whatever a female inmate’s experience, some incarcerated women are finally able to tap into a surprising amount of strength and resilience. On the whole, however, that resilience is framed against overwhelming odds—and a system that understands little, if anything, about the complexity female experiences before these individuals arrive at the institutions that deprive them of many of their legal constitutional liberties.

Through the Women Behind Bars Project, Talvi seeks to engage a variety of communities in an examination of whether we should view the mass incarceration of females as some sort of accomplishment in the equalization of the sexes (and as an indicator of worsening female criminality), or as a terrible consequence of a rampant socioeconomic ills and what some feminist writers have termed “vengeful equity?”

Black-and-white on issues of crime and punishment get us nowhere, as Talvi argues, because remedies to both self-injurious ‘crime’ and damaging, anti-social behavior are complex and multifaceted. Yet there is no question that law enforcement, prosecutors and legislators alike have gone overboard in their pursuit of a misguided, costly, and ineffective War on Drugs—and on imprisonment as the predominant method of punishment for petty and serious; provoked and pre-meditated; abuse and non-abuse-related; as well as non-violent and violent crimes alike.

The Women Behind Bars project pairs Talvi with former inmates and social justice organizations throughout the nation. (Chicago, New Orleans, the San Francisco Bay Area, Tucson, Santa Fe, Olympia, Portland and Seattle are already among the visited and scheduled cities.) Readings, lectures, panels, radio interviews and print articles, as well as benefit events for community-based groups are intended to raise public attention to the many facets and consequences of large-scale female incarceration.

The Women Behind Bars Project is a sponsored project of the Center for Social Justice, a not-for-profit umbrella organization which supports and sustains socially progressive, community-based groups. All contributions to the Women Behind Bars Project/Center for Social Justice are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

 
 
 
  

 

EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES


* June 19-21- International Network of Street Paper's 13th Annual Conference 2008: "Speaking from the Ground Up: Street Papers Challenging Global Perspectives on Poverty."Glasgow, Scotland  

http://www.street-papers.org/15.htm This year's event will feature the first-ever 'International Street Paper Awards,' celebrating the fantastic work of INSP publications from around the world. Silja will be one of five international judges presenting awards, and will be teaching a workshop on investigative reporting. Reading and book signing in Glasgow, TBA.


*July 23-27 - FinnFest 2008   Duluth, Minnesota

http://www.finnfest2008.com/ Two presentations, including a lecture on Silja's experience visiting Finland's only 'closed' women's prison, and an overview of how European models of incarceration compare to those in the U.S. 


*November 12, 2008, 7:00-9:00 a.m. - Seattle, WA Family & Adult Service Center's Annual Breakfast & Fundraiser
 http://www.fasconline.org Silja will present the keynote speech on the close link between mental health issues, homelessness and incarceration, and our obligation to reduce attached stigma and overwhelming re-entry obstacles. To RSVP, contact abesunder@fasconline.org. Suggested donation: $100.00.


* December 5, 7-9 p.m.College of Santa Fe lecture series, "Rebels, Revolutionaries, and Reformers."Santa Fe, New Mexico

Why incarceration should be considered one of the leading civil rights issues of the present day: a presentation and reading from Women Behind Bars.

PAST EVENTS

April 2, 7:30 PM Elliot Bay Books. Paul Wright, Silja Talvi, reading from Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money from Mass Incarceration (New Press, 2008), and discussing criminal justice/prison issues.

http://www.elliottbaybook.com/events/apr08/wright.jsp

 

April 2-16: Silja Talvi discusses "Women Behind Bars" in Inkwell.vue (http://www.well.com/inkwell), an authors' interview forum hosted by The WELL (www.well.com), a 23-year-old Internet site lauded by Wired magazine as "the world's most influential online community."WELL members can participate directly in the conversation with Silja; non-members can join in by mailing their questions and comments to <inkwell@well.com> during Silja's two-week appearance.

 

Tucson, April 25-events & readings sponsered by American Friends Service Committee, local universities and bookstores. 12 pm reading at University of Arizona's Women's Resource Center. 7pm event at The Friends Meeting House

* May 24, 7-10 p.m. -Women in Prison Panel - Olympia, Washington

Silja will address current issues facing women in detention in Washington and nationwide, in addition to providing an international cross-comparison re: the treatment of pregnant women and mothers in prison, within the EU and Canada. Other speakers will be addressing immigration detention, pregnancy and parenting classes for women imprisoned at the Washington women's prison, and other issues. This event is being sponsored by the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace, and will be held at Traditions, 300 5th Ave SW at Water St.), in downtown Olympia. For more information, please contact: pattyimani@hotmail.com.


* May 29- June 1Philadelphia, PA - 1st Annual STOPMAX Conference

http://www.afsc.org/stopmax/Conference2008.htm   The realities and dangers of supermaximum confinement in American prisons. The STOPMAX Campaign is coordinated by the National Healing Justice Program of American Friends Service Committee.  Silja will be signing copies of her book.  For more information contact Naima Black at NBlack@afsc.org.