At the end of 2019 in the United States, women comprised the fastest growing population within the criminal justice system. Despite this fact, their journey through this system has not received extensive attention; it is only beginning to be documented. As a result, the impact of women's incarceration and reentry—both on their own lives and in the lives of their children and their families—is neither well understood nor effectively confronted.
Sociologist Jorja Leap argues that all aspects of these women's journey must be illuminated to fully grasp the issues. Leap explores first the traumas girls and women suffer, then the particular challenges faced by women in the criminal justice system, in incarceration, and throughout the reentry...