Making It in the Free World: Women in Transition from Prison (Suny Series, Women, Crime & Criminology)
This research study by O'Brien (social work, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago) is based on interviews with 18 women formerly incarcerated for transgressions involving substance abuse or property. She shows how their prison and parole experiences affected their reentry into the "free world" as they sought to establish homes, experience healthy relationships with family and others, and live productive lives. The author found that each woman's degree of stability was strongly related to the availability and quality of education, counseling, and vocational training during her confinement as well as the nature of supervision and assistance from parole officers and others following their release. Among other topics, she ties together a review of related literature, a description of her research strategy, and a serious questioning of the value to society (as well as to the individual) of the current "get tough" incarceration solution to nonviolent "criminal" activity of both sexes. Recommended for academic and professional attention. Suzanne W. Wood, SUNY Coll. of Technology at AlfredCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.