What Americans think of policing, crime and prisons strongly reflects what they have seen on television, and when Orange is the New Black began on Netflix in 2013, suddenly the incarceration of women became culturally visible, and the tremendous variety hidden in the single word "women" was exposed. This volume of essays brilliantly captures both the potential unleashed in that dramatic moment and reveals the distortions that existed in our media-based knowledge. The editors have shaped an engaging examination of how women's prisons have become something we viewers believe we now know something about, and so have created a fabulous tool for discussions on social dynamics depicted on screen that can connect to and enliven social analysis about the sweeping effects of mass incarceration on women, men and children today.
Myra Marx Ferree, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Historically, incarcerated women have been an invisible population, and the important and timely work presented in Caged Women: Incarceration, Representation, & Media brings them into the spotlight. From pregnancy and mothering behind bars to more overlooked topics such as racial inequality and transgender prisoners, the chapters in this book offer comprehensive insight into a host of critical issues that combine to bridge the gap between the fictionalized imagery presented in Orange is the New Black and other popular media forms and the real lives of women in prison.
Dawn K. Cecil, Ph.D, University of South Florida St. Petersburg