Can’t Catch a Break: Gender, Jail, Drugs, and the Limits of Personal Responsibility

231 Pages·2014·1.38 MB·English

by  Susan Starr Sered and Maureen Norton-Hawk

CAN’T CATCH A
BREAK
gender, jail, drugs, and the limits
of personal responsibility
Susan Starr Sered and
Maureen Norton-Hawk
university of california press
CAN’T CATCH A BREAK
CAN’T CATCH A
BREAK
gender, jail, drugs, and the limits
of personal responsibility
Susan Starr Sered and
Maureen Norton-Hawk
university of california press
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished
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University of California Press
Oakland, California
Parts of chapter 5 have appeared in “Suff ering in an Age of
Personal Responsibility,” Contexts 13 (2014):38–43. Parts of
chapter 6 have appeared in “Criminalized Women and Twelve
Step Programs: Addressing Violations of the Law with a
Spiritual Cure,” in Implicit Religion 15, no. 1 (2012): 37–60; and
“Whose Higher Power: Criminalized Women Confront the
Twelve Steps,” in Feminist Criminology 6, no. 4 (2011): 308–
322. Parts of chapter 7 have appeared in “Mothering in the
Shadow of the United States Correctional System,” in Mother-
ing: Anthropological Perspectives, ed. Michelle Walks and
Naomi McPherson (Toronto, Ontario: Demeter Press, 2011),
293–306.
© 2014 by T e Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sered, Susan Starr, author.
Can’t catch a break : gender, jail, drugs, and the limits of
personal responsibility / Susan Starr Sered and Maureen
Norton-Hawk.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-520-28278-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-520-28279-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-520-95870-8 (e-book)
1. Abused women—Massachusetts—Boston—Social
conditions. 2. Female off enders—Massachusetts—
Boston—Social conditions. 3. Women drug addicts—
Massachusetts—Boston—Social conditions.
4. Responsibility—Social aspects—Massachusetts—
Boston. I. Norton-Hawk, Maureen, author. II. Title.
hq1439.b7s47 2014
3628.83′70974461—dc23 2014011744
Manufactured in the United States of America
23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally
responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has
printed this book on Natures Natural, a fi ber that contains
30 post-consumer waste and meets the minimum require-
ments of ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of
Paper).
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations vii
List of Tables ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1. “Joey Spit on Me”: How Gender Inequality and Sexual
Violence Make Women Sick 21
2. “Nowhere to Go”: Poverty, Homelessness, and the Limits
of Personal Responsibility 39
3. “T e Little Rock of the North”: Race, Gender, Class, and the
Consequences of Mass Incarceration 57
4. Suff er the Women: Pain and Perfection in a
Medicalized World 71
5. “It’s All in My Head”: Suff ering, PTSD, and the Triumph
of the T erapeutic 90
6. Higher Powers: T e Unholy Alliance of Religion, Self-Help
Ideology, and the State 107
7. “Suff er the Children”: Fostering the Caste of the Ill
and Affl icted 126
8. Gender, Drugs, and Jail: “A System Designed for Us to Fail” 141
Conclusion: T e Real Questions and a Blueprint for
Moving Forward 157
vi . contents
Appendix: Methodology and Project Participant Overview 167
Notes 173
References 181
Index 203
I LLUSTRATIONS
1. Female imprisonment rates, United States and selected
states, 2011–2012 / 17
2. Male imprisonment rates, United States and selected states,
2011–2012 / 17
vii
T ABLES
1. Percentage of adults (18 years and older) who reported using illicit
substances, 2012 / 76
2. Comparative demographic characteristics of project volunteers versus
women incarcerated in Massachusetts as of January 1, 2008 / 170
ix