Johnson Paula C. - Inner Lives

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INNER LIVES

PAULA C. JOHNSON

Voices of African American Women in Prison

With a Foreword by Joyce A. Logan
and an Afterword by Angela J. Davis

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London

2003 by New York University
All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Johnson, Paula C.
Inner lives : voices of African American women in prison
Paula C. Johnson ; with a foreword by Joyce A. Logan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8147-4254-8 (cloth : alk paper)
ISBN 0-8147-4255-6 (pbk : alk paper)
1. Women prisonersUnited StatesBiography.
2. Women prisonersUnited StatesInterviews.
3. African American prisonersUnited StatesBiography.
4. African American prisonersUnited StatesInterviews.
5. Discrimination in criminal justice administration
United States. I. Title.
HV9468 .J65 2002
365.4308996073dc21 2002014118

New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Joyce A. Logan

WHEN I WAS ASKED to write the foreword to Inner Lives: Voices of African American Women in Prison, I was humbled and overwhelmed by the request. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that I would meet and have an opportunity to work with and assist a law professor in such an endeavor as a book about African American women in prison. Although I was a writ writer in prison, even obtaining a reversal of a conviction for a fellow inmate, as I began writing this introduction I worried that my words would not be adequate for such a distinguished publication. Part of my resolve since my release, however, has been to try to live up to the expectations and encouragement of newfound friends and acquaintances. Professor Paula Johnson has motivated me to reach even higher.

All of us who are featured in the pages of this book have had our lives transformed because of our incarceration, our removal from society. We were taken from our families, friends, and communities and placed in environments that were strained and artificial. But, as the stories contained in Inner Lives: Voices of African American Women in Prison illustrate, we remain your daughters, sisters, mothers, aunts, and nieces. We have been separated, but we are not gone. We may be distant, but we are a part of you. We may be absent, but we are very much present.

This book poignantly conveys this message from African American female prisoners and former prisoners. Being locked up does not eliminate our need to believe that we have something to offer and contribute to others. It does not end our need to be productive. It does not destroy our need to feel connected to something good and positive.

When I was a young person growing up in Dallas, Texas, education was not emphasized. Though my parents punished me for skipping school, I somehow did not grasp just how critical education was to a persons success in life. I have since learned that education does not occur just in formal classrooms. Self-education for me began in the county jail as I refused to accept what I viewed as an unjust sentence. To save myself, I sought out the law library, reading cases and learning how to do research, looking for a way to get my sentence reduced. Even though I was never able to accomplish this goal, fighting, reading, and helping others in their legal struggles kept me alive in prison. Being able to help people gave me a sense of self-worth that I had never felt in the free world.

The stories shared in this book will educate people in all walks of life who have never been personally touched by someone who has been incarcerated. Our voices speak loudly of our upbringing, families, crimes, and imprisonment. But most resounding are our words of hope and anticipation, the excitement of a brighter future.

While my transition to freedom has been challenging, it has proven to be a most rewarding and satisfying part of my life. The strength and courage that we as African American women maintain in prison allow us to tackle the new situations and technologies that we encounter upon our return home. The endurance and patience that African American women must learn in prison carries us through our anxiety and our fears of readapting to society. The lessons that we learn, and hopefully will teach upon our return to society, are ones of faith, determination, and humanity. We are the history, the present, and the future. That is the message that I see in this bookone I hope you will embrace.

I HAVE BEEN intimately involved in the criminal justice system on the grassroots and professional level for twenty years. As a former prosecutor, I worked closely with women and children who had been physically and sexually abused. In battered womens and emergency shelters, I worked closely with women who were beaten, homeless, jobless, hungry, and alone. They sought safety and refuge for their children and for themselves, and relief from the strife in their lives. For survival, they sometimes became perpetrators of crimes.

Despite my years of involvement on criminal justice issues related to womens lives, the intensity of my meetings with African American women in prison was repeatedly humbling. Ultimately, what impressed me about the women I interviewed for Inner Lives was their refusal to remain permanently in despair. The women with whom I spoke were more honest than many people in the free world about their personal flaws, naivet, wrongdoing, and responsibility for harms they caused or contributed to. Even when I was despairing about the magnitude of the difficulties and disadvantages that the women experienced, I was buoyed by their refusal to concede their humanity under such dispiriting odds and conditions. I recognized, however, that the womens perseverance often came at a high price for themselves, their children, other family members, friends, victims, and others affected by their actions.

My desire to communicate my belief in the value of Black womens lives impelled me to begin this project. At times, I identified with Deborah Gray White, who sometimes found the work on her historical Throughout it all I also have learned something more about perseverance. I share with the women who participated in Inner Lives a vision of U.S. society that is more dedicated to prevention and wellness than to retribution. Their visions impelled me to complete this work. Foremost, then, I thank all the women who participated in this book project and who constantly reminded me of its importance.

IN ADDITION TO all of those who participated in Inner Lives, including those whose narratives are featured in the book and those whose experiences are reflected in the data summaries, I thank many others who helped to make this book a reality. I thank the numerous administrators and staff members at Departments of Correction and womens correctional institutions in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio for granting permission to interview participants in facilities in these states. With apologies to those whom I may forget to mention, I especially thank Heather Ziemba, Connecticut; Linda Guidroz, Sheidra Traveler, and Helen Travers, Louisiana; Christine Bodo, Loy Hayes, and Jerry Alexander, Nevada; Charlotte Blackwell, New Jersey; Elaine Lord, Theresa McNair, and Delores Thornton, New York; and Norman Rose, Maralene Sines, Joe Andrews, and Valerie Aden, Ohio, for their pivotal assistance in making this project possible.