Black Women and the Carceral State Tell Them We Are Not Monsters

This volume provides an introduction to the diverse experiences Black women face in the criminal legal system. Authors from across the United States provide critical insights into the current landscape at the intersection of history, higher education, and criminal justice. The voices of Black women are elevated and amplified directly, rather than being indirectly filtered through the lens and voice of broader white society. The contributors are historians, policymakers, educators, researchers, and lawyers, often shouldering the weight of grassroots work to mobilize communities against the injustices of the U.S. criminal legal system. Each author not only shines a light on the important intersectionality of the aforementioned disciplines but also provides solutions for consideration. Moreover, this book will provide junior scholars not only with the foundations for innovative methodological approaches for future research but also with the confidence that their voices are important, valid, valued, and necessary. This book is essential reading for students in corrections and criminal justice courses as well as academics, prison education practitioners (read: ABE/GED, vocational, higher education), researchers, policymakers, activists, and anyone else working to provide opportunities and pathways for all stakeholders. It will also appeal to the growing number of black women scholars embedded in this work at the ground level, who may not have seen themselves represented as voices of authority in the field and its literature. To my sisters reading this, you are more than enough.