SUSAN F. SHARP is the David Ross Boyd Professor of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma. Co-Chair of the Oklahoma Legislative Task Force on Children of Incarcerated Parents, she has written over thirty articles, as well as the book Hidden Victims: Effects of the Death Penalty on Families of the Accused (Rutgers University Press, 2005).

"Sharp is a leading expert on women in prison and she continues her record of outstanding scholarship with this work. Mean Lives, Mean Laws will make a much needed contribution to policy studies of criminology and criminal justice."  - Barbara Owen (author of In the Mix: Struggle and Survival in a Women's Prison) "No one is better poised to write a scholarly book on incarcerated women and no state is more appropriate to study than Oklahoma. Mean Lives, Mean Laws is historically, theoretically, and methodologically remarkable. But even more importantly, the self-reported rates and words of real incarcerated women about their harsh lives before, in, after, and sometimes upon re-entry to prison are powerful testimonies to how the U.S. system is fundamentally flawed in responding to women and girls as victims and offenders." - Joanne Belknap (author of The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime, and Justice) "Sharp truly cares about incarcerated women and has devoted her life to convincing state bureaucrats to reform the ways they are treated in Oklahoma, possibly the most conservative state in the union and definitely the one with the highest rate of female incarceration." (Women's Review of Books)

• ContentsList of IllustrationsPreface Introduction 1 Mean Lives: A Theoretical Framework 2 Mean Laws: The Rise in Female Imprisonment 3 Mean Women or Mean Lives? Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adult Abuse of Women Prisoners 4 The Prison Experience 5 Going Back Again by Juanita Ortiz6 Coming Home and Staying Out 7 The Children and Their Caregivers 8 Winds of Change 9 Lessons Learned and Moving Forward Appendix A Research Methods Appendix B Oklahoma Children of Incarcerated Parents Notes References Index

SUSAN F. SHARP is the David Ross Boyd Professor of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma. Co-Chair of the Oklahoma Legislative Task Force on Children of Incarcerated Parents, she has written over thirty articles, as well as the book Hidden Victims: Effects of the Death Penalty on Families of the Accused (Rutgers University Press, 2005).

"Sharp is a leading expert on women in prison and she continues her record of outstanding scholarship with this work. Mean Lives, Mean Laws will make a much needed contribution to policy studies of criminology and criminal justice."  - Barbara Owen (author of In the Mix: Struggle and Survival in a Women's Prison) "No one is better poised to write a scholarly book on incarcerated women and no state is more appropriate to study than Oklahoma. Mean Lives, Mean Laws is historically, theoretically, and methodologically remarkable. But even more importantly, the self-reported rates and words of real incarcerated women about their harsh lives before, in, after, and sometimes upon re-entry to prison are powerful testimonies to how the U.S. system is fundamentally flawed in responding to women and girls as victims and offenders." - Joanne Belknap (author of The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime, and Justice) "Sharp truly cares about incarcerated women and has devoted her life to convincing state bureaucrats to reform the ways they are treated in Oklahoma, possibly the most conservative state in the union and definitely the one with the highest rate of female incarceration." (Women's Review of Books)

• ContentsList of IllustrationsPreface Introduction 1 Mean Lives: A Theoretical Framework 2 Mean Laws: The Rise in Female Imprisonment 3 Mean Women or Mean Lives? Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adult Abuse of Women Prisoners 4 The Prison Experience 5 Going Back Again by Juanita Ortiz6 Coming Home and Staying Out 7 The Children and Their Caregivers 8 Winds of Change 9 Lessons Learned and Moving Forward Appendix A Research Methods Appendix B Oklahoma Children of Incarcerated Parents Notes References Index

SUSAN F. SHARP is the David Ross Boyd Professor of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma. Co-Chair of the Oklahoma Legislative Task Force on Children of Incarcerated Parents, she has written over thirty articles, as well as the book Hidden Victims: Effects of the Death Penalty on Families of the Accused (Rutgers University Press, 2005).

"Sharp is a leading expert on women in prison and she continues her record of outstanding scholarship with this work. Mean Lives, Mean Laws will make a much needed contribution to policy studies of criminology and criminal justice."  - Barbara Owen (author of In the Mix: Struggle and Survival in a Women's Prison) "No one is better poised to write a scholarly book on incarcerated women and no state is more appropriate to study than Oklahoma. Mean Lives, Mean Laws is historically, theoretically, and methodologically remarkable. But even more importantly, the self-reported rates and words of real incarcerated women about their harsh lives before, in, after, and sometimes upon re-entry to prison are powerful testimonies to how the U.S. system is fundamentally flawed in responding to women and girls as victims and offenders." - Joanne Belknap (author of The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime, and Justice) "Sharp truly cares about incarcerated women and has devoted her life to convincing state bureaucrats to reform the ways they are treated in Oklahoma, possibly the most conservative state in the union and definitely the one with the highest rate of female incarceration." (Women's Review of Books)

• ContentsList of IllustrationsPreface Introduction 1 Mean Lives: A Theoretical Framework 2 Mean Laws: The Rise in Female Imprisonment 3 Mean Women or Mean Lives? Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adult Abuse of Women Prisoners 4 The Prison Experience 5 Going Back Again by Juanita Ortiz6 Coming Home and Staying Out 7 The Children and Their Caregivers 8 Winds of Change 9 Lessons Learned and Moving Forward Appendix A Research Methods Appendix B Oklahoma Children of Incarcerated Parents Notes References Index