Living to Read True Crime: Theorizations from Prison

Abstract

Women in prison read, in authorized and unauthorized ways. I've learned a great deal about prisoners' reading practices from speaking with a number of incarcerated women in Minnesota, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. about their practices of reading sensational paperback books. In the words of Melissa, a twenty-seven year-old Native American woman incarcerated in the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, some women in prison live to read true crime. Employees in the North Carolina prison library estimate that 75 percent of library patrons come in search of true crime books. Because overuse and theft continue to diminish the library's true crime collection which is replenished only through donations true crime fans who can afford to do so order books directly from publishers, while fans of lesser means borrow books from others' personal collections. In order to explore what it might mean for imprisoned women