Race, Gender, and Social Control: Voices of Imprisoned Native American and White Women

Abstract

There is a dearth of empirical data on incarcerated females. Especially neglected in the literature are imprisoned women of color, who represent 60% of the total population of women incarcerated in state prisons (Greenfeld & Minor-Harper, 1991). Whereas imprisoned women of color have been ignored in sociological studies of female criminality (Lewis, 1981; Mann, 1984), the subject of imprisoned Native American women is virtually an unexplored area. There is little systematic research on how women experience prison. The majority of studies on women in prison refer to women as a homogeneous group and ignore the interaction of race, gender, and class. There is scant recognition of special problems women of color may face while incarcerated, thus there is an underlying assumption that all women are equally afflicted. I conducted the first study of imprisoned Native American women in 1990-1991 (Ross, 1992). The purpose of this study was to give voice to these subgroups of women by describing and defining their experiences as prisoners. One way in which imprisoned women can resist oppression and facilitate social change is by telling their own stories. In the words of bell hooks (1989, p. 43), oppressed people resist identifying themselves as subjects, by defining their reality, shaping their new identity, naming their history, telling their story. Incarcerated women need to tell their own stories. In this study, I let the women speak for themselves. Furthermore, I am interested in systems of oppression and issues of equality in Euro-American society. Because our society is stratified by race, class, and gender, different categories of people experience life in unequal ways. Racism, classism, and sexism exist outside prison in Euro-American society. I was interested in how they functioned within a state prison, and how they affected the experiences of incarcerated Native American and white women. The data suggested that experiences of women incarcerated in Montana's Women's Correc17