Resistance Behind Bars Chapter Summary

5) In the book Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women, Victoria Law discusses the rising rate of incarcerated females and also the unfair treatment that women face while incarcerated that men do not. The author expresses her anger towards the overrepresentation of minorities in the prison system. Additionally, she addresses the fact that the number of females in prison is increasing at a faster rate than males (Law, 2012). One thing that this author mentions that the rest of my research has not, is the role police has played in the climbing incarceration rates. Police disproportionately target inner-city African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods (Law, 2012). Furthermore, the author discusses the use of “stop and frisk” tactics that have been used in urban cities. These pat-down methods are unfairly targeting minorities, African- Americans and Latinos are three times as likely as whites to be searched for illegal contraband (Law, 2012). Another issue raised in this book that was brought up in …show more content…
One interesting piece of legislation that the author discussed was that of the Rockefeller Drug Laws of 1973. The penalties put in place because of these drug laws are far more excessive than that of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act. The Rockefeller laws required a sentence of 15 years to life for any person convicted of selling two ounces or possessing four ounces of a narcotic, regardless of circumstances or prior history (Law, 2012). The author reveals outrageous statistics that followed the creation of the Rockefeller Drug Laws and similar laws that other states had passed in the years following. With these drug sentencing laws in place the number of women imprisoned nationwide for drug offenses rose 888% from 1986 to 1996 (Law, 2012). It could not be any clearer as to why the female incarceration rate has been on the rise over the past several