Hidden Healers: The Unexpected Ways Women in Prison Help Each Other Survive

by Stephanie S. Covington

Overview

A gripping and deeply-felt examination of incarcerated women's lives

With unflinching clarity, Hidden Healers cuts through the myths about incarcerated women to expose the all-too-real brutalities they face within a criminal legal system never designed for them. Backed by three decades' experience providing therapeutic programs inside prisons across the United States, trauma specialist Dr. Stephanie Covington has used her unique access to amplify the voices of the women themselves. Their stories illuminate realities most never see: that most women who get caught up in the criminal justice system have themselves been victims of harm, that the degradations of today's prisons and jails only magnify their trauma- and that incarcerated women regularly risk punishment to tend to one another's well-being in unexpected acts of kindness. Grounded in research and rich with personal narrative, Hidden Healers is a poignant and riveting look inside women's prisons and jails- and what we can do to help.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781394254392
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	04/23/2024
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	419,904
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Stephanie S. Covington, PhD, LCSW is an internationally recognized pioneer in the fields of addiction, trauma, and gender-responsive care. For three decades she has created and facilitated trauma-informed programs and curricula for use in criminal–legal settings across the United States and globally. Educated at Columbia University and the Union Institute, Dr. Covington is co-director of the Institute for Relational Development and the Center for Gender & Justice in Del Mar, California.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xxi

A Note From a Hidden Healer: It’s Time for Change xxiii

Introduction 1

Just the Facts 11

Part One: Entering the System 23

Introduction to the Criminal Legal System for Women in the United States 25

Pathways to Prison: Understanding Trauma and Addiction 43

First Days 51

Part Two: Living Inside 61

Culture and Environment  63

Working Inside the Culture of Corrections 81

Finding Your Program 83

Food 97

Mothering from Inside 107

Grief and Loss 123

Developing Relationships 129

Medical and Mental Health Care 141

Aging in Custody 153

Celebrating Special Days 159

Remembering Those Who Don’t Survive 168

Part Three: The Journey Home 171

Gate Fever 173

The Work of Reentry 179

Healing after Incarceration 187

Part Four: What We Can Do 193

Envisioning Alternatives 195

Do One Small Thing 207

Further Learning  213

Organizations to Support 219

Sources 227

Author Biography 235

Book Group Discussion Questions 237

Also by the Author 239

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

After working in the criminal legal system for over 25 years as a criminologist, I am grateful for the opportunity to continue to learn about things I claim to be an expert on. Hidden Healers is a very moving and personal account of Dr. Covington’s journey with this system and the people behind its walls. She brings attention to the realities of daily life in prison and the research that supports the recommendations for change. She debunks the stereotypes with such clarity that you cannot pretend you don’t get it! Incarcerated women become something more than subjects in these pages: they become people once more. 

Dr. Nena Messina, Criminologist, UCLA (ret); President and CEO, Envisioning Justice Solutions, Inc., Simi Valley, California

Hidden Healers is a brilliant and rattling study of women’s journeys into imprisonment, their stories of abuse and pathways to crime (often borne of psychological trauma), their unnecessary degradation and humiliation upon arrival in prison, and their ongoing pain from the daily grind of imprisonment. Yet it is also a story of women’s survival and support for one another. Stephanie Covington captures the different ways women transform their lives against the odds and help to heal one another. The great strength of this book is that Covington tells it like it is. Compelling and incredibly moving.

Dr. Lorraine Gelsthorpe, Professor, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK