Literacy Experiences of Formerly Incarcerated Women

Literacy Experiences of Formerly Incarcerated Women: Sentences and Sponsors focuses on a narrative research study of the literacy experiences of formerly incarcerated women and how these experiences have affected their lives, both while incarcerated and while transitioning back into society. Using Deborah Brandt’s theory of literacy sponsorship (1998), Melanie N. Burdick explores the mass incarceration of women, and their access to literacy and higher education while incarcerated, as feminist and social justice issues. Although discussions of reading and writing as a part of correctional education are often romanticized, offering views of incarcerated people who become enlightened and reformed, Burdick identifies these romanticizes views and criticizes their controlling and harmful effects. This book shines a light on the personal and political ramifications of literacy experiences in women’s lives as they grow up in families and schools, move through the prison system, and transition back into society and higher education, arguing that literacy is politically situated and that transitioning out of prison is a complex process marked by literate acts that are dependent upon literacy sponsorship.