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Article Link 10.1: Smoyer, Amy B. (2015). Feeding Relationships: Foodways and Social Networks in a Women’s Prison. Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work, 30(1): 26-39.

Research has demonstrated the importance of supportive relationships and social networks to prisoners’ psychosocial outcomes, especially for women. Understanding how these relationships are constructed, negotiated, and sustained is, therefore, critical for social workers and other professionals who work with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated clients, and/or their family and friends. This article analyzes formerly incarcerated women’s narratives about prison foodways, demonstrating the centrality of these systems to prisoners’ relationships and building knowledge about everyday inmate interactions with people inside and outside of prison. Research, clinical, and policy recommendations suggest ways prison foodways could be altered to strengthen prisoners’ relationships

1. What are the implications of relationships and social networks for women in prison?
2. How do foodways impact relationships in women’s prisons?
3. How does this author suggest strengthening prisoners’ relationships?

Article Link 10.2: Bernard, April (2013). The Intersectional Alternative: Explaining Female Criminality, Feminist Criminology, 8(1): 3-19.

Using an intersectional approach, this analysis seeks to provide an explanation of female criminality that is grounded in an intimate understanding of the multiplicative, overlapping, and cumulative effects of the simultaneous intersections of systems of oppression emanating from power structures that uniquely shape their life experiences. The concept of doing identity is introduced to describe the unique attempts of individuals, particularly marginalized women, to navigate through power structures and multiple systems of oppression that shape their life experiences. A case study exploring factors contributing to one woman’s decision to engage in criminal activity as a means of doing identity is also presented.

1. How do various forms of institutional power intersect to affect this female offender’s life?
2. What factors contributed to this woman’s decision to engage in criminal activity?
3. How is intersectionality, that is the overlap of socioeconomic, racial, and gender factors, impact the criminal justice system?