“A Woman Doing Life” is a unique book that describes and understands the experiences of incarcerated women. The author, Erin George, herself got arrested with charge of murder of her husband and was sentenced to prison for 603 years. She portrayed the true picture of how women, especially those with no criminal backgrounds, seek their identity in this ‘no exit’ place and find ways to adapt harsh painful circumstances in female correctional setting. It is a common misconception that officers of such institutions are always taking advantage of incarcerated women for the satisfaction of their own sexual desires. But, the real picture is not as bad as it is perceived. The system of prison is based on cooperation between inmates and the officers. Both support each other for smoother environment. Since females demand cigarettes and other drugs, so they exchange favors with officers. Sometimes the workers also target emotionally weak girls and may assault them but this is not a routine activity.
In fact there are many types of workers in women correctional
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As she was a middle class mom, who was arrested and charged with her husband’s brother, she consciously did not mention her crime because this may divert the attention of readers and they may start focusing on other details that are rather unimportant. Another reason for not discussing her own circumstances may be that it may make the opinion of readers biased towards her. So whether she was innocent or not, but her purpose of writing was to focus on the lives of those women who are forgotten by society as well the policy makers. Erin George made a fair attempt to make higher officials think about improvements in correctional system for women and highlighted the areas which need many improvements and can be improved if higher authorities consider them