Too Much Time: Women in Prison

This is a groundbreaking documentary survey of the experience of women in prison by award-winning photojournalist Jane Evelyn Atwood. Since 1980, the numbers of women in US prisons have increased tenfold. Similar statistics apply to the other countries around the world (France, Russia, Eastern Europe) where Atwood penetrated the prison systems—photographing, interviewing women prisoners and their guards, and gathering testimony. The result is a raw and moving account in words and pictures of society's attitude to the issues of women, crime and incarceration. The book raises questions about the relative treatment of men and women in prison and about the links between women's crimes and male violence. The book assembles a powerful and disturbing body of experience, reflecting on personal responsibility and social realities, guilt and reparation, change, loss and survival.