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The women's house of detention : a queer history of a forgotten prison
Edition
First edition.
Publication Information
New York : Bold Type Books, 2022.
Physical Description
ix, 357 pages ; 25 cm
Summary
"The Women's House of Detention, Greenwich Village's most forbidding and forgotten queer landmark, stood from 1929 to 1974, imprisoning tens of thousands from all over New York City. The little-known stories of the queer women and trans-masculine people incarcerated in this building present a uniquely queer argument for prison abolition. The 'House of D' acted as a nexus, drawing queer women down to Greenwich Village from every corner of the city. Some of these women-Angela Davis, Grace Paley, Andrea Dworkin, Afeni Shakur-were famous, but the majority were working-class people, incarcerated for the 'crimes' of being poor and improperly feminine. Today, approximately 40 percent of people in women's prisons identify as queer; in earlier decades, the percentage was almost certainly higher. Historian Hugh Ryan explores the roots of this crisis of queer and trans incarceration, connecting misogyny, racism, state-sanctioned sexual violence, colonialism, sex work, and the failures of prison reform. At the same time, The Women's House of Detention highlights how queer relation and autonomy emerged in the most dire of circumstances: from the lesbian relationships and communities forged through the House of D, to a Black socialist's fight for a college education during the Great Depression, to the forgotten women who rioted inside the prison on the first night of the Stonewall Uprising nearby. This is the story of one building and so much more: the people it caged, the neighborhood it changed, and the resistance it inspired"--
Contents
- The prehistory of the Women's House of Detention (1796-1928)
- Psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers--the prison's eyes, ears, and record keepers
- Where the girls are: Greenwich Village & lesbian life
- Rosie the Riveter gets fired
- The long tail of the drug war
- Flickers of pride
- Conformity and resistance
- The gay crowds
- Queer women get organized
- The city's search for the perfect victim
- Gay lib and Black power.
Subjects
- Reformatories for women > New York (State) > New York > History > 20th century.
- Women prisoners > New York (State) > New York > Social conditions > 20th century.
- Transgender prisoners > New York (State) > New York > Social conditions > 20th century.
- Poor women > New York (State) > New York > Social conditions > 20th century.
- Prison abolition movement > New York (State) > New York > History > 20th century.
- Greenwich Village (New York, N.Y.)
- Women's House of Detention.