To protect the anonymity of the interviewees, we have assigned a pseudonym to each woman and provided only limited information about each of them. For some of the women interviewed by Ward and Kassebaum, very little personal information was available.

Women Interviewed by Ward and Kassebaum at CIW in the early 1960s

April had been at CIW for three weeks after spending two months in jail. She was serving a twenty-year sentence for manslaughter; she stabbed a man, probably her boyfriend or husband, to death. Before this commitment, she had served jail time on drunk and disorderly charges. The interviewer notes she had lived “under authority” in a state mental hospital.

Barbara was an eighteen-year-old who had been transferred to CIW from a youth facility because she was “unmanageable” and had escaped once. Although she admits to having committed a number of felonies, she did not have a felony conviction. The interviewer notes that Barbara had been in and out of jail and girls' schools for seven years. She was interviewed after only one week at CIW.

Corinne had served one year at CIW on a conviction for grand theft and forgery. A representative on the inmate council, she had been a truck driver before coming to prison. Corinne, white, was twenty-seven years old, and had children. She had dropped out of high school before finishing tenth grade.

Doris was a regular user of marijuana and pills on the outside, which got her into trouble with the law. She had been in prison before, and her criminal record included three prior felony convictions. She told the interviewer that she had attempted suicide twice before when she was not in prison, the most recent attempt five years ago. Raped at age sixteen by her mother's boyfriend, she had been married once, but only for a week. She referred to herself as bisexual. She was interviewed a second time after she returned to prison on parole violation.