NCJ Number
128845
Journal
Women and Criminal Justice Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Dated: (1990) Pages: 19-39
Date Published
1990
Length
21 pages
Annotation
Ethel Rosenberg's prison letters illustrate women's prison writing at a transitional point. They offer an insight into women's prison experience unavailable from criminological sources.
Abstract
Preceding her work are prison writings that focus on self-justification and autobiography followed by texts of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s which assert the writers' pride and challenge the penal system and society. Letters and memoirs by women prisoners have often focused on personal justification, defense of their normal femininity, and communication with separated loved ones. Love for her children is a very strong theme in the letters, but equally significant is the personal chronicle of Ethel Rosenberg's struggle to adapt to imprisonment. Women prisoners today view writing as an emotional outlet, a means of artistic expression, a medium for protest, and a lifeline connecting them to those on the outside. Written in solitary confinement, without the benefit of the community of writers found in prison writing workshops today, the letters of Ethel Rosenberg achieved all of these objectives. 13 notes and 14 references (Author abstract modified)