Hidden Healers: The Unexpected Ways Women in Prison Help Each Other Survive
[Covington, S. (2024). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley]
With unflinching clarity, Hidden Healers cuts through the myths about incarcerated women to expose the all-to-real brutalities they face within a criminal legal system never designed for them. Backed by three decades' experience providing therapeutic programs inside prisons across the United States, trauma specialist Dr. Stephanie S. Covington has used her unique access to amplify the voices of the women themselves. Their stories illuminate realities most never see: That most women who get caught up in the criminal justice system have themselves been victims of harm, that the degradations of today's prisons and jails only magnify their trauma – and that the incarcerated women regularly risk punishment to tend to one another's wellbeing in unexpected acts of kindness. Grounded in research and rich with personal narrative, Hidden Healers is a poignant and riveting look inside women's prisons and jails – and what we can do to help.
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Advance Praise for Hidden Healers
After working in the criminal legal system for over 25 years as a Criminologist, I’ve studied, read, and written numerous publications about this system and the people under its care. Hidden Healers is a very moving and personal account of Dr. Covington’s journey with this system and the people behind its walls--both those who can leave and those who cannot. This book challenges terminology within the field of criminology. It challenges how we think and feel about the legal system, punishment, and rehabilitation. It most definitely challenges us to contemplate the human beings who rely on the system that is in place in the U.S. Incarcerated women become something more than subjects in these pages: they become people once more. Dr. Covington brings attention to the realities of daily life in prison and the research that supports the recommendations for change. She debunks the stereotypes with such clarity that you cannot pretend you don’t get it! If you are interested in learning about incarcerated women, or teaching on this topic, then you MUST read Hidden Healers. I am grateful for the opportunity to continue to learn about things I claim to be an expert on. – Dr. Nena Messina, Criminologist, UCLA (ret.), President and CEO, Envisioning Justice Solutions, Inc., Simi Valley, California
This is a brilliant and rattling study of women’s journeys into imprisonment, their stories of abuse and pathways into crime often borne of psychological trauma, their unnecessary degradation and humiliation upon arrival in prison, and the ongoing pain of the daily grind of imprisonment. Yet it is also a story of women’s survival and support for one another. This is a study and story of real importance in which Stephanie Covington captures the different ways in which women transform their lives against the odds and help to heal one another. The great strength of this book is that Covington ‘tells it like it is’. It is a unique and inspiring effort, addressed to a broad spectrum of readers. – Professor Dr Loraine Gelsthorpe, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK
It is time for change. Our voices have been heard, our evaluations are in and our impact is undeniable. We are the help we have been waiting on, women helping women. I'm grateful for the support Covington's work has offered for years, and for the change that will happen as a result of this book. - Kim Carter, Found and Ambassador of Time for Change Foundation
