Books by Barbara Owen

She focuses her study on the social context of the prison shop floor--challenging the accepted idea that prison work is difficult because of the prisoners.

In Search of Safety takes a close look at the sources of gendered violence and conflict in women's prisons. The authors examine how intersectional inequalities and cumulative disadvantages are at the root of prison conflict and violence and mirror the women's pathways to prison. Women must negotiate these inequities by developing forms of prison capitalsocial, human, cultural, emotional, and economicto ensure their safety while inside. The authors also analyze how conflict and subsequent violence result from human-rights violations inside the prison that occur within the gendered context of substandard prison conditions, inequalities of capital among those imprisoned, and relationships with correctional staff.In Search of Safety proposes a way forwardthe implementation of international human-rights standards for U.S. prisons.