Women Doing Life is an outstanding piece of work that unapologetically showcases an understudied group within our criminal justice system by mixing together the voice of feminist criminology, crime statistics, and powerful stories of self-reform, despair, injustice, courage, and hope. -Journal of Family Strengths Lora Lempert has written about the tragicfailure of our penal system, but at the same time about the heroic way womenwho are incarcerated survive it. If you are looking for stories of courage andpride among people who society would like to forget, this book is a compellingarchive. -Todd R. Clear,co-author of The Punishment Imperative: The Rise and Failure of Mass Incarceration Lempert's work is a singular and important intervention in in incarceration studies. -Women's Review of Books Showing readers the order and meaning that women wring from the chaos-daily and over a lifetime of incarceration-is a tremendous and moving accomplishment. -American Journal of Sociology You will not be able to put this book down.Lempert intersperses the active voices of women serving life with the personaland social forces that lead them to prison. She challenges the many stereotypesof women serving life without possibility of parole. And she clarifies thedifferent ways the women create new, positive definitions of self within thecorrosive environment of life in prison. Your students will be well served byconsidering the experiences of the women and will be challenged by Lempert's interpretationof the ethnographic data. -Natalie J. Sokoloff,co-editor of The Criminal Justice System and Women Lempert's aim was to expose the invisible lives of women incarcerated for life. She tells their stories with empathy and an awareness of needs for reform. She masterfully accomplished her aim. -Sex Roles Lempert shines a spotlight on the experiences of 72 women serving life sentences in Michigan. Through in-depth interviews, she brings these marginalized women back into the center of the public arena, drawing attention to their complicated, contradictory and compelling lives. -Detroit Free Press