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Down So Long: Writings from a woman incarcerated for nearly a decade
This book is not about “bad women.”
It is about wounded women.
It is about mothers, daughters, survivors, and fighters whose lives became tangled in a system that punishes pain instead of healing it.
Through raw, unfiltered journal entries, personal reflections, interviews, and researched facts, this book follows one woman’s journey from her first mandated visit to a Women’s Center, through the long corridors of county jails, and finally into the gates of Muncy State Prison. What unfolds is not only her story—but the shared story of thousands of women across the United States whose lives have been shaped by addiction, mental illness, poverty, abuse, and trauma long before a judge ever spoke their name.
Inside these pages, readers will meet women who are brilliant, funny, broken, hopeful, bitter, loyal, scared, and resilient. You will hear their voices in candid interviews and whispered dorm-room conversations. You will laugh at the absurd humor that grows in the cracks of incarceration. You will ache at the stories of children left behind, cycles repeated, and help that came far too late.
Interwoven with deeply personal journal entries are powerful facts about mass incarceration in America—how policies meant to “protect” have instead built a pipeline that quietly funnels women into prison cells rather than treatment, therapy, and safety. The book exposes how female incarceration has exploded, why women are one of the fastest-growing prison populations, and how their needs are routinely overlooked inside institutions designed for men.
This is a survival memoir.
A social justice exposé.
A sisterhood of voices.
A love letter to the women the world forgot.
It is a reminder that behind every inmate number is a human story—and that healing, not punishment, is what could have changed everything.
It is about wounded women.
It is about mothers, daughters, survivors, and fighters whose lives became tangled in a system that punishes pain instead of healing it.
Through raw, unfiltered journal entries, personal reflections, interviews, and researched facts, this book follows one woman’s journey from her first mandated visit to a Women’s Center, through the long corridors of county jails, and finally into the gates of Muncy State Prison. What unfolds is not only her story—but the shared story of thousands of women across the United States whose lives have been shaped by addiction, mental illness, poverty, abuse, and trauma long before a judge ever spoke their name.
Inside these pages, readers will meet women who are brilliant, funny, broken, hopeful, bitter, loyal, scared, and resilient. You will hear their voices in candid interviews and whispered dorm-room conversations. You will laugh at the absurd humor that grows in the cracks of incarceration. You will ache at the stories of children left behind, cycles repeated, and help that came far too late.
Interwoven with deeply personal journal entries are powerful facts about mass incarceration in America—how policies meant to “protect” have instead built a pipeline that quietly funnels women into prison cells rather than treatment, therapy, and safety. The book exposes how female incarceration has exploded, why women are one of the fastest-growing prison populations, and how their needs are routinely overlooked inside institutions designed for men.
This is a survival memoir.
A social justice exposé.
A sisterhood of voices.
A love letter to the women the world forgot.
It is a reminder that behind every inmate number is a human story—and that healing, not punishment, is what could have changed everything.
253 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 4, 2026
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