They Always Call Us Ladies

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons Macmillan Publishing Company BOOK: Previous Owner Markings/Ex-Library; Front Free Endpaper Missing; Light Shelf Rub to Boards; Spine Moderately Cocked; Edges Moderately Soiled; Heavy Moisture Damage. DUST JACKET: Previous Owner Markings (Price Clipped); Lightly Creased; Lightly Chipped; Moderate Moisture Damage (Staining on Reverse Side Only; Minimal Bleed-Through); Moderate Yellowing Due to Age; In Archival Quality Jacket Cover. SUB-TITLE: Stories from Prison. JACKET DESIGN BY: Dick Adelson. CONTENTS: Introduction; "They Always Call Us Ladies"; Epilogue; References and Bibliography; Index. SYNOPSIS: Jean Harris, whose first book, Stranger in Two Worlds, was an extraordinary bestseller, now brings us inside the walls of the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, where she is an inmate. We become silent observers of the "foul realities" that are a way of life there for 800 prisoners. She writes about the crowded conditions, the harshness of many of the C.O., the curious and endless stream of rules that seem to make no sense. More important, she shows that rehabilitation is virtually nil, so that inmates are caught in a vicious circle: When they leave Bedford Hills, they have few if any skills and, in most cases, very little money--with the result that they head back almost immediately to the street life that first brought them to Bedford. "They Always Call Us Ladies" tells us movingly about individual inmates, about the dark fate of women like Loretta, born a male and now a female, and Rosie, who has frequent epileptic seizures. "As her next-door neighbor, I can usually tell when she is going to be ill. Sometimes she calls 'Jean' in a frightened voice... It's all part of a fairly normal day here, the usual tragedy all around." There is also a remarkable section on the history of Bedford Hills, which Jean Harris traces back to its origins. She charts the course of its development over the decades, trying to see what, if any, attitudes toward inmates have changed. Her portrait of Katherine Davis, who was one of the first women to champion prison reform and became the superintendent of Bedford Hills in 1901, is a story of dedication and courage. She insisted that inmates take academic courses, and do manual labor as well. Many changes were made over the decades, but Mrs. Harris raises the question: Are the inmates of yesteryear any different from the inmates of today? The answer is not really, although today there are more of them. At the heart of this book are the children. Infants and children make up the darkest part of the story. Mrs. Harris is in constant contact with children of inmates at the Children's Center, where she works. They are too often listless and very sad. They have had little chance for normal love for or attachment to their mothers. Few of them have normal emotional growth. A loving relationship to a parent must start in infancy if there is ever to be a chance for healthy development--a chance for a child to find its way. "I have watched the metamorphosis of a pretty little girl of nine into a sullen hooker at fifteen." We must, as a society, start early to love and take care of our babies. If we do not do it when they are infants, they will flounder and lead lives of despair. Unless we make this effort, the children of inmates will experience untold suffering. There are women at Bedford Hills whose mothers were there before them--a human tragedy of enormous proportions. "They Always Call Us Ladies" is a rare book, and one of a kind. It reveals more about the brutal life of women in prison than we have ever seen before. Jean Harris was born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. She was educated at the Laurel School in Cleveland and at Smith College. She married James Scholes Harris and has two children, David and Jimmy. She spent three decades as a teacher and administrator. She ultimately became the headmistress of the Madeira School in McLean, Virginia. In 1966 she met Dr. Herman Tarnower and had a fifteen-year relationship with him--a relationship that ended tragically, and despite her denials, Jean Harris was convicted of killing Dr. Tarnower. She is now serving at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility the fifteen-years-to-life sentence that was meted out to her. She teaches and devotes hundreds of hours to the children who visit at the Children's Center.. First Edition 1st Printing. Hard Cover. Fair/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Ex-Library.