Maggots in My Sweet Potatoes: Women Doing Time

by Susan Madden Lankford

The first in a photojournalistic series that addresses the social issues of child abuse and neglect, homelessness, incarceration, and the special needs of women behind bars, Maggots in My Sweet Potatoes: Women Doing Time offers an in-depth and illuminating look at the lives of incarcerated women.

In Maggots in My Sweet Potatoes: Women Doing Time, photojournalist Susan Madden Lankford thought-provokingly explores the kaleidoscope of alienation, personal despair, and fragile hopes of women caught up in the state's zeal for incarceration.

The product of more than two years photographing and interviewing within the concrete-and-steel confines of a typical women's jail in the United States, the book combines 326 powerful black-and-white photographs with the frank and graphic voices of both the jailed and the jailors, presenting us with a cogent portrait of diffused lives, and a reflective glimpse of emotional and physical imprisonment. Quotes from experts in the fields of justice, rehabilitation, and mental health add depth to the picture, building the case that changes in American society, including neglect and abuse of our youth, contribute to the overloading of our detention system and the brutal cycle of institutionalization. well as the consequences of homelessness, to examine a system that offers no viable safety net for the denizens of our streets, and to seek solutions that will create a better future for society as a whole.

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