Just a perspective that some of you ladies might find interesting...I hope everyone above me is a lady - no offense if I missed someone. Anyway...

My wife did twenty-four years in prison and I spent twenty-four years in prison family support groups over the years. Often family members who had a wife, mother, sister, etc., on her way to prison would ask about violence in women's prisons - because while you hear about violence in men's prisons all the time, it's rare you hear about it in women's prisons.

I would tell them that there is just as much violence in women's prisons, but it has a different face. Men use physical violence to show dominance and establish themselves on the hierarchical ladder within a prison. Women form familial groups and use ostracization as a form of violence. They ignore those women they wish to hurt, won't let them join them at the meal table, won't acknowledge their presence, etc. Both are violent. Most women I know in prison would rather get beat up than be ignored, and most men in prison would rather be ignored than beat up.

I see the same games being played out in 'polite' society - usually at jobs. Anyway, as I said, just a perspective.