Getting Wrecked

“Kimberly Sue has written the broadest and deepest ethnography I have read of the lived experience of poor women in the American opioid crisis. This fine book will disturb and distress the reader by forcing him or her to walk with these abused women from the dangerous streets to the dysfunctional prisons to the inadequate treatment programs and back, again and again. It is a terrible indictment, but one that makes a convincing case for all that must be done to end the havoc and rebuild human lives. A remarkable achievement.”—Arthur Kleinman, author of The Soul of Care
 
“There are few prison ethnographies of note, let alone any that deal with women. Making a unique contribution, Sue combines a focus on women, drug abuse, and criminalization to explore the issue of prisons as sites of drug rehabilitation for women in the northeastern United States. Accessible to readers from many backgrounds, this book allows us to see issues both inside and outside prison, a connection that too many studies fail to make.”—James B. Waldram, author of Hound Pound Narrative: Sexual Offender Habilitation and the Anthropology of Therapeutic Intervention
 
“Getting Wrecked is a unique and vivid portrait of the lives, hopes, and agony of women in prison in the United States. Sue powerfully conveys the strength and resolve of women facing societal-level racism, privatized prisons, addiction, and poverty. This poignant book should be read by everyone who cares about social inequalities, discrimination, gender, health, incarceration, and addiction.”—Seth M. Holmes, author of Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies