After working in the criminal legal system for over 25 years as a criminologist, I am grateful for the opportunity to continue to learn about things I claim to be an expert on. Hidden Healers is a very moving and personal account of Dr. Covington''s journey with this system and the people behind its walls. She brings attention to the realities of daily life in prison and the research that supports the recommendations for change. She debunks the stereotypes with such clarity that you cannot pretend you don''t get it! Incarcerated women become something more than subjects in these pages: they become people once more. Dr. Nena Messina , Criminologist, UCLA (ret); President and CEO, Envisioning Justice Solutions, Inc., Simi Valley, California Hidden Healers is a brilliant and rattling study of women''s journeys into imprisonment, their stories of abuse and pathways to crime (often borne of psychological trauma), their unnecessary degradation and humiliation upon arrival in prison, and their ongoing pain from the daily grind of imprisonment.

Yet it is also a story of women''s survival and support for one another. Stephanie Covington captures the different ways women transform their lives against the odds and help to heal one another. The great strength of this book is that Covington tells it like it is. Compelling and incredibly moving. Dr. Lorraine Gelsthorpe , Professor, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, UK "Hidden Healers is an important book because it reveals so much about the absurdity of calling our justice system for women, "just." It is not an easy book to read because Stephanie Covington, one of our country''s wise women, is merciless in her descriptions of what it is like for a woman to be sent to jail or prison. At the same time, the reader is accompanied on this journey by incarcerated women who are the "hidden healers," clearly demonstrating the time-honored caregiving that women provide for each other under adverse conditions.

This book should be a mandatory part of the curriculum of every law school in the country. Every future prosecutor, or judge should know what they are expecting the woman who stands before them to endure, and every FUTURE defender should be aware of what is at stake." Sandra L. Bloom, M.D. , Associate Professor, Health Management and Policy, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania "Dr. Covington writes in an informed and impassioned voice about what she has learned and the women she has learned it from during 30 years working in prisons and jails. Hers is a voice of intelligence and compassion, pragmatism and hopefulness honed by the sharp edges of the reality of our prisons and jails.

As important as her earlier work was, and the importance of the contributions they made, the voices of the women with whom she has worked and from whom she has learned makes this her most personal, and most important book. This is a ''must read'' for everyone interested in prisons and jails today." Martin F. Horn , Secretary of Corrections, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (ret.), New York City Correction Commissioner (ret.), Distinguished Lecturer, John Jay College of Criminal Justice (ret.), New York, New York "Hidden Healers is an important book because it reveals so much about the absurdity of calling our justice system for women, "just." It is not an easy book to read because Stephanie Covington, one of our country''s wise women, is merciless in her descriptions of what it is like for a woman to be sent to jail or prison.

At the same time, the reader is accompanied on this journey by incarcerated women who are the "hidden healers," clearly demonstrating the time-honored caregiving that women provide for each other under adverse conditions. This book should be a mandatory part of the curriculum of every law school in the country. Every future prosecutor, or judge should know what they are expecting the woman who stands before them to endure, and every FUTURE defender should be aware of what is at stake." Sandra L. Bloom, M.D. Associate Professor, Health Management and Policy Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University Philadelphia, Pennsylvania "Dr. Covington writes in an informed and impassioned voice about what she has learned and the women she has learned it from during 30 years working in prisons and jails.

Hers is a voice of intelligence and compassion, pragmatism and hopefulness honed by the sharp edges of the reality of our prisons and jails. As important as her earlier work was, and the importance of the contributions they made, the voices of the women with whom she has worked and from whom she has learned makes this her most personal, and most important book. This is a ''must read'' for everyone interested in prisons and jails today." Martin F. Horn, Secretary of Corrections, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (ret.), New York City Correction Commissioner (ret.), Distinguished Lecturer, John Jay College of Criminal Justice (ret.) New York, New.