The Women's House of Detention

February 1, 2022

While this book is ostensibly about the New York City Women's House of Detention, Greenwich Village's forgotten queer landmark, it is also about so much more. Historian Ryan (When Brooklyn Was Queer) contextualizes the notorious prison, which stood from 1929 to 1974, in the realms of criminology, queer theory, women's history, geography, and many other disciplines. Ryan's book relies on extensive archival research, especially with the Women's Prison Association, and engagement with other primary sources; the oral histories, historical and contemporary, that he cites particularly stand out. Ryan describes the Women's House of Detention as a grueling place--overcrowded and neglected--whose residents (cisgender women, transgender men, and gender-nonconforming people) were denigrated by nearly all elements of society; the fact that many were held or convicted on sexual offenses only led to further opprobrium. Many of these people were queer; some were famous. Organized chronologically, Ryan's book integrates interesting academic studies and provokes readers to view the prison in its larger sociocultural context. His lucid writing takes the book out of the academic realm of prison history and opens it to a wider readership that will find many insights relevant to contemporary incarceration. VERDICT This blend of queer history and social history is highly recommended for all interested in learning about an often-overlooked landmark.--David Azzolina

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February 21, 2022
Historian Ryan (When Brooklyn Was Queer) delivers an immersive study of a New York City women’s prison that operated between 1929 and 1971. Contending that the House of D, as it was known, “helped make Greenwich Village queer, and the Village, in return, helped define queerness for America,” Ryan recovers the story of Charlotte B. (most last names are withheld), who fell in love with a fellow inmate while awaiting her arraignment for “waywardism” in 1934, and other queer and “transmasculine” prisoners. Though the inmates’ harsh treatment, including “dehumanizing” medical exams, provoked riots beginning in the 1950s, queer women remained segregated and were still required to wear a “D” (for degenerate) on their clothes. Contending that these experiences pushed queer women to resist labels and take pride in their sexuality, Ryan notes that by the 1960s, the House of D was publicly linked to queer behavior in Broadway musical lyrics and magazine articles, and explains how Black Panther member Afeni Shakur, incarcerated in 1969, connected Black Power with gay liberation. Expertly mining prison records and other source materials, Ryan brings these marginalized women to vivid life. This informative, empathetic narrative is a vital contribution to LGBTQ history. Agent: Robert Guinsler, Sterling Lord Literistic.

March 15, 2022
The neglected story of the "Skyscraper Alcatraz," a notorious women's prison where inmates included Angela Davis and Ethel Rosenberg. As Ryan, the author of When Brooklyn Was Queer, demonstrates, for much of the 20th century, Greenwich Village was "the epicenter of women's incarceration in New York, and the epicenter of queer life in America." The author examines how the two realities intersected and rippled outward in an impressively researched study of the Women's House of Detention. Ryan's narrative is part history, part horror story, and part blistering critique of the country's "criminal legal system" (a term he sees as more accurate than "criminal justice system"). Dubbed the House of D, the prison operated from 1929 until the early 1970s and was demolished after riots by inmates helped to expose its dangerously overcrowded and inhumane conditions. Although intended for short-term female prisoners awaiting trial or sentencing, the 11-story, vermin-infested building held "women and transmasculine people" for months or even years, crammed into small cells with no recreational, educational, or vocational programs and woeful medical care: "The dentist had so little time per prisoner that all he did, regardless of the complaint, was pull teeth," writes Ryan. "There was no gynecologist, or any doctor at all on premises most nights and weekends." The staff subjected new arrivals to forced enemas and other invasive procedures, overdrugged inmates with Thorazine, and for a time forced gender-nonconforming prisoners to wear a D for degenerate on their uniforms. In reconstructing this chilling history, Ryan had rare access to private social work files that enabled him to tell detailed personal stories of prisoners, who could be sent to the House of D for crimes such as "waywardism," "wearing pants," and "lesbianism itself." While his narrative has strong LGBTQ+ interest, it also belongs on the shelf with books about judicial-system failures, such as Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. A well-reconstructed history of one of America's worst prisons for women.

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April 1, 2022
The Women's House of Detention (the House of D) stood at the center of New York's Greenwich Village for four decades (1932-71) through generations of prisoners, many of them queer, gender nonconforming, and transmasculine. Its history, in many ways, is also the Village's history. Historian Hugh Ryan (When Brooklyn Was Queer, 2019) explores how the prison, the neighborhood, and larger society reflected each other through the personal stories of some of the thousands upon thousands of women who passed through this forgotten institution. He profiles such famous inmates as Angela Davis, Afeni Shakur, and Andrea Dworkin but mostly focuses on the unknown, such as Big Cliff and Elaine B. Their stories are told through the intersections of sexuality, poverty, race, and criminality. Through his primarily pioneering research, Ryan provides valuable context for them in and out of the House of D. Throughout, he bears witness to the indignities and persistent inhumane failures in the prison, from overcrowding and feces-laden food to barbaric physical exams. Ryan has created a valuable new lens for queer and carceral history.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.