Editor’s Note

In response to Devon Smith’s review of Whither Justice: Stories of Women in Prison, in NWSAJ Vol. 20, number 2 (Summer 2008), Nandini Oza, the author of the book reviewed, communicated with the reviewer to specify that her time spent in jail was not simply part of her fieldwork but actual incarceration “as an undertrial prisoner.” We thank Ms. Smith for writing in with this correction, and we appreciate Ms. Oza’s engagement with the NWSAJ.

Indeed, more recently, Ms. Oza has been good enough to write to Ms. Smith and to us, the editors, detailing certain critical facts included in her book. She asserts that these specifics are relevant to the critiques articulated in the review. Ms. Smith, the reviewer, subsequently wrote to us, accepting responsibility and expressing regret for any omissions on her part. Again, we sincerely appreciate Ms. Oza’s thoughtful communication and Ms. Smith’s willingness to rectify any omissions in her review of Whither Justice. To that end, we include the following details here.

1. 1. The narratives in Ms. Oza’s book are based not only on her Masters fieldwork, but also on the time she spent in jail as an undertrial prisoner because of her involvement as an activist in a powerful people’s movement, the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA).

2. 2. Indeed, as Ms. Oza has noted in her preface, “This gave me another opportunity to be with women prisoners, live with them and learn about their stories and lives. This position was unique because, being a prisoner myself, I had the privilege of their confidence as no outsider or researcher could ever have. Being an inmate, I became quite close to several of them. . . .” (xi). We agree with Ms. Oza that this experience does indeed get past the binary of researcher/outsider vs. participant/insider and that being on the inside did indeed offer Ms. Oza a deeper perspective of the experiences of women in prison.

3. 3. Finally, Ms. Oza also clarifies that she has not stated in her book that there was an “entire all-male jail staff” (NWSAJ, 253).

Both Ms. Oza, the author of Whither Justice, and Ms. Smith, the author of the review of Whither Justice, have approved this correction. Once again, we thank each for her thoughtful, dialogical engagement with the NWSAJ and its commitment to fair and accurate representations of diverse issues, narratives, and discourses.