“What function does the three million dollar razor wire fence at the California Correctional Women’s Facility serve? Certainly, it keeps people ‘in’ the prison, but perhaps, more crucially, it gives society an easy ‘out,’ functioning as a convenient screen for our disavowals about systemic injustice, social inequality, and the crippling effects of poverty. Public Secrets powerfully reveals the costs — both personal and social — of such projections and denials.

By Sharon Daniel and Erik Loyer, at vectors.usc.edu and vectors.usc.edu/issues/4/publicsecrets