This innovative work tells the story of a unique partnership between a state prison administration and a team of incarcerated women, prison administrators, researchers, artists, and students known as The WoW Collective due to their joint efforts in developing a peer mentoring program called "Women's Words/Women's Worlds (WoW)." Using the example of WoW, the book provides a guide to doing community-based participatory research (CBPR) with women in prison that takes a collaborative-rather than the typically adversarial-approach to working together toward the goal of transformative social change. This book provides a ground-breaking example of how incarcerated women, prison administrators, researchers, and artists successfully worked together on a community-based project that led to meaningful results in the form of a peer mentoring program designed by women in prison for women in prison. Remaining closely attuned to the ethical dimensions of doing CBPR in a highly structured prison environment, this book provides inspiration to CBPR practitioners who seek to work within the criminal justice system to create real and meaningful change for the better. Co-authored by two criminologists, a senior prison administrator, and the unique collective known as WoW, this book provides both a clear step-by-step CBPR guide and a visionary approach to working with criminal justice practitioners.

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Susan Dewey's research and teaching focus on the intersections between violence and poverty in women's criminal justice system involvement, an area in which she has an established record of academic, professional, and collaborative leadership at the community, state, federal, and international levels. Reaching beyond disciplinary confines, her research results have shaped policy and practice through 16 books and over 100 papers, including substantive reports for UN Women, the US Census Bureau, Planned Parenthood, the Correctional Education Association, the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the Wyoming Department of Corrections. Her work has also received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Microsoft Philanthropies, and numerous other entities. The results of these projects have been featured in national media outlets such as The Chronicle of Higher Education, Public Broadcasting Service (USA), The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, and The Nation. In addition to her academic research and teaching responsibilities, Dr. Dewey has performed extensive pro bono work for a variety of criminal justice agencies, including the Wyoming Department of Corrections, where she held a Central Office staff badge and founded a free college-in-prison program.

Brittany VandeBerg's research and teaching focus on violence and resilience with a particular focus on gender. Her current international research agenda examines offender and victimization experiences related to piracy and the diffusion and transformation of piracy laws and criminal justice systems in East Africa. Locally, she conducts research on gun violence, domestic violence, and gender-responsive prison reform in the Deep South in the USA. Dr. VandeBerg is a former consultant with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Counter Piracy Programme and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Somalia Fisheries Sector.

Julie Tennant Caine is a former police officer and has worked for the Wyoming Department of Family Services after earning her master's degree in sociology. Subsequently, she worked for several years in the District Attorney's Office in Cheyenne, Wyoming as the Victim/Witness Coordinator. Then she developed a community corrections program for Frontier Correctional Systems, Inc. where she eventually served as Executive Director. Next, she was hired as the Director of Victim Services in the Attorney General/s Office and continued in this position for almost a decade. After serving as Deputy Administrator in the Prison Division of the Wyoming Department of Corrections for over a decade, she took a similar position with the South Carolina Department of Corrections.