This study of Chicanas and the US criminal justice system uses oral history to chronicle the lives of twenty-four Chicana pintas (prisoners or former prisoners). repeatedly arrested and incarcerated for non-violent, low level economic and drug-related crimes. It also provides documentation of the history of Sybil Brand Institute, Los Angeles' former women's jail. Chicanas experience the consequences of the war on drugs in their barrios. They feel the impact of mandatory sentencing laws, failing social services and endemic poverty, violence, racism and gender discrimination.