Diana Block


Bio

Diana Block is a member of the planning committee of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and part of the editorial collective, which produces its newsletter, The Fire Inside. She is also a member of the steering committee of the California Coalition for Battered Women in Prison. Her writings about women prisoners have appeared in various journals and papers, including Sojourner, Off Our Backs and The San Francisco Bay View, and she has been a presenter at numerous conferences and workshops about women prisoners and the issue of incarcerated survivors. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Women’s Building and was a founding member of San Francisco Women Against Rape in the early seventies.

1 submission.

A Case of Battered Justice: Theresa Cruz fighting Domestic Violence and State Violence
by Diana Block

This article is a story about Theresa Cruz, a woman who was sentenced to seven years to life after allegedly planning the murder of a man who had abused and stalked her for five years. Cruz’s case is reviewed and for a short period of time she is released, only to be placed back into prison two weeks later. Cruz’s experience is an example of what many battered women have had to face in challenging the law.

 activism  court-advocacy  domestic-violence