Chapters 19 and 20 Summary and Analysis

In chapter nineteen, Assata is moved to the Maximum Security Prison for Women in Alderson, West Virginia, which is for "the most dangerous women in the country" (p. 253). Under the interstate compact agreement, any prisoner can be shipped to any facility within U.S. territory. Assata is placed in the Maximum Security Unit (MSU), which is a prison within a prison. There are three major groups in MSU: the Nazis, the "niggah lovers," and Assata (p. 253). Luckily, Rita Brown, a white revolutionary from the West Coast, is part of the "niggah lovers." Assata respects her as an activist and a woman. When the prison is declared unconstitutional, she is able to spend some time with the general population. Many of the women are like those she had met at Riker's Island. The most important person she meets was Lolita...