Paige's Response to Public Secrets

Sharon Daniel

Public Secrets is an interactive testimonial. It is an interesting and very moving piece of electronic literature. The piece takes place in a prison in California. The readers are not just readers or visitors, they are witnesses. The author, Sharon Daniel, visits the Central California Women’s Facility as a legal advocate. She witnesses and records the testimonies of the incarcerated women.

The title, Public Secrets, fits the piece well. The public knows about prisons, but they do not know what happens inside. The public does not know how the women feel and what their lives entail. Family members and legal representatives are the only people allowed to visit the women incarcerated in California, so the secrets do not get out. The California Department of Corrections does not want anyone to know what goes on inside.

Some of the things that the women say include how they were not able to say goodbye to their kids and many women talk about their families. One woman said, “It seems to me that women are getting slammed with more time than men for the same crimes.” This would be one of many examples of unequal treatment. Another woman told a story about how she was diabetic and had been taking medicine for it. She took the prison’s diabetic test, but it came back that she was not a diabetic because she couldn’t keep the syrup down that they gave her. The test results were inaccurate, but they did not retest her and she has not been getting her medicine. Many women talk about harassment, name-calling, random strip searches, and many other forms of unfair treatment.

Everyone should feel human, but these prisons do quite the opposite to people. Public Secrets makes the readers feel angry and upset for these women. Hearing the women’s voices is so powerful. It is the most effective way for individuals to understand how others feel through literature.