The women’s educational histories and interactions with the criminal justice system are filled with stories about power brokering and negotiation. In some cases, the women used their own sense of power to manage situations; in most cases, the power relationships the women described were highly unequal and rarely favored the women. One of the gravest problems of the penal system is the degree to which it replicates power and abuse that women may have experienced on the outside. For the women, resources outside the prison or jail environment are scarce, especially for women who are caught in the poverty cycle. Women learn quickly that they must negotiate power against one another rather than to the benefit of each other. In any interaction that a woman has within the system of incarceration, negotiating power structures is key to survival, success, and failure. Power brokers influence how women do their time and influence women’s successful transitions to a community after they are released. This article presents results from a qualitative study of women residing in a halfway house in a metropolitan area in the western United States. References