Karlene Faith

Karlene Faith (1938 – May 15, 2017) was a Canadian writer, feminist, scholar, and human rights activist. She was a professor emerita at the Simon Fraser University School of Criminology.

Early life and career Karlene Faith was born in Aylsham, Saskatchewan, in 1938. She was the oldest of six children and her father was a United Church Minister. After moving to a small town in Montana near a jail, Faith often witnessed police brutality.

In 1970, she earned her anthropology degree with Highest Honors at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She also played a role in developing the Santa Cruz Women's Prison Project in 1972. She later wrote a book about her work with the women. In her book, The Long Prison Journey of Leslie Van Houten, she tells how two of the women believed that they would "grow wings and become fairies," a belief that they obtained from Charles Manson. Faith viewed all of these women as victims, and lobbied for their early release from prison.

She has co-hosted the radio show "Criminal Justice on Trial," taught with Dr. Rafael Guzman at Correctional Training Facility in Soledad, California. She also conducted research at the California Institution for Women.

Writing and awards She wrote many books on women and their incarceration. Her first book Unruly Women: The Politics of Confinement and Resistance was first published in 1993 through Press Gang and has been called "path breaking" because of its historical overview of draconian social control practices. In 1997, Faith wrote Madonna: Bawdy & Soul.

In 2001, University Press of New England published Faith's book The Long Prison Journey of Leslie van Houten: Life Beyond the Cult.

Faith was the recipient of the dean of arts medal for research, teaching, and service focus from Simon Fraser University in 2002. In 2000, she received the International Helen prize for Humanitarian Works, and in 2001 she received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society for Criminology.

In popular culture Faith is portrayed in the feature film Charlie Says by actress Merritt Wever. The film is partly based on Faith's book, The Long Prison Journey of Leslie Van Houten and portrays her work with the Manson women after the Tate–LaBianca murders.