Understanding the Lives of Mothers after Incarceration: Moving Beyond Socially Constructed Definitions of Motherhood

In the wake of mass incarceration, an increasing number of women are going through the penal system. A fair number of these women are mothers, yet the intersection of motherhood and prison may contradict conceptions of femininity and challenge traditional views of appropriate mothering. The contradiction between notions of criminality and femininity contributes to stigmatized perceptions of formerly incarcerated mothers, which drastically shapes their ability to reintegrate into society post‐incarceration. While reentry efforts tackle gender differences through the implementation of gender‐responsive programs that cater to women's needs, failure to adequately account for unique maternal experiences may hinder attempts to address obstacles faced by mothers in particular, such as regaining child custody and paying for day care. This article argues for special attention to the post‐incarceration experiences of mothers without imposing socially constructed definitions of motherhood like having custody and living with children, which may not coincide with the realities mothers face after imprisonment. Ideas are also discussed for the inclusive consideration of formerly incarcerated mothers and their post‐incarceration experiences.     

How formerly abducted women in post-conflict situations are reasserting their humanity in a hostile environment: photovoice evidence from northern Uganda

ABSTRACT

Northern Uganda received significant international attention during and immediately after the conflict between the Government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army, in which over 20,000 women and children were abducted and trafficked. However, globally there has been little investigation into the long-term impacts on formerly abducted women in post-conflict reconstruction, or on their own efforts to improve their conditions. This article presents original photovoice evidence from 13 co-researchers; all members of the Women’s Advocacy Network, a grassroots organisation seeking to improve life in northern Uganda for women. All the co-researchers are from the Acholi ethnic group and were formerly abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army. They are all engaged in rebuilding their lives in Gulu, northern Uganda. The article seeks to present the work of the co-researchers and explores the long-term needs they identify for formerly abducted women in conflict zones. It also explores how their own experiences with abduction continues to erode the recognition of their humanity, both in terms of how they are perceived by their communities and how they view themselves, and how they are individually and collectively working to reassert their place in the moral universe.     

“Behind every woman in prison is a man”: Incarcerated Women’s Perceptions of How We Can Better Help Them in the Context of Interpersonal Victimization

ABSTRACT

Although women’s rates of incarceration have increased dramatically, the criminal justice system does not meet women’s unique needs. This article used qualitative methods to describe the responses of 113 incarcerated women to the following question: How can we better help women like you? Analyses focused on women’s experiences of victimization and highlighted how to address trauma in prison reform and abolition efforts. Women suggested how victimization fueled their criminal offending behavior, detailed re-victimization in the prison milieu, and identified program gaps during custody and after release. Opportunities for immediate action include policy advocacy, mitigation, and shifting to a trauma-informed correctional approach.     

Making it on the Outside: Understanding Barriers to Women’s Post‐Incarceration Reintegration

The increasing rate of imprisonment in the United States over the past few decades resulted in record numbers of individuals reentering society upon release. As men and women exit through prison gates, they encounter a range of obstacles that complicate their efforts to “make it” on the outside. Given the gendered impact of recent punitive prison policies, this essay focuses on women and traces their steps as they navigate the many complex, interrelated, and competing obstacles to successful reintegration post‐incarceration. In particular, this essay describes how many barriers, and women’s reentry experience more broadly, are shaped by gender, race, and class. Further, drawing on the feminist pathways perspective, we examine women’s reentry in light of their pathways into offending focusing, in particular, on their victimization history.     

“I Was in Crisis”

This article explores the illicit labor and imprisonment of two women, Cynthia and Dinah, in the Santa Monica prison in Lima, Peru through the lens of gendered motherwork. Because the unequal distribution of care places the burden of this labor on women, Cynthia and Dinah were primarily responsible for the care of their adult children who were diagnosed with AIDS. Both women entered the transnational cocaine commodity chain in order to provide their children with medication that was not administered by the state. Neoliberal healthcare in the form of cuts to national health systems makes the motherwork of poor women more difficult to perform. In order to afford care for their children's health, Cynthia and Dinah entered a labor market that is criminalized by punitive war on drug policies and they were subsequently imprisoned. Illicit labor was therefore an extension of their motherwork and the removal of this care from their children resulted in tragic health consequences. This article is based on ethnographic dissertation fieldwork in 2008–09 in the largest women's prison in Peru.     

Household Support and Social Integration in the Year After Prison

The conventional household is typically conceived as a fixed residence where married adults pool incomes and raise their children. In poor communities, however, households are often residentially unstable, fluid in composition, and economically insecure. Men and women who leave prison face extreme disadvantage, and their households are likely to shape social integration after incarceration. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data from the Boston Reentry Study, this article describes the complex living situations of men and women newly released from prison and proposes a multifaceted concept of household support. Regression analysis with an index measuring household support shows that living in a stable well‐resourced household just after prison release is associated with reduced risks of a new criminal charge, social isolation, and unemployment six to twelve months later. More than just a social unit for sampling and enumeration, the analysis suggests the household is an explanatory concept that can account for the social integration of poor, minority populations often detached from formal sources of economic and social support.     

Walking an Emotional Tightrope: Managing Emotions in a Women's Prison

Until recently, the emotional experiences of women in prison have been overlooked by symbolic interactionists and social scientists. Similarly, research relevant to the sociology of emotions has not been explored in the social context of a correctional institution for women. The purpose of this study is to investigate emotional experiences from the unique perspective of incarcerated women. This research examines how women in prison perceive and manage their emotional lives while confined and asks whether their chosen strategies have an impact on their interactions and thus affect the institutional environment. Data were collected through in‐depth interviews with thirty‐five women incarcerated in a correctional institution located in the midwestern United States. Using a semistructured interview schedule, respondents were asked about a range of topics, one of which involved their emotional lives while incarcerated. Findings indicate these women define their emotional experiences as being simultaneously provocative and constrained. Respondents suggest that their emotional resources are individually, contextually, and culturally grounded. They discuss employing various strategies to manage their emotional lives while incarcerated, including diversions, spiritual pursuits, blocking exercises, self‐reflection, and humor. The majority of the techniques employed to control emotions are intrapersonal. Respondents describe personal efforts designed to manage their emotional experiences rather than share their feelings with others.     

More than Visiting Hours: Maintaining Ties Between Incarcerated Mothers and Their Children

The majority of people in America’s prisons are the parents of minor children. Incarcerated mothers, in particular, were likely to have been a part of their children’s lives before their imprisonment, and most will soon be returning to the community and to their children. Research has shown that it is in the best interests of the mothers and the children to maintain a relationship across the prison bars. In this article, we use the example of New York State to show how institutional policies and structures can impede or encourage efforts to maintain ties between women and their children and why demonstrating support for family ties must extend well beyond having visiting hours.     

The Prison Lesbian Revisited

Abstract

One aspect of women's imprisonment that has received consistent scholarly and public interest is homosexuality. These experiences are generally seen as a subcultural adaptation to the stresses and deprivations of the environment, that is, as situational, and little attention has been given to the implications they might have for the sexual identity of the women involved or to the possibility that some women may continue involvement in same-sex relationships after prison. In-depth interviews with 40 incarcerated women were conducted to explore their experiences with same-sex relationships in prison. Some condemned same-sex relationships but others became involved in them for companionship and other reasons. While some women saw their involvements as limited to prison, others were questioning their sexual identity and thought they might continue the same or other same-sex relationships on the outside.     

The Effect of Private Sector Work Opportunities in Prison on Labor Market Outcomes of the Formerly Incarcerated

This paper examines the effects of a private-sector prison work program called the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP) on formal unemployment duration, duration of formal employment, and earnings of men and women released from various state prisons between 1996 and 2001. It also investigates the labor market dynamics of formerly incarcerated men and women. The program is found to increase reported earnings and formal employment on the extensive margin, with a stronger impact on the formal employment of women. There is little evidence that it increases formal employment along the intensive margin (i.e., duration of formal employment). Contrary to segmented labor market theories, superior employment (i.e., higher-paying jobs) does not lead to increased job stability. Roughly 92 % of individuals who obtained formal employment in the sample experienced job loss; however, reincarceration rates are too low to explain this fact. An evaluation of labor market dynamics reveals that traditional human capital variables, criminogenic factors, and a few demographic characteristics determine job loss. In addition, black women, single women, and women with more extensive criminal histories face greater barriers in the labor market than their male counterparts.     

Domestic violence and South Korean women: the cultural context and alternative experiences

The present research contributes to the growing body of cross-cultural research on domestic violence. This is accomplished by answering the question of how severity of intimate partner abuse varies for (1) women incarcerated for the homicides of their male partners (2) abused women who sought domestic violence shelter, short of killing their intimate assailants, and (3) a group of South Korean females outside of domestic violence shelters or prison. The article concludes with a discussion of potential policy implications of the findings as well as promising directions for future research.     

Parenting from Prison

ABSTRACT

The impact of parental incarceration on minor children has been well documented. Children with at least one parent in prison are at greater risk to suffer from anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, anger, and attention deficiencies. In comparison to the research on children, less emphasis has been placed on how mothers are affected when they are incarcerated away from their children. The current research focus is how children's visitation programs and parenting classes can improve the relationships between incarcerated women and their children. Female prisoners participating in a specialized children's visitation program were interviewed to gain their perceptions of their relationships with their children and how the program had affected this bond. A comparison group of women not in the program were also questioned about their relationships with their children. The authors suggest that incarcerated mothers respond positively to institutional efforts to keep them in touch with their children.     

Fickle Families and the Kindness of Strangers: Social Capital in the Lives of Low-Income Single Mothers

This article is a qualitative study that examines the social capital in the lives of 20 formerly homeless and nearly homeless single mothers with children in their care. The findings for this study indicate that the mothers' close social ties simultaneously served as a resource and a hindrance to their progress into sustainable work or education. Findings also show that nearly all of the women in this study benefited from “weak” ties by receiving information or other kinds of resources from strangers or friends of friends. Implications for policy and practice are also discussed.     

Suspended Identity: Identity Transformation in a Maximum Security Prison

This article presents an empirically-grounded model of identity transformation that differs both from the gradual transformation processes that characterize most adult identity changes and from such radical transformation processes as brainwashing or conversion. Data for the study are derived from participant observation and focused interviews with first-time, short-term inmates at a maximum security prison. By attempting to suspend their preprison identities and constructing inauthentic prison identities through impression management, these inmates are able to forestall more radical identity change and to maintain a general sense of identity continuity for most of their prison careers.     

Relationships between incarcerated women. Moving beyond stereotypes

1. Described as one of the "pains of imprisonment," separation may be particularly difficult for women in prison because most functioned in multiple relational roles, including mother, wife, girlfriend, daughter, sister, and friend, before incarceration. 2. In the absence of consistent contact with family, friends, and other loved ones outside prison, incarcerated women may seek to develop connections with other inmates as a way to adapt to life in prison. 3. Positive adaptation may allow incarcerated women to take advantage of educational/vocational, parenting, and drug treatment programs offered in prison, thus facilitating their adaptation after release.     

The relationship between re-incarceration and their own childhood foster care experience of women

Using matched state administrative records of women in the Illinois state prison system, we investigate whether incarcerated women with foster care experience during their early (aged 10 to 14) and late (aged 15 to 18) teens do better or worse in re-incarceration rates compared to female counterparts who went to prison but had no foster care experience. We find that women with the early-teen foster care experience have higher rates of re-incarceration than women without foster care, regardless of whether they were reunited with their parents. The adverse association between the first foster care placement during early-teens and re-incarceration is particularly stronger among former female inmates with low education or history of drug addiction than others. We conclude that incarcerated women with foster care experiences, especially in their early teens, need more attention and extra support from the appropriate institutions upon their release. In addition, it seems that foster care can work as a strong signal of possible re-incarceration among women with low education and history of drug addiction.     

The Pregnant Therapist: A Qualitative Examination of the Client Experience

This article reports on the findings of a qualitative study that was designed to capture the clinical dynamics that emerge when a therapist becomes pregnant during treatment. While there have been some empirical studies that have captured the pregnant therapist’s perspective, it is a sparse amount in comparison to the vast number of women therapists who become pregnant, and there have been no studies that have actually interviewed clients of pregnant therapists. This study seeks to begin to redress that crucial missing perspective by interviewing the clients of pregnant therapists, as well as first-time, formerly pregnant therapists. This article will look at the coded results of this qualitative study and the emergent themes from the client perspective, as well as discuss their implications for clinical social work practice.     

Role Fusion: The Occupational Socialization of Prison Chaplains

The conclusion that prisons, as total institutions, are “forcing houses” for the changing of persons can be extended beyond inmates to the prison staff. In this article I focus on one subset of prison staff that has received only scant examination: prison chaplains. Using qualitative interview data, I analyze the occupational socialization of state‐employed prison chaplains. I begin by discussing the initial expectations chaplains held about their work and what they hoped to accomplish. I describe the challenges of working in the correctional environment and note the occupational adjustments chaplains made in reaction to these challenges. I conclude with a theoretical examination of the role and identity processes that framed the occupational socialization of prison chaplains.     

Melanie Klein,Drug Crimes,and Women

Due to changes made to drug laws in the 1970s and 1980s the population of women serving time in prison has skyrocketed. This article uses material verbatim from court cases and public discourse about reform of drug laws in New York State to examine the psychodynamic processes that seem to be undergirding our discussion about and projections onto women arrested for drug crimes. Primarily drawing on Melanie Klein's theories concerning the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions, it explores society's deep ambivalence about the lives and fate of these women.