Transformative mothering on the inside: navigating the perils and possibilities of mothering while incarcerated
Abstract
Abstract Most incarcerated women in the United States are mothers of minor-age children, and many face dual involvement with the child welfare system. Maternal incarceration functions as a form of gendered and racialized social punishment which causes long-term harms for incarcerated mothers and children. However, critical feminist scholars have argued that mothering while incarcerated can be a contradictory experience: on the one hand, mothers experience forms of punishment and control, and on the other, they find grounds for resistance and relational care. We examined how incarcerated mothers, including those involved in child welfare, respond to these contradictions. We investigated how incarcerated mothers navigate carceral constraints to their mothering, adapt their mothering strategies over time, and respond to intersecting harms in the realm of parenting. Through constructivist grounded theory analysis of interviews with 42 currently incarcerated women, we identify three strategies that mothers enact: 1) cultivating presence, 2) activating protective parenting, and 3) reaching for repair with their children. We theorize these strategies as “transformative mothering on the inside,” which some women enact to resist the diminishment of their parenting status and interrupt generational cycles of harm. This study contributes to theorizing on marginalized mothering and the carceral state.
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Record history
| When | Event | Field | Old | New |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-06-18 19:37:53.011249+00:00 | identifier_assigned | DSEID | DSEID-000-7701359 |