Collateral Costs of Imprisonment for Women: Complications of Reintegration

Abstract

This article examines issues of family separation and community isolation as experienced by women on parole. Qualitative data, based on unstructured, in-depth interviews with 54 former inmates, offer retrospective reflections and current accounts that delineate many of the unintended costs of imprisonment. The narratives portray the difficulties these women experienced in parenting, relationships, and community reintegration. Social stigma and self-shame are important definitional and reactional elements of their efforts to reestablish social bonds. The collateral costs of imprisonment are related to diminished investment in self and others that is created by continued internal and external shaming.Women in prison, once considered the forgotten population, have become the focus of considerable research. Incarceration rates for women have increased threefold over the past decade and created a wide range of individual and social concerns (Bloom & Chesney-Lind, 2000). This study gives voice to former women inmates who explore their experiences, feelings, and thoughts on the obstacles that they endured in prison and now face in the community. Their retrospective reflections and current accounts portray conflicted emotions about children and relationships both in and out of prison and the difficulties of community reintegration. Their narratives identify and expand on the often overlooked consequences of being an incarcerated female offender.The stigmatization that imprisoned and paroled women experience carries great costs. The stigma (Goffman, 1963) associated with criminality becomes what Becker (1963) referred to as one's master status. Women who are labeled as criminals find confirmation of their deviant master status as they undergo the process of community reintegration with few social bonds (Braithwaite, 1989). The difficulty, if not impossibility, of attempting to disavow one's deviant label is a formidable task for many women offenders.

Gender-Responsive Lessons Learned and Policy Implications for Women in Prison

“…Other researchers have come to similar conclusions regarding the potential risk factors that women on parole face (e.g., Cobbina, 2009Cobbina, , 2010Dodge & Pogrebin, 2001;Huebner, Dejong, & Cobbina, 2010;O'Brien, 2001;Richie, 2001). Richie (2001) suggested that newly released women need access to substance abuse treatment in the community to continue their treatments and to find support systems outside of prison.…”

Women Coming Home: Long‐Term Patterns of Recidivism

“…Most women, particularly women of color, return to impoverished neighborhoods following release from prison (Dodge & Progrebin, 2001;Owen & Bloom, 1995;Richie, 2001). In fact, Richie (2001) found that African-American women are more likely to report a lack of access to programs and services in their disenfranchised communities.…”

Effects of Imprisonment on Self-Esteem Among Female Inmates in Selected Prisons in Kenya

“…When mothers are sent to prison, substitute childcare is of upmost importance (Morris, 1991). If relatives or friends are unable to take guardianship, the child will enter the care system, preventing barriers for mothers to regain potential rights on release (Dodge and Pogrebin, 2001). The loss of the mother role is considered as significant pain of imprisonment for women and can leave women with loss of identity and low self-esteem (Corston report as cited by Amanda, 2008).…”