Making mothers: parenting classes in a women’s jail

In the wake of the War on Drugs, more mothers are incarcerated in US prisons and jails than ever before. Parenting classes have become ubiquitous in penal facilities that incarcerate women, but research about mothers’ experience in parenting class is limited to measures of efficacy about things like parenting attitudes and mental-health indicators. This study supplements existing research by adding an ethnographic lens to women’s experiences with parenting classes during incarceration. Drawing on 18 months of participant observation in the women’s unit of a county jail and 83 interviews with incarcerated mothers, I analyze incarcerated mothers’ experiences with parenting classes. Staff and inmates used parenting classes to create ways for women to do mothering during incarceration. Mothering in your head, longing to mother, and guilt as mothering enabled incarcerated mothers to maintain their identities as mothers despite their separation from their children. However, these practices could also be poor substitutes for spending time with children and did not necessarily reflect the reality of women’s lives outside of jail. These ways of doing mothering from afar were also a form of social control for the penal institution, as these mothering behaviors were consistent with being a good inmate.     

Redemption and reproach: Religion and carceral control in action among women in prison

Criminologists are increasingly interested in how a variety of justice-adjacent institutions scaffold surveillance and punishment in the U.S. criminal justice system. A relevant but understudied institution within the carceral state is that of religion. Drawing on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork inside a U.S. state women's prison, I interrogate how religion—predominately conservative and evangelical Protestantism—served dual purposes in light of carceral control. Religion offered redemptive narratives to counter punitive carceral narratives promulgated by the state. At the same time, this narrative shift from “flawed” to “faithful” prescribed particular forms of embodiment: avoiding fights and rejecting sexual relationships with women. These forms of Protestant embodiment aligned with carceral purposes, such that women who reprimanded others for breaching religious norms were simultaneously enforcing prison rules. Although rhetorically challenging official prison narratives on the meaning of incarceration, Protestant narratives in practice regulated women's emotional and sexual behaviors and fostered a system of informal surveillance among incarcerated women. These findings illuminate how organizational narratives are linked to individual action. More broadly, they suggest how an institution such as religion can undergird state authority within an intractable context of carceral control.     

The creative use of the ADHD diagnosis in probationers' self-narratives

Drawing upon a narrative criminological theoretical framework, this article explores how probationers use the ADHD diagnosis in self-narratives. Eleven in-depth interviews with probationers diagnosed with ADHD were carried out, while the interviewees were under the supervision of the Danish Probation Service. The analysis of the empirical material shows that the ADHD diagnosis provides a context for their life that helps make sense of and explain their past. Although their self-narratives are in a sense personal stories, they relate ADHD as a neurobiological disorder to their criminal past, using the available cultural narratives (Loseke, D. R. (2007). The study of identity as cultural, institutional, organizational, and personal narratives: Theoretical and empirical integrations. The Sociological Quarterly, 48, 661–688). Three types of co-existing self-narratives were identified: (1) ‘ADHD as my biological destiny’, (2) ‘It should have been discovered earlier in my life’ and (3) ‘I would not have been without ADHD’. As the probationers articulated all three narratives, the particular role of ADHD in the individual self-narratives was ambiguous. The probationers stated that they would not have missed the wild experiences of ‘living on the edge’, while at the same time describing ADHD as a determining factor for their life paths as criminals. Accordingly the probationers tended to explain not the individual offences, but their lives as criminals. Following this, the final section discusses whether their use of ADHD leads to crime-reducing ‘narratives of desistance’ or whether they instead represent crime-increasing ‘neutralization narratives’ (Maruna, S. (2001). Making good: How ex-convicts reform and reclaim their lives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association; Maruna, S., & Copes, H. (2005). What have we learned from five decades of neutralization research? Crime and Justice, 32, 221–320).     

私房使用管理的法制路径——兼评房屋使用管理的立法完善

住房改革引起的房屋产权的转化(从国家所有到私人所有),并不意味着房屋使用管理权的完全移转(从政府管理到私人自治),但私权进入传统的公权管制领域,私权与公权在房屋使用管理中形成既相互区分又相互促进的合作关系。私权成为房屋使用管理中的支配力量,私人自治是私权行使的主要方式;公权的作用在于,在公用部分以及公益需求的公共事项上,促进和保证私权意思的形成以及在法定范围内的正确行使。房屋使用管理在立法上的完善涉及《物权法》、《房地产管理法》、《物业管理条例》以及相关司法解释等一系列公私规范性法律文件的共同作用。     

Evaluation of a halfway house for women

A halfway house for female offenders in Long Beach, California was evaluated by comparing the number and severity of offenses of graduates of the house to those of a matched group of women released in the same area and period. The groups had comparable criminal histories. A U.S. Bureau of Prisons index was used to classify the severity of offenses. Results indicated that the halfway house reduced both the number and severity of offenses. This conclusion withstood a review of the threats to validity. The policy implications of the finding are discussed.     

Maternal Separations During the Reentry Years for 100 Infants Raised in a Prison Nursery

Prison nurseries prevent maternal separations related to incarceration for the small subset of children whose pregnant mothers are incarcerated in states with such programs. For a cohort of 100 children accepted by corrections into one prison nursery, subsequent separation patterns are analyzed. The largest numbers are caused by corrections' removal of infants from the nursery and infants reaching a one-year age limit. Criminal recidivism and substance abuse relapse threaten continued mothering during reentry. Focused and coordinated services are needed during prison stay and reentry years to sustain mothering for women and children accepted into prison nursery programs.     

Mothers of children removed under a care order: outcomes and experiences

ABSTRACT

Focusing on accounts by women who have children taken into care, this paper reports on a socio-legal case study in England, investigating the life experiences of nine mothers, whose children have been made subject to care orders under the Children Act 1989. In particular it considers the women’s experiences of their relationships with their own mothers and places this within the context of the mothers’ own experiences of having their children taken into care. Drawing on free association narrative interviews, the study focuses on the mothers’ accounts of long-term harm that began in their childhoods, especially their experiences of their mothers’ own difficulties and of their experiences of harm. It highlights the impact of relationship difficulties between mother and child, and questions how the legal concepts of harm and reasonable parental care are defined and deployed. In conclusion, it demonstrates a need for the legal framework to address children’s experiences of harm in a more intergenerational and intersubjective way. It highlights a new approach, suggesting consideration of harm, reasonable parental care and welfare to involve an increased concentration on the welfare of mothers and the relationship between mother and child, akin to an intersubjective and intergenerational approach to harm.     

Teenagers’ Experiences of Pregnancy and the Parents’ and Partners’ Reactions: A Malaysian Perspective

This study focuses on the experiences of unwed teenage mothers in Malaysia in respect to the reactions of their parents and the fathers of their babies and how the reactions from significant others influence these unwed teenage mothers. The investigation was based on content analysis of interviews with 17 unwed teenage mothers, aged 12 to 18 years, during their probation or placement in shelter houses. The results show that most unwed teenage mothers became pregnant as a result of rape or statutory rape, and thus were at risk of developing mental health problems. Three themes were developed: secrecy, repression, and rejection. Four additional themes—feeling detached, trapped, unworthy, and ambiguous—were developed to describe the teenagers’ experiences of pregnancy.     

A Life-Course Perspective on Incarcerated Women’s Views on Adulthood

Drawing on 35 in-depth interviews with incarcerated women, supplemented by mail correspondence with a sub-sample of these women, I explore how the participants interpret their early life-course experiences when reflecting on their transition to adulthood and, subsequently, their views on adult roles and responsibilities. The women’s narratives indicate that early experiences with trauma, along with premature entries into adult roles, result in a disorganized transition to adulthood. The findings also suggest that the women’s accelerated transitions to adulthood shape their views on adult roles, pointing to a need to incorporate discussions of age-normative timetables in efforts to assist at-risk and incarcerated women.     

CLASSIFICATION TO HALFWAY HOUSES: A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION *

Faced with prison overcrowding, institutions must seek alternatives to imprisonment. An under researched possibility is the use of halfway houses for the placement of offenders serving prison sentences. The LSI, an objective risk classification instrument, was administered to inmates from three jails. Low-scoring inmates from two of the jails were flagged for placement in correctional halfway houses, and the third jail was blind to LSI scores. The halfway house placement rate was 51 % for the jails that used LSI scores and 16% for the jail using traditional subjective classification procedures. The results suggest that subjective offender assessments run the risk of over classifying offenders whereas objective risk assessments yield more appropriate classifications.     

Punishment and Paperwork: White-Collar Offenders Under Community Supervision

This article examines how changes in penal ideology may affect the experiences of white-collar offenders under community supervision. In-depth interviews with white-collar offenders on their experiences while under federal probation are used to examine how changes in criminal punishment have undermined the traditional reintegrative and rehabilitative goals of community supervision. The analysis suggests that shifts to a more managerial, actuarial model that seeks depersonalized efficiency has unintended consequences that delegitimatize the criminal justice system, and foster sentiments of degradation. Based on these findings, considerations for future research are discussed.     

Predictors of recidivism among halfway house residents

This study concerns client success or failure while residing in a halfway house for adult offenders. As with some other studies, failure or recidivism is defined in this analysis as behavior that results in removal from the facility and subsequent incarceration. This quantitative case study of one treatment facility in Tennessee utilized case records on the population of clients from 1981 through 1987 (N = 75). A number of hypotheses were developed and tested with both bh/ariate and multivariate methods. Results indicated that, at least in this halfway house, those residents who had experienced two or more prison terms and who had most recently been convicted for a violent crime were most likely to recidivate while in the facility. Other substantively significant factors were alcohol use, religious attendance, and the experience of mental health counseling. Programmatic implications of these results are discussed.     

THE REPRODUCTIVE AND PARENTAL RIGHTS OF INCARCERATED MOTHERS

Acknowledging the explosive growth in the number of incarcerated women in the United States, this Note critically examines the current treatment of mothers and expectant mothers in the U.S. prison system. This Note highlights the severe inadequacy of current prison policies and accompanying maltreatment of incarcerated women and their children, especially with regard to the frequent separation of mothers from their children and the poor health care available to expectant mothers. The damage inflicted by current prison policies must be comprehensively redressed through the creation of prison nursery programs, halfway houses, the provision of optimal prenatal care, and the elimination of the draconian practice of shackling pregnant women. Such reforms will not only benefit incarcerated women and their children, but will also deter recidivism and promote the welfare of the community at large.     

Transitional narratives of identity among ethnic minority youth gangs in Denmark: from collectivism to individualism

Current literature often depicts the street cultures of ethnic minority youth as forms of collective cultural resistance to experiences of marginalization from mainstream society. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative interviews in 2014 with 23 young men attached to a rehabilitation centre for criminal offenders in Denmark, this article focuses on ethnic minority youth who desist from such street culture and their former gang life, criminality and drug use and how they describe this shift within their narratives. More specifically, we show how this shift can to some extent be characterized by a move from collective to more individualistic self-narratives re-articulating broader individualistic discourses existing in contemporary society. Among these more individualistic self-narratives, we find extensive reference to ideas of self-responsibility and also individual pragmatic interpretations of Islam. Such re-articulations can be seen as a way to create feelings of agency in severely disempowering circumstances.     

Racial Minority Women and Criminal Justice Responses to Domestic Violence

Racialized minority women’s experiences with Canadian specialized criminal justice responses to domestic violence have seldom been documented. Informed by an intersectionality framework, this qualitative study presents the struggles of 14 racial minority women from three Canadian cities and their experiences with the police and criminal court’s response to their partner’s acts of domestic violence. The results focus on how well specialized criminal justice responses address the needs of these women and protect them from further violence. Factors that facilitate or deter these women from approaching the criminal justice system for help are highlighted. The implications of these women’s narratives for criminal justice responses to domestic violence are discussed.     

‘My Eyes Were Open’: Awakened Maternal Identity and Leaving Violent Relationships for the Infant/Children

A qualitative secondary analysis explored stories of mothers (n = 49) who left violent relationships (VRs) through a lens of maternal identity. Constant comparative method identified a theory of Awakened Maternal Identity (AMI) and Leaving VR for the Infant/Children. Mothers described how the VR diminished their maternal identity (DMI). Partners controlled the VR though unrealistic infant care expectations, criticisms of infant care, harsh parenting, and control over mothering decisions. DMI lowered the mother’s capacity to provide emotionally nurturing infant care. Over time, mothers experienced AMI- as their ‘eyes were opened’ they experienced a stronger sense of mothering responsibility, focused more on the infants and children, and eventually prioritized their relationship with the infants and children over the partner. AMI seemed a turning point that led to leaving the VR for the infants/children. Recommendations offered for professionals to foster AMI as potential means to initiate the leaving VRs.     

监所检察监督的问题与对策探析

近年来,各级检察机关认真落实最高人民检察院《关于加强和改进监所检察工作的决定》,加大了对刑罚执行和监管活动的监督力度,监管执法的能力和水平明显提升,侵害在押人员合法权益的问题得到了有效遏制。但是在押人员非正常死亡、违法变更刑罚执行等问题尚未在司法实践中得到彻底解决,监所检察仍然是检察机关法律监督中的薄弱环节。这些不足和问题,反映了当前监所检察运行在监督理念、基础保障、监督方式等方面还有待加强和改进。因此,坚持"三个维护"的监所检察指导思想,加强监所检察建设,促进工作机制和监督方式创新,应是我们完善监所检察监督必须认真研究和思考的问题。     

‘Madness is a Woman’: Constance Kent and Victorian Constructions of Female Insanity

Puerperal insanity has attracted significant academic attention in cases of Victorian child killing when mothers killed their young children. This article expands the focus of the puerperal insanity narratives in order to address how, or whether these discourses influenced the wider realm of female insanity. By using the Constance Kent case as an exemplar the article explores how medical and legal ‘tests’ translated into a social conception of female insanity. The preponderance of press reports and the decisions reached suggest insanity came to be a ready social answer when women killed children.     

Being Superwoman: Low Income Mothers Surviving Problem Drinking and Intimate Partner Violence

We elucidate ways mothers think about behavior change related to heavy drinking and violent relationships. A purposive sample of 32 women, predominantly black and low income, were identified as engaging in both problem drinking on the AUDIT and experiencing severe partner violence on the Conflict Tactic Scale. Narratives from audiotaped Motivational Interviewing sessions conducted in an urban emergency department were transcribed, inductively coded and examined through the lens of feminist standpoint theory. Our analysis suggests motherhood is a powerful motivator for positive change, but multiple barriers combine to prevent self-protection and modification of adverse behaviors among this vulnerable population. Interventions to help low-income mothers dealing with relationship violence and substance abuse should also address the structural violence and substantive barriers these mothers face. Further work should examine the power of personal narratives related to being a good mother on women’s ability to improve life circumstances for themselves and their children.