Treacherous Trysts,Tender Trade:

This paper examines how wives' continuing relationships with their incarcerated husbands are shaped by prison policies concerning husbands receiving personal services and approved material goods during in-prison visitation. A combination of data sources are used to construct an ethnographic account of the experiences of thirty women married to men incarcerated in two prisons. Findings show that within the constraints of prison visiting, marital relationships can be strengthened and/or undermined whenever wives perform personal services and deliver goods. Delivery of legal goods strained wives' limited financial resources while smuggling contraband provided wives with temporary relief from money worries. It is concluded that certain prison policies believed functional for the prison treatment program can lead to dysfunctional consequences for prisoner-wife interaction and for the quality of wives' lives on the outside.