The Impact of the Prison Environment on Mothers

In: The prison journal: the official publication of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Volume 75, Issue 3, p. 306-329

Abstract

In a period when greater numbers of women are being sent to prison nationally and many treatment and educational programs in prison are being eliminated, this "insider's" ethnographic study of mothers incarcerated at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York analyzes the problems and potentials of a model reform-oriented prison for women. Although the infantilizing, punitive character of the prison and its programs undermines the mothers' agency and reinforces punitive parenting models, many women take advantage of the educational, vocational, self-help, and parenting programs available to undertake significant change and self-development, and to improve their relationships with their children and their role in society.