CARE UNDER CARCERALITY: STRATEGIES OF WOMEN WITH INCARCERATED LOVED ONES

Mass incarceration disproportionately affects Black people, both in terms of who is literally caged, as well as who has to bear the emotional, social, and financial costs imposed by the incarceration of a loved one. Drawing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with nine women with incarcerated loved ones, this paper advances understanding of the effects and reach of mass incarceration by exploring the strategies developed and employed by women with incarcerated male partners or sons as they care for their incarcerated loved ones. By focusing on this question, I seek to contribute to literature on how incarceration affects family members of incarcerated people. I draw on theories about gendered care work to build on Comfort's concept of secondary prisonization and develop the idea of a double emotional burden carried by women with incarcerated loved ones. Findings demonstrate that the strategic behavioral adaptations women use to navigate control of the prison and care for their loved ones are manifestations of secondary prisonization. I argue that attention to the experiences, analyses, and agency of women caring for incarcerated loved ones is necessary to expand and nuance understandings of mass incarceration and its implications.