Facing the Ties That Bind: Understanding Experiences of Men With An Incarcerated Romantic Partner

• Published date: 01 August 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211059319
• Author: Thomas Dutcher,Kevin Barnes-Ceeney
• Date: 01 August 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211059319

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2023, Vol. 67(10-11) 999 –1016

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X211059319

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Article

Facing the Ties That Bind:

Understanding Experiences

of Men With An Incarcerated

Romantic Partner

Thomas Dutcher1 and Kevin Barnes-Ceeney1

Abstract

This study examines what it means to be a man with an incarcerated romantic

partner. Despite recognition that those experiencing familial incarceration are a

heterogeneous group, the extant literature lacks a clear focus of the experience

of men with incarcerated romantic partners. Using a phenomenological design, the

researchers interviewed seven men with incarcerated romantic partners to explicate

the essential structures of their lived experience. The interviews are explicated into

six essences illuminating the experience of being a man with an incarcerated partner.

Identified essences explored are: embodying the social tie facilitator, love and

commitment living in future time, the sense of something missing, felt confinement,

and the new normal. Fifteen additional sub-themes are discussed. These findings

inform implications for both future research and policies that can aid in maintaining

the ties that bind during familial incarceration.

Keywords

incarceration, secondary prisonization, phenomenology, prisoners’ families

Introduction

Recognizing that the collateral consequences of imprisonment generate residual obli-

gations for researchers, we take up Bülow’s (2014) obligation to “search for knowl-

edge” to better understand the harms experienced by family members of the

1University of New Haven, CT, USA

Corresponding Author:

Thomas Dutcher, Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences, University of New

Haven, 300 Boston Post Road, West Haven, CT 06515, USA.

Email: tdutcher@newhaven.edu

1059319IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X211059319International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyDutcher and Barnes-Ceeney

research-article2021

1000 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 67(10-11)

incarcerated. To this end, this paper examines the lived experience of men with incar-

cerated romantic partners. The extent to which this research is important is grounded

in the data on incarceration. About 2.2 million people are incarcerated in the United

States and nearly half of all persons living in America have experienced the incarcera-

tion of an immediate family member (Enns et al., 2019). While these numbers give us

a rough idea of the extent of those impacted by familial incarceration, there is no cur-

rent data which can paint an accurate picture of the number of men with incarcerated

romantic partners. While much of the extant literature describes the burdens and

strains experienced as collateral or secondary punishments (Arditti, 2012; Comfort,

2009; Einat et al., 2015; Kirk & Wakefield, 2018; Turanovic et al., 2012), the term

“symbiotic harm” (Condry & Minson, 2020) captures the phenomenological under-

pinnings of this study. The lens of symbiotic harms takes an agentic approach, arguing

that families with incarcerated members are a heterogeneous group, and situates the

harms experienced by families as occurring in a nonlinear fashion, in relation to and

mutually alongside the incarcerated individual (Condry & Minson, 2020).

The extant body of literature related to familial incarceration focuses on harms

experienced by children (Condry & Smith, 2018; Poehlmann, 2005; Robillard et al.,

2016; Turney & Wildeman, 2018), wives of male prisoners (Apel et al., 2010; Arditti,

2012; Turney & Wildeman, 2018), and caregivers (Granja, 2016; Tasca, 2016;

Turanovic et al., 2012). Research on the effects of incarceration on the family largely

finds that families experience strains related to stigma, degrading family and social

ties, and economic hardships (Arditti, 2012; Condry & Minson, 2020). However,

research on male spouses of incarcerated women (Einat et al., 2015), sisters of incar-

cerated brothers (Tadros et al., 2020), and women with incarcerated partners (Condry

& Smith, 2018) remind us that those experiencing familial incarceration extend beyond

these commonly studied groups of wives, children, and caregivers. Yet, a gap remains

in understanding the experience of men with an incarcerated romantic partner.

Literature Review

Incarcerated Women

Research has noted the rapid nature of the rise in the incarceration of women, espe-

cially in relation to rates of material incarceration in the United States (Turney &

Wildeman, 2018), and in response, researchers examining the effects of familial

incarceration have begun to examine the effects of maternal incarceration on the fam-

ily (Arditti, 2012; Burgess-Proctor et al., 2016; Comfort, 2009; Turanovic et al.,

2012). This research finds that families experience stigma-laden secondary prisoniza-

tion as intra-familial interactions are shaped by pervasive carceral norms (Aiello &

McCorkel, 2018). The rise in the incarceration of women has led to an increase in

scholarly literature that focuses on the experiences, attitudes, and beliefs of incarcer-

ated women (Poehlmann, 2005; Turney & Wildeman, 2018). Within this sphere of

research are studies that examine the social support experienced by incarcerated

women and mothers (Clone & DeHart, 2014; Cooper-Sadlo et al., 2019; Leverentz,

2006; Severance, 2005; Tasca, 2016).