Formerly Incarcerated Black Mothers Matter Too: Resisting Social Constructions of Motherhood

• Author: Michael B. Mitchell,Jaya B. Davis
• Published date: 01 September 2019
• Date: 01 September 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0032885519852079
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0032885519852079

The Prison Journal

2019, Vol. 99(4) 420 –436

© 2019 SAGE Publications

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DOI: 10.1177/0032885519852079

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Article

Formerly Incarcerated

Black Mothers Matter

Too: Resisting Social

Constructions of

Motherhood

Michael B. Mitchell1 and Jaya B. Davis1

Abstract

Mass incarceration as a system of racialized and gendered social control has

disproportionately impacted Black women, many of whom are mothers.

Contrary to dominant social constructions of motherhood, these women

employ their own strategies of mothering unique to their lived experiences.

This study relies on interview data to understand Black women’s motherhood

experiences post-incarceration. Drawing from five semistructured interviews

of Black mothers across a large urban area in Texas, we argue for more

critical, qualitative research of formerly incarcerated Black women, grounded

in Black feminist theory (BFT).

Keywords

formerly incarcerated, motherhood, Black women, Black feminist theory

Introduction

Since 1980, the number of incarcerated women has outpaced the rate of men

by 50%, making them the fastest growing segment of the nation’s prison

population (The Sentencing Project, 2018). Increasingly, this population of

1University of Texas at Arlington, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jaya B. Davis, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Texas at

Arlington, Box 19595, 362 University Hall, 601 S. Nedderman Dr., Arlington, TX 76019, USA.

Email: jbdavis@uta.edu

852079TPJXXX10.1177/0032885519852079The Prison JournalMitchell and Davis

research-article2019

Mitchell and Davis 421

women consists of mothers with dependent children; approximately two-

thirds of incarcerated women have minor children (Glaze & Maruschak,

2010), posing negative implications for families left behind (Arditti & Few,

2006; Turney & Wildeman, 2018). Despite this reality, relatively few studies

have focused specifically on the unique experiences of incarcerated mothers

(Celinska & Siegel, 2010). Like men, most incarcerated women will eventu-

ally return to their communities. However, because reentry is a gendered phe-

nomenon, women’s life circumstances post-incarceration are distinct from

men’s (Cobbina, 2010; Heldemann, Cederbaum, & Martinez, 2016).

Obstacles faced by returning women may be further exacerbated by mother-

hood (Garcia, 2016; Hayes, 2009).

When considering parental incarceration and reentry, the experiences of

formerly incarcerated women are of critical importance because they are

more likely than their male counterparts to be primary caregivers prior to

their incarceration and plan to resume maternal responsibilities upon release

(Arditti, 2012; Opsal, 2009). Since 1991, the number of children who have

experienced maternal incarceration increased by 131%, far surpassing the

rate of experiences of paternal incarceration (Barnes & Stringer, 2014).

However, few research studies have examined the challenges formerly incar-

cerated mothers face despite the sharp increase in female incarceration rates

over the past few decades (Cooper-Sadlo, Mancini, Meyer, & Chou, 2019).

While mothers returning home from incarceration face additional obsta-

cles, the experiences and challenges of motherhood are not universal. Mothers

from different race and class backgrounds define and employ their own con-

ceptions of what it means to be a good mother and, therefore, do not fit within

hegemonic ideals of motherhood (Aiello & McQueeney, 2016; Roberts,

1993b). In the United States, societal views of Black mothers differ from and

contradict those of White mothers (Roberts, 1993b). Thus throughout history,

Black women have fallen outside the realm of what constitutes a good mother

(Davis, 1981; Guy-Sheftall, 1995; Roberts, 1993b). The dominant ideologies

of mothering continue to be based upon White, upper-to-middle class, hetero-

sexual women who enjoy a greater degree of privilege and financial security

(Collins, 1994). Therefore, women who diverge from conventional ideolo-

gies and conceptions of motherhood are often considered bad or unfit moth-

ers (Baker & Carson, 1999).

Formerly incarcerated Black mothers’ membership in several intersecting

categories of oppression places them at the extreme ends of marginalized

groups. While the experiences of all women have historical invisibility in the

criminal justice system (Arditti, 2012; Richie, 2001), gender traditionally has

been understood as referring to White women. Black women have continu-

ously experienced a special kind of oppression in the United States, both