I Came Back to Life: Black Women’s Experiences of Maternal Resurrection after Incarceration

• In Event: 390 - Section on Race, Gender and Class Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Race, Gender, Class and the Sociology of Family

Abstract

Drawing from eighteen months of ethnographic research and interviews at a women’s reentry home in South Los Angeles, I argue that prison atrophies relationships to produce a state of “social death,” so reentry is shaped by the ability to resurrect social connections. By looking at the various ways that formerly incarcerated Black women’s daily lives are shaped by incarceration even after they have left prison, I elucidate how they contend with their prison histories, and which conditions produce persistent social isolation. In this paper, I present a central struggle for formerly incarcerated Black women who are trying to rebuild social connections during their reentry: reconnecting with children during reentry I identify the parties with whom the women must negotiate with in order to resolve this struggle. Finally, I identify the possible solutions that the women utilize in order to resolve conflicts over reconnecting with children. I also demonstrate that women who are on a pathway to social resurrection are easily disrupted and pulled back into a liminal reentry space that threatens social death. I conclude the paper with a discussion of the ways that carceral networks are critical sources of positive social support for women during reentry, but also how the necessity of these carceral networks represent the ubiquitous presence of mass incarceration in poor Black communities.
 

Author

• Susila Gurusami, University of California-Los Angeles