Criminal (in)justice?: A frame analysis of the impact of family member incarceration on worldview

• In Event: 30662 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 5: Prisons/ Prison-Related/ Experiences in Prisons

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of familial incarceration on family members’ understanding and opinion of the U.S. carceral system. Using in-depth interviews with parents, spouses, partners, and siblings, as well as 18 months of observation of three virtual support groups (a general family group, a partners group, and a siblings group), I investigate how justice-impacted families (re)conceptualize the criminal justice system, define legitimacy and fairness, and determine how to respond to what they see as unfair legal practices. Drawing upon literature within legal socialization, legal cynicism, procedural justice, and legal estrangement, I argue that families directly impacted by the carceral system, from arrest to sentencing to incarceration to release, conceptualize it as an “injustice system” through one of four frames: 1) the carceral system does not fulfill what they understood as its intended purpose; 2) rules and laws are inconsistently applied across and within jurisdictions; 3) wrongful convictions are upheld despite due process; and 4) punishment is too harsh to be considered “just.” These families typically resort to one of three responses in what I call a typology of action: activism, or top-level systemic social change; advocacy, or medium-level actions on behalf of their loved one that could have spill-over effects to a few others but are not systemic; and caregiving, or micro-level radical acts of care and love for one individual shown in an environment that is antithetical to these needs. Existing research shows that family members retreat from civic participation and other institutional engagement after seeing the inner workings of the legal system firsthand, with very few mobilized into activism or resistance. However, this study demonstrates that there is something unique about families who participate in support groups, who may be structurally available for action.

Author

• Allegra Pocinki, Rutgers University-New Brunswick