Playing the Part: Pseudo-families, Girlfriends and the Politics of Relationships in Women’s Prison.

• In Event: Sexuality, Policy, and Intersectionality in Criminology and Criminal Justice

Abstract

Little is known at present regarding the experience and activities of gang-affiliated women in prison. Our paper reports the results of data from 12 women (interviewed as part of a larger study of women leaving gang life) who spent time in federal or state correctional institutions in California and offered insights into prison life. Consistent with previous literature, we found that gang activity is not as prevalent in women’s prisons as in men’s. Also, we found that, rather than splinter into territorially-based units that reflect divisions on the street, women tended to create interpersonal units that took the form of families and/or dyads that reconstruct hetero-normative relational patterns during the course of their incarceration. The data further revealed that, while women tend to express similar motivations for engaging in interpersonal relationships such as dyads and pseudo-families, the process by which they became involved in and ways they performed their roles varied substantially. Finally, participants discussed the rules or politics of being involved in prison relationships and the implications these had on relational dynamics and participants’ sense of identity. The results offer an alternative lens through which to understand human agency among incarcerated women.

Authors

• Abigail Kolb, Simon Fraser University

• Ted Palys, Simon Fraser University