Who gets to be human?: Motherhood and incarceration as pathways in and out of care

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  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 6: Gender, Sexuality, and Crime

Abstract

While much has been written about the dehumanizing nature of incarceration, less research has focused on the ways that continuing to exclude formerly incarcerated people from full participation in society marks them as less than fully human. Using symbolic interactionist perspectives and grounded theory methods, this paper analyzes interviews with 42 formerly incarcerated individuals to trace gendered pathways into and out of healthcare for people caught up in the carceral system and to examine how these experiences make their full humanity appear contingent. Participants described being denied healthcare as a dehumanizing experience. Female participants with biological children frequently described pregnancy and childbirth as the primary means through which they had been able to access healthcare, but incarceration disrupted this pathway to care as these mothers were formally separated from their children. While healthcare is not treated as a human right in the United States, this study shows that – experientially and interactionally – the ability to receive care when one is hurting and vulnerable reaffirms one’s place within society as deserving of nurture and protection. Thus, since denial of healthcare is dehumanizing, receipt of healthcare becomes a way of acknowledging others as fully human. In this way, motherhood emerged as a way in which cis women gained full social recognition of their humanity, and by stripping them of this social role, incarceration also serves to dehumanize these women, even after their release.

Authors

• Erin Rebecca Johnson, University of Southern Indiana

• Paige Logan Prater, University of California-San Francisco

• Erin Josephine McCauley, University of California-San Francisco