Baking Bittersweet: Mothers’ Dessert-Making Behind Bars

• In Event: Eating Humble Pie: Using Prison Food Narratives to Understand Incarceration

Abstract

A significant rise in women’s jail detention has occurred over the past fifteen years. While incarceration rates for overall correctional populations have finally begun a slow reversal, the rates for women occupying jails remain the sole exception. While jail facilities provide the basic material elements necessary for human survival (e.g., shelter, food, and clothing), survival of an identity as a mother requires innovation and creativity within the constraints presented by the surroundings. Jail shelter and clothing are not particularly amenable to manipulation, but food is. Desserts, particularly, are associated with a mothering identity both inside and outside jail. This study is a qualitative exploration of jailed mothers’ perceptions of dessert making while incarcerated. Interviews with ten jailed women suggest that dessert making is held in high regard among prisoners, lending the scarce resource of high status to the more successful dessertiers. Along with this status comes affirmation of one’s status as a mother. This study also addresses policy implications for jails and prisons.

Author

• Ami Stearns, University of Louisiana at Lafayette