Conducting In-Depth Interviews with Jailed Fathers and Their Family Members: Feasibility and Challenges

• In Event: Conducting Research in Jails: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

The rapid growth of mass incarceration in the United States means that a historically unprecedented number of individuals experience the incarceration of a family member. In this paper, I describe the Jail & Family Life Study, a longitudinal and qualitative investigation of the complex and countervailing ways that the incarceration of fathers creates, maintains, and exacerbates inequalities among families and children. First, I suggest that jails are an understudied yet critically important aspect of the criminal justice system and that jail incarceration, compared to the more commonly studied prison incarceration, has unique implications for family life. Second, I describe challenges to navigating access to jailed fathers, an especially vulnerable population, and their family members. Third, and relatedly, I discuss challenges associated with interviewing multiple members of the same family, which include the interrelated processes of navigating strained relationships, building rapport, and maintaining both between- and within-family confidentiality of all participants. Taken together, this data collection effort contributes to the growing literature on the spillover consequences of incarceration by examining how jail incarceration affects men and their family members; by examining changes pre- and post-release (the separation and re-integration of fathers); and by systematically including Latinos.

Author

• Kristin Turney, University of California Irvine