Coping with Separation:

Abstract

This study is a descriptive analysis of the adaptation responses of inmates at a correctional institution for women located in the midwest of the United States. Data for the study were collected and analyzed using a qualitative methodological approach. This investigation extends the literature on women prisoners by examining the inmates' perceptions of the deprivations of incarceration; how inmates respond to the deprivations of incarceration; and the impact that relationships outside of prison has on the inmates' response to incarceration.Numerous studies have focused on the impact of prison on the inmate. Among the earliest and most influential was Clernmer's (1940) The Prison Community. In this study, Clernmer identified the concept of prison socialization, or prisonization, which is a process operating over time whereby the inmate is first initiated into and then becomes a part of the inmate social and cultural system. Following the research of Clernmer, two general theoretical models were developed to account for how inmates adapt to imprisonment, the "deprivation model" and the "importation model."According to the deprivation model (Sykes 1958), prisoners

All Aboard the Desistance Line: First Stop, Producing Prosocial Prison Attachments within an HIV Prison-Based Peer Program

“…Female prisoners may bond with one another through the recreation of family units (i.e., pseudo families) inside prison walls (Giallombardo, 1966. ) Family creation could serve as a coping mechanism to ameliorate the pains associated with incarceration (i.e., the separation from one's family and children), and they appear to be primary in meeting and fulfilling the emotional needs of the female prisoner (DeBell, 2001;Huggins, Capeheart, & Newman, 2006;Jones, 1993;Severance, 2005). Other works find that the nature of America's female prison "pseudo family" may be evolving, and correspondingly, diminishing in importance (Fox 1984;Greer, 2000;Propper, 1982;Severance, 2005).…”

Self-Efficacy Toward Release and Transfer in a Women’s Federal Medical Center: An Ethnographic Analysis of a Prisoner’s Blog

“…Thus, utilizing data from a personal blog written by a woman sentenced to serve one year and one day in a federal women's prison is an appropriate methodological choice to examine self-effi cacy. Furthermore, using CC as the theoretical framework vastly extends ethnographic research on the incarceration experiences of women as only a handful of studies have been conducted since the development of this approach in the mid-1990s (Bozkurt & Aresti, 2018;Jones, 1993;Kuhlmann, 2005). It also sheds light on how and when incarcerated women are able to demonstrate self-effi cacy despite their confi nement, as well as recognizing some of the barriers to those eff orts.…”