Social Functions of Prison Families: The Female Solution

Abstract

A participant-observation study was conducted in the women's prison in central Alabama. The psychological adaptation of inmates to an extreme situation was examined. Basically, it was found that women without men play the same roles that they have always played, that they reconstruct a family structure and that these surrogate families help insulate them from the pains of imprisonment.

Coping with Separation:

“…The findings of this paper shed some light on the major debates that exist in the literature on women in prison (Giallombardo 1966;Heffernan 1972;Leger 1987;Mawby 1982;Moyer 1980;Van Wormer 1981;and Ward and Kassebaum 1965). The first debate focuses on the role of affective relationships, especially fictive families, on the adaptation process of women' prisoners.…”

“…In addition, contrary to existing literature, the women at MCIW who were involved in couple relationships described their relationships in egalitarian terms, rather than in the traditional male-female dichotomy (Van Wormer 1981). Although this could represent changes in sex role relationships in the outside world that have been imported to the prison, further research is needed to document this finding.…”

“…In addition, most studies of women prisoners have found that female inmates tend to organize into enduring primary relationships (Heffernan (1972); LaShanna (1969); Leger (1987); Mawby (1982); MacKenzie, Robinson and Campbell (1989); and Van Wormer (1987)). However, there is significant disagreement in this literature as to the structural form of the relationships.…”

“…In contrast to the males, female inmates tend to organize into relatively enduring primary relationships, often involving dyadic homosexual attachments and extensive-"cjuasi-family" relationships. Even though most studies of women prisoners have found that female inmates tend to organize into enduring primary relationships, the specific form the relationship takes varies from study to study (Heffernan (1972); LaShanna (1969); Leger (1987); Mawby (1982); Moyer (1980);and Van Wormer (1987)). …”

Women Incarcerated in Rural Southern Prisons in the United States: A Review of Existing Multidisciplinary Literature and Suggestions for Future Directions

“…These studies explored possible policy changes including overnight visits with children and special visiting hours for children (Hadley, 1981;Sobel, 1982). Scholars also became interested in the lived experiences of incarcerated women with disobedience and reprimand (Faily et al, 1980), coping and adjusting techniques (Sultan et al, 1985) educational and vocational programming, access to health services (Leonard, 1983), and the "functionality" and "dysfunctionality" of pseudo-families formed among incarcerated women (van Wormer, 1981;1987).…”