Description
Book SynopsisExplores the issues that arise from a mother's confinement and provides first-person accounts of the experiences of children with moms behind bars. The author offers a perspective that recognises differences over the long course of a family's interaction with the criminal justice system and presents an unparalleled view into the children's lives both before and after their mothers are imprisoned.
Trade Review"Criminology professor Siegel examines the experiences of two groups of children with mothers involved in the criminal justice system: children whose mothers have been arrested but not yet sentenced, and children whose mothers have been incarcerated for at least one year. A very compelling book. Highly recommended."
* Choice *
"Jane Siegel has written a sociological study that speaks,
sotto voce, to the dire need to reform the USA's criminal justice policies and practices. There are times, though, when her text screams out at us. Incarcerated mothers lie at the center of Siegel's text, but their children occupy the field, and this is a battlefield. The children are pitted against poverty, drugs, poor schooling, and violence, and Siegel brings us into their lives—with and without their mothers. Siegel carefully builds a case againtst our 'nation's historic experiment with mass incarceration'."
* Teachers College Record *
Table of ContentsPART ONE
1. Living with Mom—Most of the Time
2. Outside the Curtained Windows
3. The Ubiquity of Violence
4. When the Criminal Justice System Comes Calling
PART TWO
5. They All Do the Time
6. What Lies Ahead
