Description
Book SynopsisDrawing on interviews conducted throughout New York City, Black feminist criminologist Janet Garcia-Hallett shares the traditionally silenced voices of formerly incarcerated mothers of color and exposes the difficult realities they face when reentering the community and navigating motherhood. Patriarchy, misogyny, and systemic racism marginalize and criminalize these mothers, pushing them into the grasp of penal control and forcing them to live in a state of disempowerment and hypersurveillance after imprisonment. Armed with critical insight, Invisible Mothers demonstrates the paradox of visibility: social institutions treat mothers of color as invisible by restricting them from equal opportunities, and simultaneously as hypervisible by penalizing them for the ways they survive their marginalization. This thoughtful book reveals and contests their marginalization and highlights how mothers of color perform motherwork on their own terms.
Trade Review"A valuable contribution to our knowledge about the lives of justice-involved African American, West Indian, and Latina mothers who are navigating the carceral state in the face of intersecting forms of oppression." * Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work *
Table of ContentsContents
Introduction
1. Motherwork: “It’s Always Been a Very Demanding Job”
2. Custody and Housing: “I Just Want My Baby Back”
3. Employment and Finances: “I Just Want to Be Able to Provide”
4. Life in Recovery: “There’s No Turning Back”
Conclusion
Appendix A: Research Design
Appendix B: Summary of the Mothers
Notes
References
Index
