Soledad Women: Wives of Prisoners Speak Out

(Hardback)

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Little attention has been paid to the lives led by families of prisoners. Using a feminist approach, the author explores how the lives of 25 wives of prisoners at Soledad prison are affected by the incarceration of their husbands. Relationships, stigma, coping, finances, children, the prison system, and rehabilitation are explored through in-depth interviews. This study describes the experiences of the wives and seeks to connect their experiences to a conceptual framework that explores the context of sex, race, and class inequalities. The author discusses prison policy recommendations to improve the lot of prisoners' families, emphasizing the ways in which life is organized in families where the husband/father is imprisoned. Several themes emerge in this work. The powerful role of the wife, women as caretakers, and the subordinate position these women hold in society due to their sex, class, and race, are some examples. Recommendations are made to ease the burden of visiting, and encourage maintenance of family roles.

Reviews

"Dr. Girshick's work underscores the potential of prisoners' wives as stabilizing forces and necessary to any rehabilitation or anti-recidivism goals. This study...suggests that the justice system begin to view the wives/spouses/partners of offenders as valuable resources and allies in the fight against crime."- Ann Adalist-Estrin Child/Family Therapist Director, Parent Resource Association
"This is a valuable addition to the material available on families of prisoners. Lori Girshick has allowed the voices of these women to be clearly heard and has given us new insight into their lives."- Jim Mustin, Founder and President, Family and Corrections Network
"Wives of prisoners are often an afterthought in terms of criminal justice policy and practice. They have been rarely studied, and most of the literature on this population has further pathologized and stigmatized prisoners' wives. Dr. Girshick's insightful study sheds new light on this phenomenon and gives the prisoner's wife a human face. This examination of the impact of incarceration on women who are married to prisoners is critical to effecting changes in correctional policies and practices which often "punish" the wives (and children) for crimes they did not commit."-Barbara E. Bloom Bloom & Associates

Author Bio

LORI B. GIRSHICK is on the faculty of Warren Wilson College, where she teaches sociology and women's studies courses. She has experience in the domestic violence field and has worked in an agency providing services to people with HIV. Dr. Girshick's work has appeared in The Prison Journal, Reproductive Health Resources, Violence Update, Policy Studies Journal, and Policy Issues for the Elderly Poor.