LIFE ON THE OUTSIDE: A MIXED METHODS STUDY OF INCARCERATION AND FAMILY LIFE

Abstract

After nearly four decades of unabated expansion, mass incarceration in the United States has become the new normal. Contact with the criminal justice system can fundamentally reshape family relationships and resources, and policymakers and families alike are grappling with how best to manage these negative repercussions. Using mixed methods, this dissertation investigates how families’ responses to the challenges of incarceration shape experiences and the wellbeing of different family members over three papers. Each paper further considers how policies can support strategies to mitigate hardship. The first chapter identifies disruptions to father engagement and family resources act as key mechanisms explaining nearly half of the increase in acting-out behavior in children with incarcerated fathers. The second chapter identifies the tradeoffs faced by women after the incarceration of their child’s father, linking variation in maternal wellbeing to whether the parent’s relationship continues, ends, or the mother introduces a new social father to her household. Finally, the third chapter draws from qualitative interviews to categorize three sets of strategies families use to navigate incarceration in a rural county jail. This dissertation concludes family responses to incarceration are consequential for mitigating the negative repercussions faced by different family members. Existing policies, however, may not adequately reflect the complex decisions families face as they attempt to the manage the challenges inherent to the incarceration process.