Women’s Relationships with Incarcerated Men

Each year millions of women in the United States, like Ebony, have a husband or boyfriend in prison (Comfort, 2003; Comfort, Grinstead, McCartney, Bourgois, & Knight, 2005). Many of these women maintain ties with their partner at great personal cost. These women struggle with severe financial difficulties as well as with the burdens involved in raising children alone (Christian, 2005) and face the problems of fulfilling multiple familial roles (Carlson & Cervera, 1992). According to Comfort (2003), women who visit at a correctional facility also encounter a punishing situation in which they face “restricted rights, diminished resources, and social marginalization… even though they are legally innocent and reside outside of the prison’s boundaries” (p. 79). Family members of serious offenders also suffer from the shame and stigma associated with an incarcerated family member (Condry, 2007).