Carceral Logics in Benevolent Places: How Institutions of Care Criminalize Justice-Involved Black Mothers

Abstract Scholarship examining the challenges that formerly incarcerated mothers experience after imprisonment often focuses on how their ex-offender status limits opportunities and leaves them alienated from their roles as citizens and as mothers. What is less understood however, is how women experience social exclusion from institutions that they initially perceive as supportive. Interviews with 33 formerly incarcerated Black mothers reveal how women respond to negative experiences with institutions after their imprisonment and how they interpret similar encounters of marginalization prior to their arrest and incarceration. In taking a life history approach to examining women’s experiences with social service agencies, this analysis examines the interplay between carceral logics, and the institutions purposed with facilitating women’s reintegration. The paper introduces the concept carceral logics of benevolence to capture how institutions that marginalized groups rely upon to extend benevolence, often further marginalize already vulnerable groups. Findings reveal that women interpret and respond to carceral logics of benevolence by engaging in institutional cynicism and drawing upon repertories of systemic marginalization.