Depth in Simultaneous Familial Imprisonment

This paper draws on qualitative interviews with men and women who were incarcerated simultaneously with family members, some in close proximity, sharing a cell, others in separate institutions with limited contact opportunities. Through the symbolic framework of ‘depth’— used to denote the distance and isolation from the outside world— this paper explores how the presence or absence of family within and across prison walls shapes individual experiences of imprisonment. Moreover, it explores how familial relationships are impacted by, maintained, or transformed within the prison estate. This paper suggests that to understand the depth of imprisonment, one must ask not merely what or whom people are separated from when taken out of the community but also whom or what they reunite with when incarcerated.