African American Women with Incarcerated Mates

After nearly 40 years of mass incarceration, a disproportionate number of African American men in the United States prisons has resulted in countless African American women maintaining fragile families and trying to mend what has become a carceral state of the Black family. While the literature is scant on how African American women are affected by the imprisonment of their partners, the cases studies contained in this volume will broaden the perspectives of helping professionals, criminal justice students, and practitioners with a rare behind the scenes understanding of how these women experience grief, non-death loss, shame, emotional strains, and trauma. These women share their firsthand accounts of vulnerabilities and hardships interwoven with political, cultural, and the economic challenges that coexist with the results of having an incarcerated mated. They describe the raw and traumatizing crisis associated with having their families involuntarily torn apart with no guarantee that life will ever be the same. Their emotional stakes and social strains are high, yet these women strive to maintain their families, hold a job in the workforce under stressful conditions; and often place themselves last on the priority list of well-being as they head their households and become the de facto chief support for their incarcerated mate. However, even the most resilient women can wear down after repeated exposure to grief, trauma, and symbolic imprisonment (serving time on the outside) associated with her imprisoned male partner. This volume contains intervention strategies tailored to uniquely address the needs of this cultural group and attend to and understand what Hart-Johnson introduces and coins as Symbolic Imprisonment, Grief, and Coping Theory.