In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Chapter 15 Depression and Isolation: Robin & Aaron Robin, who is thirty-four and has two daughters and a son, married her husband, Aaron, while he was incarcerated. He has a mandatory release date in four years and will come up for parole once before then. They met in elementary school, but their families knew each other before that. After she ‹nished high school and got a job, she found out that Aaron was incarcerated through a friend who, while visiting an incarcerated relative, saw Aaron’s mother. At ‹rst Robin was hesitant to start up a relationship with a man in prison. She went to visit him a few times but was really just thinking of him as a friend. At that time, I’m like, “I really don’t have the energy to put into this. This is a relationship that’s very complicated because you’re there and I’m here, and any relationship is complicated regardless, but I really don’t have the energy to get involved with someone in prison. It’s just not for me. I need something that’s permanent.” At that point, I was feeling like I wanted something that’s permanent, you know? At that time, it could have been with anybody that I cared enough for, or they cared enough for me both ways. So I was, like, “I just, you know, and I don’t know if I can handle a relationship of this magnitude because, again, you’re not here.” Even if it would have been just six months, that’s a long time not to have someone to lay beside you or walk down the street with you, or things that we take for granted every day. Eventually, though, she became closer with Aaron, and they developed a relationship that was close to what she had been looking for. While Robin had been secretive about his status, as she put it, “to the extreme,” she had been able to con‹de in her sister, a daily source of Doing Time on the Outside 196 sympathy and support. After four years of “dating” she was surprised when Aaron proposed. After talking things over with her sister, she decided to accept his proposal. After they were married, Robin visited Aaron several times a week while he was located at Central Facility in Lorton, Virginia, half an hour’s drive from D.C. After four years, however, Aaron was moved to a private facility in New Mexico and was locked down for reclassi‹cation.* Her sister’s death soon after her husband’s relocation was doubly devastating. They wouldn’t let me see him to explain to him the situation about my sister. So I had to tell him over the phone. You know, he was really torn up at that point because he couldn’t be there for me in no shape, form, or fashion because he was still in lockdown. So, he could barely even call. We didn’t see each other for a whole year. And, you know, we had never been really separated since we had been together. And this was like almost four years of being together. And it was terrible. It was really terrible. And I stayed . . . I stayed down. I never stopped praying the whole time, but I stayed down a lot. You know, grieving for my sister and just, you know, for my friend that I had lost. It was just too much going on for me at that time for me to function like I should function . Robin’s case illustrates a problem that many women face, particularly when the person they are most intimate with is relocated out of state: the loss of companionship is added to the erosion of social supports, further isolation, and an increased likelihood of depression. When Aaron was moved to New Mexico, Robin’s income from informal child-care work barely paid the bills, making visitation nearly impossible. What money she made went to supporting her children and * When an inmate is transferred to a new facility, it can take weeks or even months for the prison administration at the new facility to determine at what level of security to classify the new inmate. Facilities also have to assess any separation requirements. If two inmates have a history of violence and antagonism, then they should not be housed on the same cell block or allowed to come into contact with one another. [3.144.127.232] Project...

Share