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81 Chapter 4 Family Dynamics in Reentry and Desistance The women in this study are actively working to re-create their social identities.This includes not only their identity as an ex-offender, prisoner, or drug user, but also their identities as a mother, sister, daughter, girlfriend or wife, and friend. Importantly, these identities often come into conflict with their sense of self as defined through the twelve-step and other self-help messages they learned at the Mercy Home. The majority of the women in this study are from low-income African American communities, in which motherhood and family are highly valued. Most of the women have children, and regaining custody of some or all of them is often a primary goal (Brown and Bloom 2009; Enos 2001; Richie 2001). All of the women with children aspired to strengthening their relationships with their children; about two-thirds said it was important but not difficult, and the remaining women expressed some level of difficulty in reestablishing or improving these relationships . In addition, many of the women have extensive histories of abuse, often at the hands of family members and romantic partners. In spite of these histories, many of these women remained loyal to their parents and other relatives, and strengthening relationships with families was important to them, during, and after their incarceration. For these women, the people, places, and things related to their offending and drug use often included family members.Thus, removing themselves from relationships with connections to their past offending may be financially, socially, and emotionally difficult, and doing so comes with significant costs (Maruna and Roy 2007). Sharon described what she saw as the most important factors in the lives of her and women in her position. Sharon: Maybe about the difficulties adapting, you know, after coming home from prison.You know,how difficult that has been.The steps that they took to get, you know, to the next level. Relationships with their children— well, you asked me that, but I think that’s a real good one. I believe that’s a 82 Th e S o c i a l C o n t e x t o f R e e n t ry lot of things that a lot of us struggle with.Although I wasn’t in prison for a long period of time, I had been in and out of my children’s life. Relationships with other family members. Because when you start changing, then they change, you know, and they used to you being one way and then you change, you know. It’s hard for them to really deal with the new you, ’cause I experienced that a lot with my family, so you know I kind of stay distant. . . . It’s a difficult transition, coming from prison and back out here to get into the swing of things. The women’s offending, drug use, past incarcerations, and drug relapses had long-lasting effects on their families of origin and their relationships. Still, they rarely led to a termination of the relationships. Family members returning from prison or desisting from offending and drug use led to shifting family dynamics and a need to redefine relationships. These redefinitions were influenced not only by offending or drug use but also by gendered expectations of family roles. This chapter details these shifting dynamics, including how the women attempted to reconcile twelve-step messages with their family demands. Children and Motherhood Motherhood is one of the most common themes in both the research literature on female prisoners and in these women’s narratives.All of the women with children had at least one of their children before going to prison the first time. Many had children before becoming involved with drug use or offending, and many gave birth to children throughout their period of active offending and drug use. So, for these women, giving birth to children did not lead to desistance from drug use or offending (Huebner, DeJong, and Cobbina 2010). However, children were central to their mothers’ narratives of desistance (Enos 2001; Giordano, Cernkovich, and Rudolph 2002). They were commonly mentioned as a motivating factor for “going straight,” and the women wanted to do right by their children, even where they failed in the past. Regardless of whether the women were custodial parents, children were central to their sense of self. Children and Addiction Dee Dee’s history illustrates the complicated interplay between drug use, offending, and motherhood. Dee Dee had...

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