Doing Time on the Outside: Incarceration and Family Life in Urban America

By Donald Braman. 2004

582 citations recorded by the source corpus.

"Stigma, shame and hardship---this is the lot shared by families whose young men have been swept into prison. Braman reveals the devastating toll mass incarceration takes on the parents, partners, and children left behind."-Katherine S. Newman ""Doing Time on the Outside" brings to life in a compelling way the human drama, and tragedy, of our incarceration policies. Donald Braman documents the profound economic and social consequences of the American policy of massive imprisonment of young African American males. He shows us the link between the broad-scale policy changes of recent decades and the isolation and stigma that these bring to family members who have a loved one in prison. If we want to understand fully the impact of current criminal justice policies, this book should be required reading."-Mark Mauer, Assistant Director, The Sentencing Project "Through compelling stories and thoughtful analysis, this book describes how our nation's punishment policies have caused incalculable damage to the fabric of family and community life. Anyone concerned about the future of urban America should read this book."-Jeremy Travis, The Urban Institute In the tradition of Elijah Anderson's "Code of the Street" and Katherine Newman's "No Shame in My Game," this startling new ethnography by Donald Braman uncovers the other side of the incarceration saga: the little-told story of the effects of imprisonment on the prisoners' families. Since 1970 the incarceration rate in the United States has more than tripled, and in many cities-urban centers such as Washington, D.C.-it has increased over five-fold. Today, one out of every ten adult black men in the District is in prison and three out of every four can expect to spend some time behind bars. But the numbers don't reveal what it's like for the children, wives, and parents of prisoners, or the subtle and not-so-subtle effects mass incarceration is having on life in the inner city. Author Donald Braman shows that those doing time on the inside are having a ripple effect on the outside-reaching deep into the family and community life of urban America. Braman gives us the personal stories of what happens to the families and communities that prisoners are taken from and return to. Carefully documenting the effects of incarceration on the material and emotional lives of families, this groundbreaking ethnography reveals how criminal justice policies are furthering rather than abating the problem of social disorder. Braman also delivers a number of genuinely new arguments. Among these is the compelling assertion that incarceration is holding offenders unaccountable to victims, communities, and families. The author gives the first detailed account of incarceration's corrosive effect on social capital in the inner city and describes in poignant detail how the stigma of prison pits family and community members against one another. Drawing on a series of powerful family portraits supported by extensive empirical data, Braman shines a light on the darker side of a system that is failing the very families and communities it seeks to protect.

Subfields: General Health Professions

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7635ab4bb27302882850bcd8ed9368e8883750bb

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Citations in the corpus

Children's Antisocial Behavior, Mental Health, Drug Use, and Educational Performance After Parental Incarceration (2012, background): “The stigma associated with having a family member in prison is likely to explain why some families keep the incarceration secret from friends, neighbors, and work colleagues (Braman, 2004), which can push children into a “forced silence” about their situation, making it even more difficult for them ”
The Effects of Jail and Prison Confinement on Cohabitation and Marriage (2016, background): “Ample evidence also exists that the family members of incarcerated individuals (their intimate partners and children) bear no small portion of the social burden of mass incarceration (braman 2004; Comfort 2008; Wakefield and Wildeman 2013).”
Effects of parental imprisonment on child antisocial behaviour and mental health: a systematic review (2009, unknown): “contact with imprisoned parents, loss of family income, stigma associated with the imprisonment, and home and school moves (see, e.g., Boswell, 2002; Braman, 2004; Henriques, 1982; Kampfner, 1995; Pellegrini, 1997; Poehlmann, 2005; Richards et al., 1994; Sack, 1977; Sack, Seidler, & Thomas, 1976; Sk”
Employment After Prison: A Longitudinal Study of Former Prisoners (2011, background): “Exiting prisoners also rely heavily on other family members in the initial months after release for housing, financial help, and emotional support (Braman, 2004; Travis, 2005).”
The Effects of Parental Imprisonment on Children (2008, background): “V (e.g., Zalba 1964; Sack, Seidler, and Thomas 1976; Baunach 1985; Skinner and Swartz 1989; Kampfner 1995; Boswell and Wedge 2002; Braman 2004; Bernstein 2005).”
Reentry and the Ties that Bind: An Examination of Social Ties, Employment, and Recidivism (2011, background): “Owing to the fact that offender’s intent to “go straight” was not authentic in the past, observers note that offenders’ family members sometimes feel suspicious and reluctant to dedicate much of their time and effort to being an agent of reform (see Braman, 2004; Glaser, 1964; Maruna, 2001, p. 156).”
Men, Women, and Postrelease Offending (2012, background): “Under these circumstances, family members may be reluctant to give high-quality support to so-called high-level offenders and may sever the relationship completely (Braman, 2005; Western et al., 2004).”
Collateral Consequences of Punishment: A Critical Review and Path Forward (2018, background): “The risk of arrest is much higher for black men relative to white men (Brame et al. 2014), and more than one-quarter of black men who came of age during the prison boom were incarcerated relative to 5% of white men (Western & Pettit 2010). For black males born since the mid-1970s who have dropped ou”
Liminal Men: Incarceration and Relationship Dissolution (2015, background): “Despite escalating attention to the collateral consequences of incarceration on family life more generally (e.g., Arditti 2012; Braman 2004; Comfort 2008; Geller 2013; Geller, Garfinkel, and Western 2011; Turney 2014a, 2014b, 2015; Turney, Schnittker, and Wildeman 2012; Wildeman, Schnittker, and…”
Those They Leave Behind: Paternal Incarceration and Maternal Instrumental Support (2012, background): “To be sure, a relatively small body of qualitative research has examined the familial consequences of paternal incarceration (Braman, 2004; Comfort, 2008; Daniel & Barrett, 1981; Fishman, 1990; Lowenstein, 1984; Morris, 1965), but most of this research has stopped short of exploring the social…”
Mass Incarceration, Family Complexity, and the Reproduction of Childhood Disadvantage (2014, background): “…costs that extend well beyond the individual incarcerated (Wakefield and Wildeman 2011), and that the psychological and social stigma associated with having a family member in prison or jail contributes to family complexity and undermines the social fabric of urban communities (e.g., Braman 2004).”