“It’s Heartbreaking. It’s Expensive. It’s Hard”: How the Carceral Care Economy Harms Black and Latine Mothers
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: While literature on mass incarceration has focused primarily on incarcerated men, their children, and their romantic partners, this article builds on a smaller body of work that highlights the harms to mothers under the constraints of the neoliberal carceral state. In this study, I examine how mothers with incarcerated adult children have been conscripted to perform extractive caring labor. Drawing on data from 21 in-depth interviews, I find that mothers often travel long and costly distances, drain their savings, and work multiple jobs to ensure the survival of their incarcerated children. I argue that the cumulative impact of financialized policies and time-draining bureaucracy results in the extraction of precious time and money from working-class Black and Latine women on the outside. I introduce the term carceral care economy to conceptualize the neoliberal commodification of incarceration and the labor imperative it creates for mothers with children who are imprisoned.
Source: Gender & Society
Author: Raquel Delerme
Institution: University of Southern California
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4409824384