I Had Nowhere to Go: Disenfranchised Grief and Support Groups for Families of Incarcerated Individuals

Authors

Allegra Pocinki, Rutgers University

Abstract

Almost two million Americans are incarcerated in state and federal prisons, juvenile corrections facilities, and local jails. While many studies have examined the impact of mass incarceration on the daily lives of wives, female partners, and children, little is known about support groups for families of incarcerated loved ones. Throughout 2021, I conducted virtual interviews with 13 respondents across the United States who created support groups for families of incarcerated individuals or are executive leaders in these organizations. I find that support groups provide space for families to grieve without judgment, can help re-frame the grief experience and provide tools and community for coping with a loss that is not typically acknowledged by the public. I present findings according to two major themes about the role of support groups that emerged from the interviews: generating resilience through community and enfranchising grief. These findings highlight the need for more sociological work on the various ways families on the outside cope with the impact of incarceration and to further elucidate what good support looks like for these individuals.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Pocinki, Allegra (2024) "I Had Nowhere to Go: Disenfranchised Grief and Support Groups for Families of Incarcerated Individuals," Qualitative Criminology (QC): Vol. 13: No. 1, Article 2.
Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/qc/vol13/iss1/2