Race, Incarceration, and Motherhood: Spoiled Identity Among Rural White Mothers in Prison

Extant research on maternal incarceration has focused either on mothers as a whole (not disaggregated by race) or on the experiences of urban Black mothers, with relatively little focused attention on the experiences of their White counterparts. This study expands research on incarceration and its effects using qualitative interviews to explore how prison shapes identity construction among an understudied populationrural White mothers. Mothers in our sample expressed histories of family problems and drug use. Uniquely, we explore findings from a framework of spoiled identity for both the mothers themselves and their children as a result of their incarceration.