The role of mothers of prisoners : blame, constraints, and daily adaptation

Existing research on the relatives of prisoners sometimes addresses the experiences of mothers, but rarely focuses specifically on the maternal role in the context of the incarceration of a child who has reached adulthood. This article, based on empirical research conducted in 2017 in Canada, explores the representations and practices of maternity towards an incarcerated adult child as new roles are explored and they discover, undergo, and adapt to the material and institutional constraints imposed by the incarceration of their adult child. Their experiences within and outside prison walls are marked by harsh judgments about their past and present mothering that often postulate a causal link between their child's detention and a deficit in their mothering. We identify various strategies that can be used to cope with both these new constraints and the blame attributed to them by others and sometimes by themselves.