Lana Marlow

Mothers in Prison: Women's Autobiography and Activism Lana Marlow

This book, which is based on seven interviews conducted in a Texas women?s prison, focuses on stories told by a few of the growing number of mothers incarcerated in American prisons. Incarcerated mothers? stories deal with the challenges of motherhood before, during, and after incarceration, offering a nuanced picture of social and psychological contexts that surround disadvantaged mothers with unrealistic social norms. The sum of these women?s experiences?material and psychological?adds up to a counter-narrative critiquing the dominant culture?s ideas of what mothers ?should be? and how the system fails to provide opportunities to disadvantaged parents. This study analyzes the rhetorical strategies of incarcerated mothers to determine what strategies silenced groups utilize in the development of counter-narratives.