Book review: Mothering from the Inside: Research on Motherhood and Imprisonment, by Kelly Lockwood (ed.)
| Published date | 01 January 2022 |
| Date | 01 January 2022 |
| DOI | 10.1177/17488958211013182 |
| Author | Claire Powell |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2022, Vol. 22(1) 191 –195
© The Author(s) 2021
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Book reviews
Kelly Lockwood (ed.), Mothering from the Inside: Research on Motherhood and Imprisonment,
Emerald Publishing: Bingley, 2020; 217 pp.: 9781789733440, £65.00 (hbk)
Reviewed by: Claire Powell, University College London, UK
DOI: 10.1177/17488958211013182
There were 3136 women in prison at the end of 2020 (Ministry of Justice, 2021). No
centralised figures are held for the number of imprisoned mothers but conservative esti-
mates range from 50% to 70% (Howard League for Penal Reform, 2011),1 and this does
not include grandmothers, mothers of adult children or women with informal childcare
responsibilities. Each time a woman is sentenced to prison or imprisoned on remand,
there are far-reaching consequences for everyone in her network of care.
Mothering from the Inside brings together a range of perspectives in what is a new
contribution to the literature on imprisonment and motherhood, and in which leading UK
researchers and third sector practitioners provide a sensitive and humane view of the
impact of female imprisonment. The diversity of the chapters means that those who carry
out research or work in the area will discover fresh material, while the work is accessible
enough to those new to the topic. The research has clear links to policy and practice, but
its key strength is the simultaneous focus on the specific harms to imprisoned mothers
and the associated impact on their children, wider family members and the staff who
work with them, along with legal and international perspectives.
The first part of the book follows a temporal structure from the sentencing of mothers
to the long-term impact of imprisonment following release. This part is thematically
coherent with multiple links between the chapters. The second part covers diverse per-
spectives of mothering and imprisonment. At first glance, these later chapters appear less
related to one another, nevertheless, there are subtle links and echoes between them and
the first part of the book. The persistent impact of shame and stigma is a common theme
throughout and is sensitively approached. So often research about criminalised popula-
tions is dehumanising and othering; this collection of research, however, humanises eve-
ryone affected by maternal imprisonment.
In Minson’s chapter, we see how judges’ stigmatising views about women living
in poverty and ignorance of their wider family situations affect court sentencing.
Unsurprisingly, the children in Beresford et al’.s chapter felt judged by everyone around
them, and the mothers and grandmothers in Baldwin’s chapter experienced ‘layers of
1013182CRJ0010.1177/17488958211013182Criminology & Criminal JusticeBook reviews
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