Birth Behind Bars

The Carceral Control of Pregnant Women in Prison

Rebecca M. Rodriguez Carey

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English

New York University Press
17 June 2025

Sexual abuse & harassment; Crime & criminology; Gender & the law

Pregnant women's experiences in prison

Four percent of incarcerated women—more than three thousand—are pregnant in US prisons each year, yet little information is known about their pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and motherhood experiences. In Birth Behind Bars, Rebecca M. Rodriguez Carey draws on in-depth interviews with women who were once pregnant in prisons in the heart of the Midwest to provide a rare, intimate portrait into the intersection of motherhood and incarceration.

Using a reproductive-justice framework and narrative accounts, Rodriguez Carey shows how the prison system works alongside other carceral systems, such as the medical system and the child welfare system, to regulate and control women. She reveals how their incarceration goes beyond the function of criminal punishment, threatening both maternal and fetal health and the well-being of families. Birth Behind Bars offers an evocative account of how these powerful carceral systems collectively disrupt entire families and communities during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period, including long after women are released from prison.

By: Rebecca M. Rodriguez Carey
Imprint: New York University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 467g
ISBN: 9781479815814
ISBN 10: 1479815810
Pages: 277
Publication Date: 17 June 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Rebecca M. Rodriguez Carey is Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Emporia State University. Her work can be found in Women & Criminal Justice and in Caged Women: Incarceration, Representation, & Media.

Reviews for Birth Behind Bars: The Carceral Control of Pregnant Women in Prison

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs, Rebecca Rodriguez Carey's book offers a stark reminder that women who are incarcerated or otherwise under carceral supervision have never enjoyed reproductive rights and freedoms. It should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand gender, reproduction, and pregnancy in a post-Roe world. (Jill McCorkel, author of Breaking Women: Gender, Race, and the New Politics of Imprisonment) A significant contribution to understanding the reproductive rights and bodily autonomy of women at the margins of society. The book's stories of 'pregnancy behind bars' are vivid and compelling, featuring maternal experience organizationally embedded in a 'web of control' contrary to personal well-being, which is countered by some with hope and resilience. A welcome addition to narrative criminology. (Jaber F. Gubrium, author of Analyzing Narrative Reality)