In Throwaway Moms: Maternal Incarceration And The Criminalization Of Female Poverty?

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3) In Throwaway Moms: Maternal Incarceration and the Criminalization of Female Poverty, authors Suzanne Allen, Chris Flaherty, and Gretchen Ely specifically focus on mothers incarcerated for drug offenses. Furthermore, they discuss the negative effects incarceration has had on the relationships between mothers and their children. The article involves the interviews of 26 mothers incarcerated in a Kentucky prison in 2007. According to the authors, maternal incarceration is surrounded by a large number of issues and policies. This includes poverty, addiction, federal legislation, the War on Drugs, child welfare, and other financial issues that mothers in particular face (Allen, S., Flaherty, C., & Ely, G. 2010). The article explains that the majority of women involved in the prison system are poor single mothers. The same majority of poor single mothers are all serving sentences for nonviolent drug-offenses. This article as well as many others, place a significant amount of blame for the increasing prison population on the War on Drugs. The authors explain the correlation between poverty and the implication of mandatory drug sentencing laws. According to the article, it is clear how a domino-effect has developed following the War on Drugs. The War on Drugs has had a dramatically negative …show more content…

The act was passed in response to the increasing number of children lingering in foster care. Unfortunately, the act mandates that parental rights be terminated if a child has been in out-of-home care for 15 of the prior 22 months (Allen, S., Flaherty, C., & Ely, G. 2010). According to the Women’s Prison Association, the average prison sentence of a woman is 18 months. The article clearly explains how the mandatory drug sentencing laws are quickly leading to the termination of incarcerated mother’s parental

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