Motherhood Confined: Maternal Health in English Prisons, 1853-1955 - Hardcover

by Rachel E. Bennett (Author)

When we imagine life behind the high walls of the fortress-like prisons that were built and modified as the modern prison system was created in the mid-nineteenth century, we conjure up scenes where strict regulation prevailed to control people in body and in mind. An image that poses something of a paradox is that of mothers and their babies living in this carceral environment. This book looks behind the cell doors of these institutions to illuminate the experiences of this group of prisoners. The management of their health alongside the management of penal discipline posed complex conundrums to the prison system. Although rarely fully considered at policy level, this balancing act was negotiated by those who lived and worked in prisons on a daily basis.

Back Jacket

Should pregnant women be sent to prison? Is prison a place for the birth and care of babies? Can it ever be? This book is the first extensive historical examination of how the modern prison system sought to answer these perennial questions.
Motherhood confined covers the period from 1853, when England opened its first female-only prison, to the mid-1950s, when prison policy changed so women would be transferred to hospitals outside of the prison to give birth. It provides a fresh perspective from which to explore motherhood in the modern period by focusing on the largely ignored experiences of mothers in criminal justice settings. The book takes the reader through the prison gates to examine how motherhood was provided for in carceral spaces and managed as part of penal regimes not designed with the containment of mothers and babies in mind. Lamented as an inalienable heritage of woe but also as an opportunity for the closer supervision of mothers, prison births evoked intense debate and required the negotiation of obdurate regimes.
The volume illuminates the oscillating debates about the purpose of prisons and their impact upon the punitive, reformatory and medical treatment of confined mothers. It enhances recent scholarship in medical humanities that examines the inherent contradictions facing the prison system when negotiating the management of prisoner health. It also challenges scholarly debates about institutional discipline by delving further into the role of prisoners and prison staff in shaping the terms of their incarceration.

Author Biography

Rachel Bennett is a history teacher and a historian of British crime and punishment