Prisons of Debt: The Afterlives of Incarcerated Fathers

Prisons of Debt is a sociological study that explores the experiences of fathers cycling through the criminal justice and child support systems, revealing how these systems work together to create entanglements of disadvantage. It argues that the criminalization of child support undermines familial relationships and can lead to bitter, unreliable, and cyclical fathers.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 376 pages
Publication date: 10 May 2022
Publisher: University of California Press

In a groundbreaking exploration, sociologist Lynne Haney delves into the hidden injustices that trap fathers in a cycle of punishment and debt. Through extensive research, she embarks on a journey across state institutions nationwide, seeking to document the experiences of the millions of fathers who find themselves caught in the criminal justice and child support systems.

Prisons of Debt, a pioneering study, unveils how these systems intertwine, creating intricate entanglements that perpetuate disadvantage rather than accumulating in men's lives. This intricate web of disadvantage operates in both directions, as the prison-child support pipeline flows both ways, deepening parents' debt and criminal justice involvement.

Through poignant accounts of men striving to be fathers from the confines of prison walls and the burden of support debt, Prisons of Debt exposes the devastating consequences of the criminalization of child support. It sheds light on how these state systems can ultimately produce the very parents they fear and loathe: bitter, unreliable, and cyclical fathers.

Based on meticulous observations of 1,200 child support cases and in-depth interviews with 145 indebted fathers in New York, California, and Florida, Prisons of Debt provides a meticulously documented analysis of how poor men are often denied their rights of citizenship and fatherhood. This powerful work sheds light on the systemic inequalities that perpetuate poverty and hinder the ability of fathers to contribute positively to their families and communities.

Weight: 512g
Dimension: 154 x 228 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780520297265