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Food is a significant component of life; its preparation is gendered and associated with caregiving roles. For incarcerated women, food is especially salient. Inmate-created recipes can assist with asserting pro-social identities and responding to powerlessness. It is less certain if incarcerated mothers draw upon recipes to emphasize mothering identities. Therefore, this study uses focus groups at a jail and additionally analyzes contributed recipes to explore the way dessert-making behind bars affirms motherhood. Results suggest that dessert preparation aids in disrupting negative stereotypes, illuminates the fragility of incarcerated mothering, and highlights agentic practices. Implications for policy and research are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A phenomenon known as "social death" often occurs to individuals entering the penal system and is exacerbated for long-term inmates. In the current study, men who had been incarcerated for seven or more years ranked their feelings of connectivity with the outside world and offered information about their contact experiences (e.g., visits, letters, phone calls, and consumption of media). Findings suggest that visits from friends, visits from other family members, and an inmate's age all exert a positive and significant force upon feelings of connection with the world outside of the prison gates. This exploratory study concludes by calling for more attention to long-term inmates, the forgotten prisoners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]