The vast majority of the roughly 2.3 million incarcerated Americans are male. For the inmates' girlfriends and wives, this creates complications—romantic and otherwise. Women bear nearly 90 percent of the costs of calls and visits with inmates, according to the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights; worse, two in three families of inmates report difficulty affording housing and food as a result of their loved one's incarceration. Many women find support through online groups like Strong Prison Wives & Families. It has around 20,000 members, and is adding 1,000 members to its Facebook page every six months.
- In Strong Prison Wives & Families, we don't ask about people's loved ones and we don't ask about charges. We don't ask about sentencing, and we don't ask about criminal background. That's not what we're there for.
- Sometimes, the most challenging aspect is wanting to be supportive of the other women without ever condoning behavior from their partners that's just not helping, or is anxiety-producing. You always want to be supportive of the member, but you can't always be supportive of the situation.
[For more of this story, written by Julie Morse, go to http://www.psmag.com/books-and...irlfriends-and-wives]
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