Experiences of prison visitation by women: qualitative insights from Kashmir

Abstract

Among many of the activities concerned with the “collateral consequences of incarceration,” visitation has been quite a challenge. In particular, women visitors face several challenges while visiting a carceral space. Using semi-structured interviews with women having a family member incarcerated, we explore the experiences of women visitors visiting a prison in Kashmir. The paper employs a qualitative methodology to understand the experiences of these women visitors. The paper tries to understand the ways in which the prison regime dictates and directs their lives. The paper emphasizes the fact that the effects of incarceration are tremendously bore by these women who jeopardize their own economic and social capital in order to maintain ties with an incarcerated individual. These women are claimed to be the “other victims of crime” and are treated as quasi-inmates inside the carceral spaces. These women live lives marked with stigma and suspicion as they are often assumed to have known about the crime. Thus, they suffer from courtesy stigma and the taint of being equally involved in the crime. The findings reveal that these women face difficulties in visiting their incarcerated kin, endure emotionally intense experiences, and the traumatic experience of prison visitation, ironically, acts as a blessing in disguise. They become increasingly absorbed into the correctional facility, suffer the anxiety of waiting and frustration to meet institutional dictates, and elation or despair that stays with them after spending time with their loved ones in prison.