“Straight Away I was Aware that I was Black”: Conceptualising the Racialised Pains of Maternal Imprisonment

The gendered pains of imprisonment, and particularly the partial or complete deprivation of mothering, have been increasingly recognised in prisons scholarship. Yet, given the ‘colour-blind’ representation of maternal imprisonment in much of the British literature, the distinctive experiences of Black mothers have received little attention. This article begins to address this problematic oversight by drawing upon narrative interviews with nine Black mothers who have lived experience of imprisonment in England. From the standpoint of Black Feminist Thought, our analysis identities three intersecting pains of Black maternal imprisonment: Marginalised mothering, subtle discrimination, and self-censorship and appeasement. We argue processes of racialised and gendered oppression combine to shape Black mothers’ experiences within and through the prison walls and thus explicate the ways in which the prison perpetuates the systematic repression and regulation of Black motherhood.