“They Don’t Care About Families”: Complex Emotional Preparedness for Visiting Incarcerated Loved Ones

This study examines family visiting experiences with incarcerated loved ones, drawing on multiple years of immersive ethnographic research. For many children in the United States, visiting jails or prisons becomes a recurring aspect of their lives. Although visits provide time with a family member, research reveals they frequently involve aggressive encounters with correctional staff. Thus, visits can exacerbate feelings of hopelessness and absence while exposing families to harsh treatment. To understand how families cope, this study introduces the concept of complex emotional preparedness, a framework for examining how families navigate these challenging realties, and offers policy recommendation to improve correctional visits.