Holding on - by Tasseli McKay & Megan Comfort & Christine Lindquist & Anupa Bir (Paperback)

About the Book

This volume showcases the results of an unprecedented 10-year study of justice-involved families that renders visible the men and their families who are typically excluded from traditional surveys.

Book Synopsis

Holding On reveals the results of an unprecedented ten-year study of justice-involved families, rendering visible the lives of a group of American families whose experiences are too often lost in large-scale demographic research. Using new data from the Multi-site Family Study on Incarceration, Parenting, and Partnering--a groundbreaking study of almost two thousand families, incorporating a series of couples-based surveys and qualitative interviews over the course of three years--Holding On sheds rich new light on the parenting and intimate relationships of justice-involved men, challenging long-standing boundaries between research on incarceration and on the well-being of low-income families. Boldly proposing that the failure to recognize the centrality of incarcerated men's roles as fathers and partners has helped to justify a system that removes them from their families and hides that system's costs to parents, partners, and children, Holding On considers how research that breaks the false dichotomy between offender and parent, inmate and partner, and victim and perpetrator might help to inform a next generation of public policies that truly support vulnerable families.

From the Back Cover

"Holding On is a triumph! A must-read for policy makers, a gift for scholars of incarceration and the family, and an exemplar of the ambitious, multi-method, and humanizing analysis we desperately need in an era of criminal justice reform."--Sara Wakefield, coauthor of Children of the Prison Boom
"Holds strong potential to advance a new wave of study of families and incarceration."--Julie Poehlmann-Tynan, coeditor of When Parents Are Incarcerated

Review Quotes

"Holding On: Family and Fatherhood During Incarceration and Reentry is a must-read for anyone interested in families, relationships, fatherhood, and the trying effects on each of incarceration. It is a seminal, deeply thoughtful, and methodical book that sets the stage for what is possible when the realms of criminological studies and family studies converge."

-- "Punishment & Society"

"Holding On is a must-read for policymakers and prison administrators. It is accessible enough for use in undergraduate and graduate sociology, policy, and psychology courses. It is also an invaluable resource for academics interested in the complex ways that incarceration and reentry impact our nation's families."-- "Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books"

"Holding On is a hopeful and empathic book that packs significant policy-relevant analysis into a slim volume."-- "Men and Masculinities"

"Holding On is a compelling read that will be useful particularly to policymakers and activists who need evidence toward prison reform and program funding allocations."-- "Gender & Society"

About the Author

Tasseli McKay is Social Science Researcher with the Victimization and Resilience program at RTI International.

Megan Comfort is Senior Research Sociologist with the Youth, Violence Prevention, and Community Justice program at RTI International. She is the author of Doing Time Together.

Christine Lindquist is Director of the Corrections and Reentry Research program at RTI International.

Anupa Bir is Senior Director of the Center for Advanced Methods Development at RTI International.