Educational Media Reviews Online

The literature on women in prison states the same statistics repeatedly. Roughly eighty percent of the women in prison have been jailed for drug-related or other non-violent offenses. Roughly the same percent of women prisoners are mothers. The children of these women are six times more likely than their peers to eventually be locked up.

While such statistics are sobering, three-time Emmy award-winning video maker Jill Evans Petzall doesn’t rely on cold or dry statistics to demonstrate the hard reality facing the children of incarcerated women. Petzall’s When the Bough Breaks—Children of Mothers in Prison provides intimate profiles of the children of three women incarcerated in a federal penitentiary in Missouri: John, Angie, and Tanya, three of the eight children born by Denise, a drug addict; Roosevelt, Jr., the teenage son of Hortense, who was imprisoned for stealing a suit from Neiman Marcus; and Laurie and Missy, the daughters of Susie, also imprisoned for crimes related to drug abuse. All these children struggle continually with behavioral problems, academic achievement, poverty, neglect, issues of abandonment and belonging, and even some abuse. Because these children are placed into foster homes or into the care of extended family members, When the Bough Breaks, also offers powerful insight into the effects on these guardians and their diverse reactions to assuming the parenting responsibilities of others. The grandfather and principal caretaker of Laurie and Missy supplies the essence of this documentary in his simple declaration, “You think you send one person to jail? Unh unh. Affects a lot of people.”

They’re Doing My Time, a 1987 documentary produced by Patricia Foulkrod, may have offered more information on alternatives to counter the bleak situations that Petzall presents in When The Bough Breaks. But the strength of When the Bough Breaks is derived from Petzall’s successfully demonstrating what will continue to happen as long as the imprecise public policies in place govern the fate of these children and their mothers.

When The Bough Breaks is an excellent introduction to the impact that incarceration has on the children of mothers in prison and the families attempting to provide childcare for these kids. Recommended for academic collections focusing on criminal justice administration, social work, or women’s studies.