Baking Bittersweet: Mothers’ Dessert-Making Behind Bars

Women in Jail

Scholars have noted that the cycle of female offending and the impact of women’s incarceration differ in significant ways from male patterns and experiences, pointing to a need for new insights (Crewe, Hulley, & Wright, 2017; Swavola et al., 2016). Women who are housed in facilities modeled on or constructed for men face a number of unique challenges, such as lack of appropriate obstetric and gynecological care, lack of sanitary supplies, and a dearth of trauma-informed care (T. Gray, Mays, & Stohr, 1995; Swavola et al., 2016).

One of the more differentiating characteristics of imprisoned women, as compared with men, is their role as primary caretaker of minor children (Schafer & Dellinger, 2000; Swavola et al., 2016). Since the early 1990s, the number of children below 18 with a father in state or federal prison has increased by 77% whereas the number of children with a mother in state or federal prison has risen by 131% (Glaze & Maruschak, 2008). In addition, more imprisoned mothers than fathers report being the primary caretaker of minor children at the time of their arrest (Glaze & Maruschak, 2008; Swavola et al., 2016). Approximately 80% of women in jail are mothers and the majority of these mothers are single parents, solely responsible for minor children at the time of their arrest (Swavola et al., 2016).

Criminologists have noted a dearth of literature focused on local jails, suggesting that privileging research in prison settings provides an incomplete and inadequate picture of the incarceration experience (Bales & Garduno, 2015). Furthermore, the experiences of inmates in jail, especially women, have not been prioritized in the literature (Bales & Garduno, 2015; Swavola et al., 2016).

Jails are temporary holding facilities typically managed by cities or counties that detain certain classifications of individuals, including those awaiting trial, those with relatively short (e.g., a year or less) sentences, and probation and parole violators (Swavola et al., 2016). Detention in jail differs qualitatively from detention in prison. Jail tenure tends to be of shorter duration, is plagued by more uncertainties and disruptions than is prison time, and, typically, houses males and females in one building (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2005). Jails suffer from a lack of programs that are commonly offered by prisons (T. Gray et al., 1995; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2005; Swavola et al., 2016), leaving women in cells for much of their day with an absence of routine or activity. In addition, there are significant differences between women in jail and women in prison. Characteristics among jailed women include later onset of criminal behavior, more traumatic and violent histories, and higher suicide rates than women in prison (Noonan, Rohloff, & Ginder, 2015; Simpson, Yahner, & Dugan, 2008).

Gender, Foodways, and Incarceration

Foodways, a scientific field of inquiry into the nature of food, suggests that the procurement, preparation, and consumption of food play highly symbolic roles in our society, and contribute to an individual’s sense of social identity (e.g., see Bell & Valentine, 1997; Charles & Kerr, 1986, 1988; Counihan & Van Esterik, 1997; Inness, 2001; Janowski, 2012). Food routinely transcends its chore of meeting the daily caloric needs of the biological body, becoming an experience that meets the needs of the social body. Although food is a material element of culture, the procurement, preparation, and consumption of nutrition is socially constructed (Douglas, 1984; Meigs, 1997). Food reinforces social status (Engelhardt, 2001; LeBesco, 2001); meets spiritual and emotional needs (C. Smith, 2002); plays an important component in socialization, identity formation, and identity maintenance (Janowski, 2012); and solidifies kinship (Farb & Armelagos, 1980). In situations where food is subject to constraints, such as prison or jail, its salience becomes heightened (Janowski, 2012; Milligan et al., 2002).

Food is also a gendered phenomenon, both in its procurement and its consumption. Women are more likely than men to be the food purchasers and food preparers in society (Charles & Kerr, 1988; Flagg, Bisakha, Kilgore, & Locher, 2014; Lake et al., 2006), although this phenomenon has been troubled and disrupted by feminist theorists who call for a more equitable arrangement of domestic activities (see, for example, Bordo, 1993; DeVault, 1997; Hartmann, 1981). Women are often associated with desserts, salads, and lighter fare, whereas real men, for example, are not supposed to eat quiche but, instead, should opt for more hearty fare such as meat and potatoes (Bock & Kanarek, 1995; Rothgerber, 2013; Sobel, 2005). Food-related behavior in correctional settings is also subject to gendered avenues of procurement, creation, and consumption.

The food available in jail and prison settings varies considerably throughout the United States, with some meals prepared from inmate-maintained vegetable gardens, some meals the product of self-cooking stations, some food cooked by inmates or staff in a centralized kitchen, and some catered exclusively by outside food vendors (Smoyer & Minke, 2015). Policies concerning individualized cooking (i.e., in cells), the quality of food offered, and inmates’ perceptions of food quality vary widely as well; the range and peculiarities of variation are beyond the scope of the current article but important to note.

A number of studies have explored the gendered experience of food behind bars. Through interviews with formerly incarcerated women, Smoyer (2015) found that food assisted in the development and maintenance of close relationships behind bars. Women built networks grounded in smuggling food, learning recipes, and nourishing one another. Women participate in an ethic of care when they engage in jail and prison food practices (de Graaf & Kilty, 2016), suggesting that detained women access aspects of domesticity from the outside world through the creation and sharing of food. Male inmates do not necessarily need to access domestic roles, but they do search out status among the community. Men who create popular recipes enjoy a particular status, such as “The Pie Guy” in a San Francisco county jail, who boasts that even the guards request his pastries (Cate, 2008, p. 23).

Control over food for both incarcerated men and women is an act of resistance against the de-humanizing effects of imprisonment and a reaction to identity degradation (Ugelvik, 2011; de Graaf & Kilty, 2016; Rouhan, 2016). For example, a common theme found in the narratives of women in transitional housing was that clandestine baking after hours empowered them, reinforcing their identities as resourceful women and rejecting criminalistic labels (de Graff & Kilty, 2016). Men also engage with food preparation as a form of resistance; however, they tend to undertake this sort of creative cooking alone in their cells rather than as a community (Ugelvik, 2011).

For men, cooking areas can become zones of racial or ethnic contention; at the same time, cooking can also serve to disrupt hyper-masculine prison narratives (Earle & Phillips, 2012). In terms of “doing gender” (West & Zimmerman, 1987), the role of cooking is typically a female performance, but men can and do co-opt this role to subvert feelings of powerlessness. Although male inmates do socialize over food (Cate, 2008; Minke, 2014), this food can become a valuable commodity and thus, a point of divisiveness (Valentine & Longstaff, 1998), a phenomenon not noted among female inmates.

Research suggests that food is integral for prosocial identity maintenance among incarcerated individuals (de Graaf & Kilty, 2016; Godderis, 2006; Smoyer, 2014). Institutionalization has a paralyzing effect on identity and the ability to perform social roles, and severely limits access to the resources needed to achieve valued, gendered positions (Berry & Eigenberg, 2003; Matheson, Brazil, Doherty, & Forrester, 2015; Walsh, 2016). Food is “done” and “performed” (Godderis, 2006), and, hence, is a fundamental component of self-conceptualization in everyday lived experiences.

Scholarship by Godderis (2006) and Smoyer (2014) suggests that food-related behaviors serve to assist inmates in the creation of socially “good” and valued identities. A participant in Smoyer’s (2014) study identified herself as a “good” person because she smuggled out extra trash bags while on kitchen duty so that other women could use them for cooking purposes (inmates often employ trash bags in lieu of mixing bowls). In this way, she constructed herself as a pro-social individual, rejecting a criminal label.

In de Graaf and Kilty’s (2016) research, thematic analysis of formerly incarcerated women’s narratives demonstrated how prison food operated as an additional attack on their identity. The women interpreted the nonnutritious, unpalatable food “to mean they were not worthy of tasteful, nutritional, or even edible food” (p. 32). The plastic dinnerware they were given reinforced notions of uncivilized identities, citing “throwaway utensils for a throwaway population” (p. 34). Prison food was an aspect of status degradation that served to further erode identity, self-esteem, and self-conceptualization. Collectively creating a “cheesecake” from a variety of saved commissary and cafeteria items assisted the women in making prison food (and hence, prison life) a bit more humanized.

Desserts and sweets resonate strongly with women’s gendered identities (Johnson, 2009; Neuhaus, 1999; Risson, 2012; Ward & Hetherington, 1994). Food production and creation are considered an integral performance of motherhood and a core component of caregiving (Bugge & Almås, 2006; DeVault, 1991; McCabe & de Waal Malefyt, 2015). Because institutionalized food is viewed by inmates as an additional dimension of the punishment experience, citing room temperature milk, roaches in the food, tasteless bread, and meals that more closely resemble dog food than human food (Smoyer & Lopes, 2017), the ability to construct something delicious reflects a valuable, gendered, and domestic ability.

Although research on gender and institutionalized food is becoming more robust, it is difficult to locate scholarship on specific gendered identities (e.g., a mother) and institutionalized food. This is one area where the current study hopes to make a small impact.

Mothering Behind Bars

Possessing a mothering identity in American culture carries tremendous cultural value (Hays, 1996), raising the stakes significantly for those who are unable or unwilling to take on the role. Mothers who are incarcerated have simultaneously betrayed the law, betrayed cultural gender norms, and seemingly rejected their social role (Barnes & Stringer, 2014; Enos, 1998; Grue & Lærum, 2002). However, mothering is very important to imprisoned mothers (Barnes & Stringer, 2014). At the same time, mothers explicitly recognize and must negotiate the dissonance between competing identities (e.g., “mother” vs. “inmate”).

Aiello and McQueeney (2016) found that motherhood was the most valued identity perceived as lost by women during the process of jail incarceration. Furthermore, their findings suggest that the experience of separation from children during incarceration is “an invisible form of gendered punishment” (p. 54). It is challenging to construct oneself as a mother in the absence of children, yet research suggests the salience of a mothering identity can be enriched through engaging in mothering behaviors, such as helping decide where children will be placed during the separation (Berry & Eigenberg, 2003).

Imprisoned mothers who possess healthy relationships with their children’s caregivers are able to maintain strong mothering identities (Barnes & Stringer, 2014). Other strategies tied to sustaining an identity as a mother include behaviors linked to “doing motherhood” behind bars, such as taking classes to improve their parenting skills, having an optimistic outlook about being a mother, praying for their children, and expressing love for their children (Berry & Smith-Mahdi, 2006). Celinska and Siegel (2010) found a variety of behaviors, some emotional and some behavioral, that allowed mothers to cope with separation from their children and reconcile their identities as mothers and inmates. Easterling’s (2012) interviews with incarcerated mothers in Kentucky suggested also that women cope in various, agentic ways with separation from children and the loss of a mothering identity.

Ferraro and Moe (2003) interviewed 30 jailed women, finding that participants recognized the dominant ideology surrounding motherhood and understood that they fell far short of these ideals. Furthermore, responsibility for children in the midst of a structural web of disadvantages often preceded criminal activity and jail time. Being detained further exacerbated the mothers’ ability to successfully care for their children.

Setting for the Current Study

This research project was conducted at a jail in a mid-sized Southern city, a facility managed by the Sheriff’s Office. The jail detains an average of 845 individuals daily, with women constituting approximately between 80 and 100 inmates daily. Exact census fluctuates widely from day to day, due to the temporary nature of jail stays. Inmates at this jail are interned in pods. Pods are circular holding areas ringed by cells around the perimeter, holding between 20 and 30 detainees. The center of the pod offers tables for socializing and eating. Showers and the restroom area are also located within the pod.

Programs and activities at this particular jail are somewhat limited for women detainees. They include jobs inside the jail (e.g., cleaning detail), parenting classes, substance abuse classes, worship services, and a weekly Female Support Group (however, since the time that this study was completed, the Female Support Group no longer meets, due to a variety of factors). The only significant difference between activities for men and women at this jail is the location of the job details. Men are allowed to work outside in supervised groups (e.g., picking up roadside trash, performing yard maintenance, cleaning the stands after college football games), whereas the women are not given outside work.

All three daily meals arrive from a centralized jail kitchen to the pods and are consumed in the pod, thus there is little geographic movement for inmates. In addition, extra food items are available for purchase in the commissary with the inmate’s own funds. This includes such items as candy bars, chips, soft drinks, and cereal, which are brought to each pod on a cart. Inmates are given microwaves in each pod to use according to their needs.

The jail administration allows and even celebrates the creation of proprietary food that is prepared outside of the supplied daily meals. This was evident when the warden asked the researcher to collect recipes from the women to create a jail cookbook. The cookbook was to feature recipes that could be recreated with basic commissary and “chow” items. Because the jail was already invested in the creation of this cookbook, the current study aligned efficiently and unobtrusively with these recipe-gathering activities. What is unknown, however, is the extent to which all inmates in this jail participate in this type of individualistic food preparation.

Participants

Sixteen female jail inmates (identified in this study as Participants 1-16) participated in this study across two separate focus group sessions. Nine women attended the first focus group and seven attended the second focus group. Fifteen participants identified as White and one as Black. Participants’ ages ranged from 27 to 55, and time served ranged from one month to 2.5 years with an average of 6.2 months. Charges ranged from drug-related crimes (eight), probation violation (four), theft (one), monetary instrument violation (one), sex trafficking (one), and undisclosed (one). Participants were not asked to disclose their charges, but some volunteered the information during the focus group sessions. Fourteen out of sixteen women declared themselves the primary caretaker of minor children at the time of their arrest. Of the remaining two participants, one had adult children and the other had no children.

All participants of the focus groups were self-selected female inmates who were already attending weekly meetings of a Female Support Group within the jail. Attending group meetings is considered a privilege that inmates petition the administration to join; approval is normally granted if there has been no problematic behavior on the inmate’s part. The researcher had been facilitating these weekly meetings for a year and six months prior to the first focus group, so that by the time both focus groups were held, a comfortable and informal rapport had been established with the women during the weeks that preceded the actual study.

Research Approach and Design

Data for this study were gathered using a focus group method. This type of methodology allows for the collection of rich data from the interactions that occur within the group itself, allowing for the emergence of themes that may not have become apparent in a typical one on one interview. Feminist scholars suggest that focus groups are extremely well suited for inquiries into the realities of oppressed populations (Sprague, 2016; Wilkinson, 1998). Focus group discussions are unique for their ability to embed data within the lived experience of the participants through interaction and emergent properties (Sprague, 2016; Wilkinson, 1998). Furthermore, one of the more salient issues in feminist criminology is the power differential between researcher and subjects (Madriz, 1998; Pollack, 2000; Wilkinson, 1998). Because a focus group is embedded within the group’s reality and framework, power inequalities can be minimized (Wilkinson, 1998).

Two different focus group sessions were held three months apart. Both hour-long sessions were held in a secure classroom on the top floor of the jail. No participants from the first focus group were present during the second focus group, due to releases from jail and other circumstances. The women were informed of the study during the previous week and were asked to bring dessert recipes for the jail cookbook at our next meeting.

At the focus group sessions, the researcher prefaced the discussion by explaining interest in the women’s resourcefulness, stating the purpose in discussing dessert preparation and their roles as mothers, and setting a conversational, informal tone. Because the researcher had developed rapport with the women in previous encounters, discussion was fairly forthcoming.

The women were informed of the nature of the study and assured there were no repercussions from declining to participate. Furthermore, the researcher explained that there was no direct benefit to the women for being a part of the study, other than assisting to create the dessert section of the jail’s cookbook and increasing knowledge about the experience of incarcerated life. Alternative activities (coloring pages and colored pencils at the opposite side of the classroom) were made available to anyone who wished to decline participating in the dialogue. However, during both focus group sessions, none abstained. In addition, handwritten recipes were collected during the two focus group sessions.

The discussion was semi-guided and conversational. Prompts included the following questions:

At the time of both focus groups, no recordings were allowed inside the jail, so field notes were composed as the discussions progressed. Immediately after each focus group session, notes were augmented with more details as was necessary. In accordance with grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014), the researcher later applied codes to the notes, using language that reflected “views and values” (p. 114) of the participants. The meaning-creation that occurred among focus group participants enabled the application of codes that lead to salient themes.

Next, the researcher analyzed the collected recipes from the women in the focus group using a content analysis approach. Many of participants brought a dessert recipe to the session, having written them down beforehand, whereas others wrote down recipes during the session as they were asked to think about what desserts they had made during their stay in jail. Content analysis is the systematic examination of communicative materials, such as texts, to classify patterns and/or describe explicit or implicit themes (Cho & Lee, 2014). This method of analysis allows for interpretation, categorization, and description of textual material, making it a logical fit for an examination of the jail-made dessert recipes. The main research question for these recipes was “What are the features of desserts made behind bars?” To assist in answering this query, the recipes were approached in an inductive manner to allow for patterns to emerge from the data itself.

“Jailhouse Martha Stewart”: Disrupting Stereotypes

Becoming an inmate conflicts strongly with any previous master identities, such as “mother.” Although certainly, expectations of motherhood vary by race, ethnicity, and socio-economic contexts (Edin & Kefalas, 2011; Enos, 2001), research suggests that many incarcerated mothers place the same value in motherhood as do nonincarcerated mothers (Berry & Smith-Mahdi, 2006; LeFlore & Holston, 1990). However, stereotypes about incarcerated mothers abound, not only from society but additionally from the mothers themselves, including that they are “bad” mothers for abandoning their children or for seemingly prioritizing their deviant behavior over mothering behavior (Celinska & Siegel, 2010; Schram, 1999; Sharpe, 2015). In one participant’s response to a prompt about what type of dessert she made at home for her children, she was unable to answer for several moments. Then she said, “It’s just you lose track of the things you done while you are here because you are put an emphasis on [sic] over and over as a criminal.”

Food-related conversations often spurred comments related to the participants’ negative labels. For example, one woman stated, “Because you’re a criminal, you’re not allowed to have a real fork.” These quotes reinforce research suggesting that the negative stereotype about inmates is so strong that it erodes previous, pro-social identities (Berry & Eigenberg, 2003; Brown & Bloom, 2009; Couvrette, 2016; Farrell, 1998; Schram, 1999).

Through discussion about dessert preparation and through the actual practice of making of desserts in jail, the mothers in this study asserted domesticity in a context void of access to domestic life. This affirmation of domesticity helped situate the women as mothers who actively participated in a behavior component of pro-social mothering and female identities, that of dessert creation (Risson, 2012; Wansink, Cheney, & Chan, 2003). During a discussion about coffee-flavored desserts, one participant detailed her recipe for “Coffee Balls” and then proclaimed, “I’m the Jailhouse Martha Stewart!”

Jailhouse Martha Stewart contributed several recipes for the cookbook that showed her range and creativity in food preparation, always with the exclamatory phrase, “Bon Appétit!” written across the bottom. Her “Coffee Balls” recipe was a sweet concoction of sugar substitute, peanut butter, and instant coffee that jail inmates still talked about two to three months after her release. Mastery over domesticity is a hallmark of Martha Stewart (Brunsdon, 2005; C. J. Smith, 2005) and a way to establish a pro-social identity.

Furthermore, the narratives of the women in these focus groups identified them as “good mothers.” One way this was accomplished was through expressing concern about children’s sugar consumption. For example, participants in the focus groups agreed that most of the desserts were not something they would make upon release (with the exception of the popular “Coffee Balls”), primarily due to the highly processed ingredients and general unhealthy nature of the sweets. When we discussed a contributed recipe called “Jailhouse Brownies,” a treat made from a hot cocoa packet, cookies, two types of chocolate candies, and warm water, the researcher asked if the women would ever make them at home for their children.

These statements suggest participants recognized and identified with an element of socially valued “good mother” behavior, namely, monitoring children’s sugar intake. In U.S. society, competent mothers oversee their children’s nutrition habits (Bugge & Almås, 2006; DeVault, 1991; McCabe & de Waal Malefyt, 2015). The general consensus of disallowing too much sugar for children was another way these incarcerated mothers coped with negative stereotypical images (Celinska & Siegel, 2010). Dessert-making behavior aligned with appropriate performances and practices of “good mothers” and pro-social identities (Bugge & Almås, 2006).

Situating Desserts as a Gendered Behavior

Discussion about desserts was centered in the context of female/caretaker behavior. In much of the world, mothers, not fathers, are charged with overseeing meal procurement and preparation (Charles & Kerr, 1988; Flagg et al., 2014; Lake et al., 2006). For incarcerated women, preparation of meals, especially desserts, is still considered female territory. During a discussion about baking ability, participants drew on memories of female relatives. For example, the following exchange occurred:

In another focus group, the discussion centered around differences between male cooking and female cooking at the jail:

Consumption and preparation of desserts are gendered processes (Benford & Gough, 2006; Bock & Kanarek, 1995; Zellner, Garriga-Trillo, Centeno, & Wadsworth, 2004). Jailed mothers’ discussion about baking and desserts reiterates the ethic of care associated with mothering behavior (de Graaf & Kilty, 2016).

Navigating Spoiled Motherhood

While feminist criminologists have suggested women offenders are doubly deviant (Barnes & Stringer, 2014; Enos, 1998; Grue & Lærum, 2002), there is an additional layer of complexity for women offenders with children: Mothers in jail are triply deviant. Not only are they guilty of breaking the laws of society and of gender norms, mothers who are incarcerated have abandoned the culturally sacred duty of caretaking for their minor children (Aiello & McQueeney, 2016; Couvrette, 2016).

Incarcerated mothers engage in internal and external struggles over the highly visible separation from their children, struggles that invariably leave their mothering identity “spoiled” (Easterling & Feldmeyer, 2017; Goffman, 1963). As one mother in the focus group said, “It kills me, my oldest one can say the meanest stuff to me and it don’t stab me in the heart but my youngest one he is just like, for New Year’s he told me, ‘Why you gave me to Grammy and Pop?’” Another participant told the group, “I spent 30 days in a [another state] jail last year and my eight-year-old said, ‘Are you doing this again?’”

An additional layer of guilt and other problematic emotions occurs when the women’s own children recognize that the mothering role, a valued and normative role in our society, has been abandoned. How does one claim to be a mother when even her children question her commitment to the role?

Some mothers in the focus groups worried about their lack of being able to perform important mothering behavior while separated from their children. In the midst of a discussion about birthday cake, one focus group participant fretted about her son’s upcoming first birthday.

This exchange and the mother’s concern reflected the fragility of mothering from behind bars, a theme that has been demonstrated in past research (Aiello & McQueeney, 2016; Easterling, 2012; Easterling & Feldmeyer, 2017; Enos, 2001). The worry expressed by the mother also indicated her identification with what constituted a good mother, one who would not miss her child’s birthday party.

Demonstrated Agency

Participants of the focus groups contributed a total of 10 dessert recipes. A content analysis of the recipes suggested that these women were agentic, able to draw upon creativity to dismantle commissary and “chow” items to create dishes that were their own. All 10 recipes featured characteristics of deconstruction and rebuilding.

Although a major feature of imprisonment is lack of agency (Brown & Bloom, 2009), there are small but not insignificant ways in which prisoners practice control (P. Gray, 2006; Pollack, 2000), including through food creation (Minke, 2014). Although choice of food while institutionalized is either nonexistent or severely limited (Elger, 2017; Smoyer & Lopes, 2017), inmates can exercise agency by deconstructing and rebuilding food so that it becomes proprietary.

The desserts were also clearly tied to the jail experience. These were not recipes the mothers would create on the outside, mainly due to the inconvenience and time it took to break down processed, ready-to-eat ingredients. “I’ll make cakes from a mix when I get home, no way I’ll make this stuff again,” said one participant. In the free world, there is no need to disassemble pre-made cupcakes, candy bars, and cookies into something different. The resistance to control is realized in the act of dismantling and rebuilding, typically not necessary on the outside.

Cookies with cream are popular ingredients behind bars; they are frequently disassembled, broken down, and used in different capacities. Crushed cookie crumbs, when mixed with warm water (either water that is warm from the shower or warmed in the microwave if one is working and available), form a pliable cake batter whereas the cream from the inside the cookies becomes cake icing.

This re-fashioning of two commissary ingredients into a “homemade” cake accomplishes a number of feats, namely, establishing control over what one eats in an environment that is highly controlled. The practice of dessert-making rebels against notions that institutionalized bodies are docile bodies. The following is a sample recipe for a “Cookie Cake” which is representative of the others submitted. Ingredients include a package of duplex cookies with cream in the middle and candy bars or M&Ms for the filling.

Take the pack of cookies, take the cookies apart separate the filling from the cookie put the filling in a bag, then put the other part of the cookie into a bag, then you get a cup of hot water and crush the cookies in the bag, add the hot water to the bag of cookies, you work the cookies into a dough add water if needed, then you press it down with your hand into the shape that you want your cake to be, put candy or whatever you want for your filling, then you fold up the cookie cake making sure the middle is covered up, then you take the filling of the cookie and put hot water making it into a liquid form, not too much water just enough so it becomes soft, then you take it and put it on top of your cookie cake, let it sit for a while so it can form and it will be ready to eat [sic].

The accomplishment of recipes that were successful and popular served to remind the women that they were not only able to express themselves as domestic individuals but also could perform a valued skill. The women prided themselves on the delicious items they could create within extremely rigid limits. Mothers are often called upon to “make do” with what is on hand to feed their families (Carrigan & Szmigin, 2006; McIntyre et al., 2003; Slater, Sevenhuysen, Edginton, & O’Neil, 2012; Wiig & Smith, 2009), and jailed mothers’ recipes reflect this practice.

Foucault’s (1977) notion of docile bodies theorizes that incarcerated individuals become objects for manipulation and control, a perspective that fails to take into account the agency those bodies possess. Incarcerated individuals do practice agency in the midst of considerable constraints. One method is through the creative experimentation and mastery of the difficult and inconvenient practice of cooking behind bars. The desserts shared by the focus group participants showed a range of creativity and agency, suggesting that forms of control over one’s own body are not only accessible, but are commonly utilized by incarcerated individuals.