Cayla Pearson

Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Reilly, Jack

Area of Concentration

Political Science with Rhetoric and Writing Secondary Field

Abstract

There are many hidden costs associated with incarceration. These costs include commissary, bail, and costs for using the phone while incarcerated. Because of most jails’ financial reliance on kickbacks from private companies, these companies are permitted to determine the prices that families of incarcerated persons must pay in order to support and stay in contact with their incarcerated loved ones. Drawing on Joshua Page et al.’s (2019) idea of “gendered care work and emotional labor” used by bail bondsmen in order to appeal to women’s duty to care for their friends and family and Silvia Federici’s (1974) idea of “labour of love” where women are burdened with societal expectations to care for their loved ones, I hypothesize that women disproportionately shoulder all of the hidden costs of incarceration. To test this hypothesis, I surveyed 77 people who have been previously incarcerated in Sarasota, Florida. The survey includes questions that ask respondents about the services they received in jail and the gender of who paid for those costs. After analyzing the results of the survey, women and relatives disproportionately shoulder costs related to incarceration – with the exception of fines paid after incarceration. The survey found that fines are predominately paid by the respondent.

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