Latin American women prisoners and motherhood: totalitarian or agency experience?

Abstract

This article aims to present prison studies on the maternity experience in prison in Latin American countries and relate them to the concepts of totalitarian institution of Goffman's prison (1984), Foucault's function of monitoring and punishing (1998) and prison agent subject of Montero Lucic
(2005). The methodology used is the bibliographical review. This paper will review aspects of prison maternity in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Uruguay, Mexico and Brazil: the reproductive rights of incarcerated women,
the right to training and work of incarcerated mothers, the infrastructure of penitentiary centers for mothers and children, the disciplinary measures for incarcerated mothers, and special penitentiary care programs for pregnant women. The results indicate that prisons for Latin American mother inmates mostly represent a controlling, vigilant, and punishing institution which infrequently
allows them a position of "agent subject" to generate their own adaptation strategies in captivity.