Abstract

Although incarceration of women in the United States is at a historic high, the understanding of women’s experiences in prison and how this time affects their lives after prison is very limited. Qualitative studies of this population are crucial for practice and research and as more qualitative research is conducted; the challenge will be to develop ways to synthesize the findings for policy application. The purpose of this qualitative interpretive meta-synthesis was to understand how women experience friendship in a carceral setting and the implications of these relationships. The synthesis revealed one overarching theme: belonging/acceptance and five subthemes: similar life experiences enrich a friendship, low self-esteem can affect the ability to form friendships in justice involved women, it is hard for justice involved women to trust people, justice involved women have anxiety surround reintegration that friendships can help mitigate, and friendships are an effective means to cope with incarceration.

摘要

尽管美国对女性的监禁处于历史最高水平，但对女性在监狱中的经历以及这段时间如何影响她们出狱后的生活的了解非常有限。对这一人群的定性研究对于实践和研究至关重要，并且随着进行更多的定性研究；挑战将是制定方法来综合政策应用的调查结果。这种定性解释性综合综合的目的是了解女性如何在监狱环境中体验友谊以及这些关系的含义。综合揭示了一个总体主题：归属/接受和五个子主题：相似的生活经历丰富了友谊，低自尊会影响正义女性建立友谊的能力，正义女性很难信任他人，