Communication Infrastructure Determines Whether Incarcerated Mothers Can Remain Mothers

Generative Research, User Interviews

Note. This was a personal research project conducted during my doctoral studies.

While over $70 billion is spent annually on corrections in the U.S., only around $100-$150 million is spent on family reunification support. For many mothers, the process to reconnect with children is often delayed and inconsistent due to systemic barriers and service gaps during reentry.

Through research with 15 Black mothers, I discovered a fundamental gap: reentry services focus on "parenting skills" when mothers actually need communication tools and relationship support.

I designed three research-informed service concepts that address the barriers mothers identified.

The Challenge

Research Approach

Current reentry services are designed based on assumptions rather than user research. Most programs focus on teaching parenting skills (discipline, homework help, meal planning) without understanding whether that's what mothers actually need to reunify with their children.

The research gap:

  • Existing research centers men's reentry experiences, not mothers'

  • Studies assume mothers want to resume intensive 24/7 caregiving

  • No research asking mothers how they define "successful reentry"

My opportunity: Understand the actual reunification journey from mothers' perspectives and identify unmet needs.

I conducted 15 interviews with formerly incarcerated Black mothers. Eligibility requirements included having at least one child under the age of 16 at the beginning of their sentence.

I chose this inclusion criteria because it recognizes diverse family structures in Black communities and the lived experiences navigating systems while parenting.

Designing for edge cases often reveals fundamental issues affecting mainstream users.

Findings

Finding #1

Communication Infrastructure Determines Relationship Maintenance

Finding #2

Custody Decision-Making Lacks Accessible Information

Finding #3

Success is defined as emotional reconnection

Design Implications

Maintaining maternal identity during incarceration depends entirely on caregivers facilitating communication. When caregivers actively support the mother-child bond, mothers continue parenting from inside. When caregivers don't create this space, mothers are systematically erased.

“My sister would let me hear my daughter in the background. Just hearing her voice kept me connected. But my friend, her mom wouldn’t tell the kids when she called. They grew up thinking she abandoned them.”

Current barrier: Phone calls cost $1-3 per minute. Video visits require caregiver tech setup. No system support exists for caregivers doing this invisible labor.

Recommendation: Reentry support service should prioritize communication tools over other interventions. Communication features should be the foundation, not an add-on feature.

Mothers make life-altering, often irreversible custody decisions without understanding their rights, options, or long-term consequences. Legal terminology is incomprehensible. Requirements vary by jurisdiction. Each step has hidden prerequisites creating catch-22 situations.

“I signed temporary custody thinking it was just while I was locked up. I didn’t know once you sign, it’s almost impossible to get back. Nobody told me I had options.”

Current barrier: No central source of truth. Guidance varies by caseworker. Legal aid has months long waiting list.

Recommendation: Create decision-support tools that translate legal jargon, show all available options (not just caseworker recommendations), map prerequisite dependencies, and provide realistic timelines. This is an information design problem, not a legal knowledge problem.

Mothers define successful reentry as authentic emotional presence with their children—but they default to performative doing (cooking, cleaning, gift-giving) because they don't know how to bridge emotional distance. Children don't need mothers to compensate for lost time; they need mothers to listen to who they've become.

“I thought if I got a good job and nice place, everything would be okay. But my son didn’t care. He just wanted me to ask about his life, to hear him. I kept trying to DO when he needed me to BE.”

Current barrier: Reentry programs teach skills for parenting a child who no longer exists. Services end after 6-12 months when relationship repair takes years. No preparation for how children have changed.

Recommendation: Services should shift from skills-based training to relationship-building tools that facilitate emotional conversations, prepare mothers for realistic reunification, give children agency, and provide long-term support. Relationship tools are needed, not competency training.

These findings suggest three priority areas for reentry service design:

  1. Communication tools should be foundational, not supplementary

  2. Information architecture matters more than legal expertise for custody navigation

  3. Relationship-building features address real needs better than competency training

Project takeaways

The hardest part of UX research isn't conducting studies—it's translating findings into actionable recommendations for product teams. I shifted from academic framing ("How do mothers experience reentry systems?") to product framing ("What features would help mothers maintain family bonds?"). Same research questions, different lens for stakeholder communication.


I initially assumed reentry systems were immovable due to regulations and bureaucracy. But research revealed most barriers are design choices, not structural constraints:

  • Expensive communication is a business model choice

  • Confusing custody processes reflect information design failures

  • 6-month program limits reflect funding cycles, not evidence


System-defined metrics (program completion, recidivism rates) don't align with user-defined success (emotional reconnection, maternal agency). Designing to the wrong metrics produces wrong solutions. This research demonstrates the importance of understanding success from users' perspectives before building solutions.