1. Wisconsin Sentencing Policies: Black Male Mass Incarceration and its
Effects on the Health of Black Female Family Members in Milwaukee
Erika Christenson, Sara Kohlbeck, and Elise Mosley- Johnson
Overall Objectives
∙To understand and describe the experiences of Black women in Milwaukee as they are
impacted by the incarceration of a male family member
Detailed Objectives
∙ Demonstrate how the trauma of targeted policing, racially differentiated rates of prosecutions
and sentencing, which results in the mass incarceration of Black men, impacts the health of
Black women in Milwaukee.
∙ Illustrate how this mass incarceration impacts the community as a whole in terms of housing
and financial insecurity.
• This study aimed to use a phenomenological epistemology, in which we would describe the essence of the experience of Black
women as they cope with the incarceration of a Black male family member, so we relied on purely qualitative methods for this
project. We decided to use focus groups and in-depth interviews as our data collection methods.
• We worked with two community organizations in Milwaukee, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center and Cross Lutheran
Church, to recruit participants for our focus groups and for our in-depth interviews. Our recruitment goal was 20-30 women but over
60 women indicated interest in participating in our study.
• The goal of our focus groups was to gather contextual information regarding women’s experiences in order to better inform our in-
depth interview questions, as we were not working with a pre-determined theory base. Our first focus group was held on Monday
March 30, 2015. We had 21 women attend this group, so to facilitate a productive conversation with the women, we split into two
groups. Our second focus group occurred on Monday April 13, 2015. 14 women attended this focus group, and we decided to keep
this session as one large group.
• Each of us conducted one in-depth face-to-face qualitative interview with a community member. All of the women that participated in
in-depth interviews also participated in one of the focus groups so they had prior knowledge of the research topic.
• Employing a grounded theory approach to data analysis, each member of the research team independently coded two sets of focus
group notes and their respective in-depth interview transcripts. Each text segment from the notes and transcripts was open coded first,
and then focused codes were generated by combining open codes and by elevating the codes that appeared repeatedly. After
generating focused codes, we independently generated categories within our notes and transcripts by combining focused codes. In
addition to coding and categorizing our own notes and transcripts, each of us also double-coded an in-depth interview transcript that
was already coded by another team member, resulting in the double-coding of all of the in-depth interview transcripts.
• After coding the notes and transcripts independently. the group reconvened and reconciled our categories, using thematic analysis,
and generated a total of five overall themes for the project. The resulting themes are Milwaukee Climate, Structural and Institutional
Forces, Women’s Lives and Impact, Family, and Impact of Incarceration. Each major theme contains a number of sub-themes that
support the broader theme, and a number of salient quotations were pulled from the notes and transcripts in order to provide a deeper
context for the broad themes.
• Lecci, S., & Maternowski, M. (2013). New Ranking: Milwaukee still country’s most segregated metro area.
WUWM. Retrieved from: http://wuwm.com/post/new-ranking-milwaukee-still-countrys-most-segregated-metro-
area
• Mauer, M. and King, R.S. (2007). Uneven justice: states rates of incarceration by race and ethnicity. The
Sentencing Project. Washington, D.C. Retrieved from http://www.sentencingproject.
org/doc/publications/rd_stateratesofincbyraceandethnicity.pdf
• Pawasarat, J. and Quinn, L.M. (2013). Wisconsin’s mass incarceration of African American Males: workforce
challenges for 2013. Retrieved from http://www4.uwm.edu/eti/2013/BlackImprisonment.pdf
• Based on our findings from the focus groups and the in-depth interviews, we learned that the
mass incarceration of Black men in Milwaukee has a profound impact on the lives of the
women in their families. In addition to this impact, there is an impact on the broader
community and on the men themselves, in terms of employment, housing, and other financial
and emotional factors.
• We also learned that. although there is some knowledge regarding mass incarceration in
Milwaukee, Black women in the community have a desire to learn more about their rights and
how to advocate for themselves and for the incarcerated men in their lives.
• Mass incarceration is an issue of social justice. The zip codes in Milwaukee demonstrating the
highest incarceration rates are also the zip codes demonstrating the highest rates of poverty.
Historically, these neighborhoods have been geographically, economically, and racially
segregated and the residents of these neighborhoods are among the most marginalized in the
city.
• Wisconsin has the highest incarceration rate of Black males in the nation with 12.8% of
Black men behind bars, which is nearly double the national average of 6.7%.
• The majority of those incarcerated come from Milwaukee County; two- thirds of the Black
men incarcerated hail from only 6 Milwaukee zip codes, while over 90% come 15 zip codes
(Pawasarat & Quinn 2013).
• Since 1990, sentencing policies such as three-strike rules, mandatory minimum sentencing
laws, truth- in- sentencing, and incarceration for minor probation and supervision violations
have resulted in national increases in prison populations and contributed to more than tripling
the prison population in Wisconsin (Mauer & King, 2007; Pawasarat & Quinn 2013).
OBJECTIVES
BACKGROUND
METHODOLOGY RESULTS
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Erika Christenson: erikaac2@uwm.edu
Sara Kohlbeck: skohlbeck@mcw.edu
Elise Mosley-Johnson: emmosley@uwm.edu
CONTACT INFORMATION
Home Residences of Incarcerated and
Released Black Male State Prisoners:
66% of Black men incarcerated the
following 6 zip codes: 53206, 53209,
53210, 53218, 53212, 53216
DUSTIN A. CABLE, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, WELDON COOPER CENTER FOR PUBLIC SERVICE, REFERENCE DATA BY STAMEN DESIGN