Abstract:
Women incarceration disrupted conventional modes of reproduction and threatened reproductive justice, separated families
and funneled children into foster care, restricted women's access to abortion and adequate pregnancy care, shackled women in
childbirth, and incarcerated people during their prime reproductive years. Based on historical and ethnographic fieldwork in
Langata women's prison, we explore the discourse of sex, reproductive health, and motherhood behind bars. We argue that
across time and place, these semicarceral institutions extended the arms of the state to control women's perceived moral and
sexual transgressions. The health needs of all prisoners, including women prisoners and their children in Kenya have drawn
increasing attention over the past decade. Sexual tensions among females in African prisons have received little attention from
researchers since prison studies in Africa tend to focus on the sexual relationships among male prisoners, especially the
coercive nature of such relationships in male prisons. This paper, therefore, seeks to close this gap and examine the discourse
of reproduction and sexuality in Langata Women's Prison.
