Janet Garcia-Hallett, Ph.D.

Education

Ph.D., Criminal Justice, Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice
M.A., Criminal Justice, Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice
B.A., Cum Laude, Honors in Sociology, Honors in Psychology, CUNY Macaulay Honors College: Hunter College

About Janet

Dr. Janet Garcia-Hallett is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice in the University of New Haven. She earned her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the Rutgers University-Newark School of Criminal Justice. Her research is primarily focused on the detrimental impact of incarceration on communities of color and the intersectional obstacles women of color face before, during, and after incarceration. Her book, Invisible Mothers, explores how mothers of color navigate motherhood post-incarceration, and how their reentry into the community is shaped by mothers’ treatment and experiences at the intersection of gender, motherhood, racial-ethnic background, and criminal record. In doing so, her book examines the concept of visibility in how social institutions treat mothers of color as invisible mothers restricted from equal opportunities, but also simultaneously as visible (m)others who are criminalized and penalized for surviving their circumstances. Dr. Garcia-Hallett’s scholarship can be found in The Prison Journal, Feminist Criminology, Sociology Compass, and the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.

Publications

Canada, K.E., Givens, A., Huebner, B.M., Garcia-Hallett, J., Taylor, E., Inzana, V., Edwards, D., Peters, C.M., & Plunkett Cafourek, D. (2023). Perceptions of Vaccine Safety and Hesitancy among Incarcerated Adults and Correctional Staff in the Rural Midwest. Vaccine: X, 13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvacx.2023.100270

Garcia-Hallett, J. (2022). Invisible Mothers Unseen Yet Hypervisible after Incarceration. University of California Press.

Canada, K. E., Huebner, B., Garcia-Hallett, J., Givens, A., Inzana, V., Taylor, E., & Peters, C. (2022). Community-engaged Prison-based Research in a Pandemic: The Efficacy of Summative Content Analysis for Understanding Prison Culture and Climate. Journal of Crime & Justice. https://doi.org/10.1080/0735648X.2022.2072364

Garcia-Hallett, J., & Christian, J. (2021). Gender and (Fictive) Family in a Women’s Post-Incarceration Mentoring Program. British Journal of Criminology. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azab120

Garcia-Hallett, J., Like, T., Torres, T., and Irazábal, C. (2020). Latinxs in the Kansas City Metro Area: Policing and Criminalization in Ethnic Enclaves. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 40(2), 151–168.

Garcia-Hallett, J. (2019). “We're Being Released to a Jungle”: The State of Prisoner Reentry and the Resilience of Women of Color. The Prison Journal, 99(4), 459–483. Special issue on Race as a Carceral Terrain: Black Lives Matter Meets Reentry [Invited Contribution].

Garcia-Hallett, J. (2019). Maternal Identities and Narratives of Motherhood: A Qualitative Exploration of Women’s Pathways Into and Out of Offending. Feminist Criminology, 14(2), 214–240.
Honorable Mention: Feminist Criminology's Helen Eigenberg Best Article of the Year Award for 2019.

Novich, M., & Garcia-Hallett, J. (2018). Strategies for Balance: Examining How Parents of Color Navigate Work and Life in the Academy. The Work-Family Interface: Spillover, Complications, and Challenges (Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Vol. 13, pp. 157–184). Emerald Publishing Limited.

Garcia, J. (2016). Understanding the Lives of Mothers after Incarceration: Moving Beyond Socially Constructed Definitions of Motherhood. Sociology Compass, 10(1), 3–11.

Garcia, J. (2016). The Importance of the Mentor-Mentee Relationship in Women’s Desistance from Destructive Behaviors. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 60(7), 808–827.

Selected Grants

Prison Research and Innovation Network (PRIN) with the Missouri Department of Corrections and Research Team: Kelli Canada, Beth Huebner, Ashley Givens, and Clark Peters. Urban Institute and Arnold/Ventures. ($200,000)

Selected Fellowships, Honors, and Awards

Award. 2023 American Sociological Association (ASA) Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Ida B. Wells-Barnett Distinguished Book Award.

Honorable Mention. 2023 American Sociological Association (ASA) Section on Race, Gender and Class Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award.

Finalist. 2023 American Sociological Association (ASA) Family Section’s William J. Goode Book Award.

Finalist. 2023 Evident Change’s Media for a Just Society Book Award.

University of Missouri President’s Award for Intercampus Collaboration (along with PI Kelli Canada, MU; Co-PI Beth Huebner, UMSTL; Co-PI Ashley Givens, MU; Co-PI Clark Peters, MU).

Honorable Mention. Feminist Criminology's Helen Eigenberg Best Article of the Year Award for 2019. Recognition for publication: “Maternal Identities and Narratives of Motherhood: A Qualitative Exploration of Women’s Pathways Into and Out of Offending.”

2019 SAGE Junior Faculty Professional Development Teaching Award. Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.