Love Lockdown: Dating, Sex, and Marriage in America’s Prisons

Unlike prison romance fiction or florid memoirs such as Jodie Sinclair’s Love Behind Bars, Greenwood’s book is an empathetic, detached portrait of five prison couples. They include a veteran with PTSD who married a person convicted of attempted murder, an incarcerated trans woman in love with a bisexual fellow inmate, and a New York Times editor who married a man convicted of murder. The overarching themes of the book are pain and the need for connection. Each of the incarcerated people portrayed, as well as their mates, has experienced serious trauma. In attempting to paint a portrait of each couple and their circumstances, Greenwood interviewed both partners in the relationships, but didn’t interview others in their lives, like ex-spouses or children. In the process of reporting the book, Greenwood witnessed relationship struggles, visited support groups, and connected with academics studying the sociological effects on relationships when one or more family members is incarcerated. The book does an admirable job of showing that hope, like love, is a choice these partners make.