A powerful exploration of self-resilience, family, and community from activist and prison abolitionist Keeonna Harris.
Keeonna and Jason met as young teens. Only fourteen, Keeonna had never had a boyfriend before, dreamed of attending Spelman to become an obstetrician, and thought she was "grown." Within a year she was pregnant and Jason was in prison, convicted of a carjacking and sentenced to twenty-two years. Overnight Keeonna had become a "mainline mama," a parent facing the task of raising a childâwhile still growing up herselfâin a raw coming of age story with an incarcerated partner.
In this triumphant social justice memoir, Keeonna recalls her challenging journey as a mainline mama, from learning to overcome the exhausting difficulties of navigating the carceral system in the United States to transforming herself into an advocate for women like herâthe predominantly Black and Brown women left behind to pick up the pieces of their families and fractured lives.
Keeonna speaks frankly about the forces of systemic injustice that threatened to defeat her, how she learned to re - build her broken relationship with a mother who had lost trust in her, and how time eased the shame, guilt, and stigma of being a young Black teen mom with a partner behind bars. She offers inspiration and solace, showing how to create moments of beauty, humanity, and loveâsuch as picking the perfect wedding dress for a ceremony in a state prison visiting roomâin a place de - signed to break spirits.
Mainline Mama is a story of radical self-love and communityâcrucial acts of radical resistance against a prison industrial complex designed to dehumanize and to separate and shut away incarcerated individuals and their loved ones from the world.
How does a family survive when the system is designed to tear it apart?
- The Carceral System: Explore the unfiltered reality of becoming a teen mom whose partner is sentenced to twenty-two years, and the exhausting fight to navigate a system designed to break spirits from the outside.
- A Black Woman's Story: Follow Keeonna's journey through the shame and stigma of young motherhood, rebuilding a broken relationship with her own mom and transforming into a powerful advocate for Black and Brown women.
- Motherhood and Incarceration: Discover how love and humanity can be found in the most dehumanizing of places, from picking out the perfect wedding dress for a prison ceremony to raising a child with a parent behind bars.
- Prison Abolitionist Memoir: Learn how building a community of "mainline mamas" and practicing self-love become crucial acts of radical resistance against the prison industrial complex.