Some women inmates need to establish a sense of identity before they can be comfortable. One way that women establish identity is through pseudo-families. Women can either create one or join one. Pseudo-families are used to help recreate a sense of normality, by having different women play different roles. Having a pseudo-family in prison may be looked as a coping mechanism, to help easy some of the heart ache of not being home. Most pseudo-families are small in comparison within the whole female prison facility. There could be more one prison family in any given prison or correctional facility. Usually the person who creates the family plays the leading role as mother or father and those who are “initiated” into the family may play either
