Women Exiting Prison

Women’s incarceration is on the rise globally and this has significant intergenerational, economic and humanitarian costs for communities across the world. While there have been efforts to implement reform, particularly in countries such as Canada, UK, US and Australia, the growing evidence suggests women’s prisons and the support structures surrounding them are in crisis. This collection of critical essays presents groundbreaking research on women’s post-imprisonment policy, practice and experiences. It is the first collection to offer international perspectives on gender, criminalisation, the effects of imprisonment and women-centred approaches to the short and long-term support of women exiting prison. It offers cutting-edge insights into contemporary policy developments and women’s experiences across the US, the UK, Australia, Canada and Northern Ireland. The collection makes two important contributions. First, it marks a departure from an instrumental and individual focus on ‘what works’ to reduce women’s offending and re-offending behaviour - a prevailing approach within competing collections focused on post-release issues. Second, it presents critical, original research with robust empirical foundations to revive feminist criminological engagement around gender, imprisonment, and most critically, post-release management, support and survival. The collection will appeal to academics and community-based advocates, activists, lawyers and practitioners engaged in advocacy and service provision for imprisoned women. It is also an important and unique analysis for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying criminological and social science courses particularly those related to gender and crime, imprisonment and correctional policy and qualitative research methods.

In their journeys to prison and community re-entry, women leaving prison tend to share overarching challenges connected to lives of poverty, trauma, and abuse. Community Re-Entry: Uncertain Futures for Women Leaving Prison provides a rare opportunity to hear directly from women who have spent time in a Canadian federal penitentiary. Based on more than a decade of engagement with women in prison, the authors gathered rich and personal information on women’s lived experiences during incarceration and what they anticipated and hoped for on release. This book relates their narratives and the authors’ critical analysis of their experiences both within and outside prison. By bridging relational and other critical theories (critical feminist, critical race, critical disability, and post-structural understandings) with lived experience, this volume sheds light on the challenges incarcerated women face as they seek to return to the community as valued and contributing citizens. Community Re-Entry’s unique perspective on women’s post-imprisonment policy will appeal to academics, community-based advocates and activists, and undergraduate and postgraduate students studying criminology and social science courses on gender and crime, correctional policy, and qualitative research methods.

Explores how women inmates make the transition from prison back into society.

It is old news that the conditions and policies of women's prisons are different from those for incarcerated men. Less evident, however, is how gender differences shape those policies, and how gender identity and roles shape women's adaptation and resistance to prison culture and control. The papers in this collection explore how the gender-based attitudes that women bring to prison frame how they respond to the prison environment -- and how gender stereotypes continue to affect the treatment and opportunities of incarcerated women today. It looks particularly at how the personal and social problems imported into the prison setting become part of the intricate web of prison culture and how extensively women's prison experience reflects the control and domination they experienced in the outside world.

A critical perspective on the treatment of incarcerated women—and their children Inside and Out: Women, Prison, and Therapy challenges conventional thinking about the therapeutic issues facing female prisoners and their children. Therapists, counselors, scholars, and activists examine the injustices of the criminal justice system and the roles feminist therapists can play in deconstructing and demystifying the lives of women prisoners by becoming more involved in clinical work. Inside and Out: Women, Prison, and Therapy examines this growing problem from a feminist perspective, debunking stereotypes about women perpetrators with a thorough examination of gender-responsive treatment of women in a variety of settings. This unique book includes a macro analysis of gender and criminality; an assessment of violence and the abuse of women; parenting and the impact of incarceration on children; treatment approaches developed specifically for women prisoners; and an outline of what women need when leaving prison life. The book also examines crucial issues facing women prisoners, including sexual abuse and assault, substance abuse, mental and physical health concerns, human rights, violence, discrimination, and the unique problems of women prisoners of color. Topics addressed in Inside and Out: Women, Prison, and Therapy include: designing and delivering gender-responsive programs for women developing therapeutic measures to correct and normalize marginalized women mistreatment of women prisoners in the United States domestic violence and its connection to criminalization counseling sexually abused women motherhood, crime, and prison the effects of incarceration on children and families women, addiction, and incarceration using drama therapy with incarcerated women feminist support groups transitioning after release from prison and much more Inside and Out: Women, Prison, and Therapy is a vital professional resource for therapists and counselors who work with female prisoners and their families.

This book takes a comprehensive look at women in America's prisons, covering the history of women's prisons, crime rates, and sentencing practices. It provides detailed descriptions of prisoner subcultures, programs, management and staff issues, and legal issues of female prisoners, while also expanding beyond U.S. soil to compare women's prisons in other countries.

This edited volume presents research about life in prison for women, discussing both incarcerated women and those working in prisons. It addresses women’s paths through the criminal justice system from sentencing through post-incarceration and reintegration into society, highlighting the differences in women's experience of prison compared to their male counterparts and noting both the positive and negative changes implemented for women behind bars. Covering research on stigma, pop culture, motherhood, sexuality and gender, access to healthcare, vocational training, and educational opportunities, this text takes both a local and international view. Women and Prison is a comprehensive volume suitable for criminal justice researchers, mental health professionals, students of criminology, women's studies, sociology and those seeking a career in corrections.

Women continue to be one of the fastest growing groups of offenders with an increasing group of women involved in the criminal justice system around the world. Whilst internationally women comprise a low percentage of the total prison population, there is an escalating use of custody inextricably linked to the high levels of personal and social needs of women involved in the justice system. This book presents original research undertaken with Corrections Victoria, Australia, which examines the effectiveness of services and programmes women access in prison and after release, and the impact of this on successful reintegration into the community and on other trends such as reoffending. Victoria’s Department of Justice introduced the Better Pathways strategy in response to a growing number of women entering the Victorian corrections system, and the concerning extent to which prison is used for women with inadequate accommodation and complex treatment and support needs. The strategy was developed to address the causes of women's offending and to try and help break the cycle of women's reoffending, by funding more holistic initiatives to support women in their transition to life after prison. It is well acknowledged that pathways into offending by women can also be the factors that most affect their reintegration. The research outlined in this book presents data about individual women’s pathways through the programmes offered as part of the Better Pathways strategy and the views of the women themselves about the effectiveness of these programmes. Negligible research attention has been paid to what services and programmes are effective for women after prison. This book addresses this gap and provides a cohesive presentation of the key issues salient to the needs of women offenders.