Women Exiting Prison ─ Critical Essays on Gender, Post-Release Support and Survival

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.

Bree Carlton is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Monash University, Australia. She has undertaken research and published widely in the areas of history and prison studies. Her book,Imprisoning Resistance: Life and Death in an Australian Supermax, was published by the Sydney Institute of Criminology Series in 2007 and nominated in the True Crime category of the 8th Davitt Awards in 2008. Her collaborative research with Marie Segrave has focused on gender, imprisonment and post-release survival while her current research program has extended to focus on penal reform and abolition.

Marie Segrave is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University, Australia. Marie researches and publishes across a range of feminist and critical criminological concerns including human trafficking, labour exploitation and migration, and post-imprisonment. She is co-author ofSex Trafficking: International context and response (Routledge 2009) Her collaborative research with Bree Carlton on women’s survival post-imprisonment has been published widely, including journals such asPunishment and Society and the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology.