The prison has often been the focus for concerns about human rights violations, and campaigns aimed at achieving social justice, for those with an interest in the criminalisation of women. To reduce the number of women imprisoned, a range of policy initiatives have been developed to increase the use of community-based responses to women in conflict with the law. These initiatives have tended to operate alongside reforms to the prison estate and are often defined as ‘community punishment’, ‘community sanctions’ and ‘alternatives to imprisonment’. This book challenges the contention that improved regimes and provisions within the criminal justice system are capable of addressing human rights concerns and the needs of the criminalised woman.

This book aims to provide a critical analysis of approaches and experiences of penal sanctions, human rights and social justice as enacted in different jurisdictions within and beyond the UK. Drawing on international knowledge and expertise, the contributors to this book challenge the efficacy of gender-responsive interventions by examining issues affecting women in the criminal justice system such as mental health, age, and ethnicity. Crucially, the book will engage with the paradox of implementing rights within a largely punishment-orientated system.

This book will be of interest to those taking undergraduate and post-graduate courses that examine punishment, gender and justice, and which lend themselves to an international / comparative aspect such as criminal justice/criminology, (international) criminal justice courses; sociology as well as professional training for practitioners (criminal justice, social work, health) who work with women in the criminal justice system.

Contents

Part 1. Introduction, 1. Women, Punishment and Social Justice, Margaret Malloch and Gill McIvor, 2. Ethicality, Legitimacy, Law and Locality: Making the Case for Change, Loraine Gelsthorpe, Part 2. The Penal Context, 3.039;s imprisonment in Northern Ireland: Social exclusion, punishment and breaches of rights, Linda Moore and Ann Jemphrey 4. Deaths of Women in Prison: the Human Rights Issues Arising, Deborah Coles 5. Researching the mental health needs of women in prison: Problems and pitfalls, Alice Mills, Kathleen Kendall Judith Lathlean and Julie Steal, 6. Older female prisoners in the UK and US: Finding justice in the criminal justice system 7. A healing place? Okimaw Ochi and a Canadian approach to Aboriginal women, Azrini Wahidin and Ron Aday 8. Human rights in an institutional setting, Alison Hosie Part 3. Community Sanctions, Human Rights and Social Justice 9. Prisons, gender responsive strategies and community sanctions: The expansion of punishment in the United States, Jodie Lawston 10. Justice and community for women in transition in Victoria, Australia, Rosemary Sheehan 11. Hostels and community justice for women: The 'semi-penal' paradox, Alana Barton and Vickie Cooper 12. The 218 exper...