Within these Walls: Reflections of women in and after prison: an insight into the experience of women’s imprisonment in Britain and Ireland.

This paper, based on the authors’ continuing work
with women in custody in Ireland and Britain over
a period of six years, poignantly reminds us of the
women in our prisons and the extraordinarily
punitive sanction, that imprisonment often is for
such women. The Corston Report2 was regarded as
a revolutionary beacon of light for activists and
academics working in the field of women’s
imprisonment. Baroness Corston, in a powerful
way, drew the attention of the British government
to the plight of women in prison, to the injustice of
adding criminal sanctions to social disadvantage
for some of the most vulnerable in society. The
report enlivened activists, sparking ideas and
opening up new possibilities regarding radical
change for women in criminal justice systems. The
question now, Eleven years on, is whether all that
promise was realised. By way of a contribution to
answering that question, this article reflects on the
reality of women’s imprisonment in Britain and
Ireland today.