Women’s Centres: Gender Responsive Services for Formerly Imprisoned Women Post Corston Report (2007)

The article provides a rationale for the author’s ongoing doctoral research which explores the experiences and perspectives of formerly imprisoned women, accessing one women’s centre which was opened in response to the Corston report (2007). The research has incorporated a 16-month period of participant observation, 16 semi-structured interviews with members of staff at The Women’s Centre (TWC) , and 14 semi-structured interviews formerly imprisoned women who accessed TWC after their release from prison. Utilising the ideas of gender responsivity and governmentality scholars (Hannah-Moffat, 2001; Goodkind, 2009; Haney, 2010; Joseph, 2013) and drawing upon a Foucauldian feminist perspective, the research explores the role and function of one women’s centre for women after prison, thus contributing to a small body of research in this field.