Rethinking women’s post-release reintegration and ‘success’

In this article, we interrogate three assumptions related to women’s post-release reintegration and success that are prevalent within and across official, institutional and criminological discourses and practice. Our analysis is based on qualitative interviews conducted with support workers and women about experiences and perceptions of support and success in Victoria, Australia. Ultimately, we contend that the introduction of women-specific policies and support programs in Victoria has had limited impact because they are at core premised upon the same problematic success-related assumptions that have failed to adequately serve mainstream prisoner populations, i.e. men. We issue a broader challenge to criminologists to rethink dominant understandings about post-release reintegration in the interests of facilitating alternative approaches that respond to the structural injustices that define the post-release trajectories of women and men.