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 6 years, poignantly reminds us of the women in our prisons and the extraordinarily punitive sanction, that imprisonment often is for such women. The Corston Report 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, 11 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.