Promoting gender responsive support for women inmates: a case study from inside a prison

• Pages: 126-137
• Date: 10 June 2019
• Published date: 10 June 2019
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPH-03-2018-0011
• Author: Sarah Wendt,Heather Fraser
• Subject Matter: Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Prisoner health,Sociology,Sociology of crime & law,Public policy & environmental management,Policing,Criminal justice

Promoting gender responsive support

for women inmates: a case study

from inside a prison

Sarah Wendt and Heather Fraser

Abstract

Purpose –Most women who serve time in prison will eventually be released and expected to

reintegrate back into society. To maximize the chances of success, careful support is usually required.

An example of this support work was the Healthy Relationships Program (HRP, 2016) offered to

women inmates of the Adel aide Women’s Prison (South Australia) pre-release. The content of the HRP

was influenced by a gender-responsive framework and constructed as a social work program.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a small qualitati ve study that used semi-st ructured

interviews pre- and post-program to explore women participants’expectations, perceptions and

experiences of the program. In this paper, the focus is on the women inmates’interview transcripts

where a thematic analysis was conducted. Two main research questions drove this analysis. First: How did

the women experience the HRP? Second: What does their reported experience reveal about the

ongoing need for gender-r esponsive support? The key findings are that domesti c violence and

relationships with children are strong motivators for participation in programs; therefore,

gender-responsive support is still required in prison programs. However, the paper also advocates

that future iterations o f gender-responsive sup port and social work inter ventions become more

consciously intersec tional feminist in orientation.

Design/methodology/approach –A qualitative design was used to e xplore what women thought

the HRP taught them. Individual face-to-face interviews were used to explore women’s perceptions,

ideas and experiences of healthy relationships. Thematic analysis was used to draw out the themes

across interviews.

Findings –The key arguments made are that gender-responsive support is still required but that future

iterations of gender-responsive support become more consciously intersectional feminist in orientation.

Research limitations/implications –The researchers experienced strict time restrictions to conduct

interviews and therefore depth was somewhat compromised. To try and compensate for this restriction, the

researchers visited potential participants as part of program recruitment and information sharing to help

enable and build general rapport before the interviews. Time restrictionsand prison security protocols did not

allow for researchers to check transcripts with the women.

Practical implications –Reporting on this case study also showed that social work practice can influence

relationships with institutions, such as prisons, that perpetrate marginalization and therefore enable a setting

that facilitates safe participation in programs.

Social implications –Gender-responsive frameworks provide the much needed validation of

gender differences, bu t also require a feminist inte rsectional lens to more consc iously aid in the

conceptualization and evaluation of future programs for women in prison. It is this intersectional lens that is

more likely to bring multi ple experiences of oppre ssion into focus so that perso nal issues and problems

can be analyzed in a richer wider social context, particularly intersections between gender, class and/

ethnicity race.

Originality/value –This paper has reported on women’s expectations and experiences of a health

relationships program and provides insight and learnings for future practitioners intending to run similar

programs. Overall, the women participants were able to articulate their own personal learnings about

interpersonal relationships and were able to acknowledge the impacts of abuse and violence in their lives in

the program.

Keywords Intimate partner violence, Violence, Qualitative research, Women’s health, Health promotion,

Women prisoners

Paper type Research paper

Received 14 March 2018

Revised 13 June 2018

10 August 2018

Accepted 13 August 2018

Sarah Wendt is based at the

College of Education,

Psychology and Social Work,

Flinders University, Adelaide,

Australia.

Heather Fraser is based at the

Department of Social Work,

Queensland University of

Technology, Brisbane,

Australia.

PAGE126

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INTERNATIONALJOURNAL OF PRISONER HEALTH

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VOL. 15 NO. 2 2019, pp. 126-137, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1744-9200 DOI 10.1108/IJPH-03-2018-0011