Expectations and Experiences of Women Imprisoned for Drug Offending and Returning to Communities in Thailand: Understanding Women’s Pathways Into, Through, and Post-Imprisonment

Samantha Jeffries, Chontit Chuenurah and Tristan Russell
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Samantha Jeffries: School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith Criminology Institute, Mount Gravatt Campus, Griffith University, 176 Messines Ridge Road, Mt Gravatt, QLD 4122, Australia
Chontit Chuenurah: Chief of the Implementation of the Bangkok Rules and Treatment of Offenders Programme, Thailand Institute of Justice, GPF Building 15-16th Floor, Witthayu Road, Lumpinee, Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Tristan Russell: School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith Criminology Institute, Mount Gravatt Campus, Griffith University, 176 Messines Ridge Road, Mt Gravatt, QLD 4122, Australia

Laws, 2020, vol. 9, issue 2, 1-38

Abstract: Thailand places a high priority on the gender-specific contexts out of which offending arises and the differential needs of women in the criminal justice system. Despite this, Thailand has the highest female incarceration rate in South East Asia and there has been substantial growth since the 1990s. This increase has been driven by punitive changes in drug law, criminal justice policy/practice which have disproportionately impacted women. As female representation in Thailand’s prisons grows, so does the number of women who return to communities. Thus, one of the challenges facing Thai society is the efficacious re-integration of growing numbers of formally incarcerated women. However, what is known about re-entry comes almost exclusively from studies of prisoners (usually men) returning home in western societies. Re-integration does not occur in a vacuum. Supporting women post-release necessitates knowledge of their pathways to, experiences of, and journeys out of prison. Utilising in-depth interviews with ( n = 80) imprisoned/formally incarcerated women and focus groups with ( n = 16) correctional staff, this paper reports findings from the first comprehensive study of women’s re-integration expectations and experiences in Thailand. Findings showed that women had multifaceted and intersectional needs which directed their pathways into, during, and out of prison.

Keywords: women; prison; pathways; re-entry; re-integration; Thailand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 E61 E62 F13 F42 F68 K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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