As the prevalence of women’s imprisonment rises, effective engagement with this highly vulnerable population is critical to mitigate the wide-ranging impacts on individuals, families, and society. Women serving prison sentences present with extensive psychosocial complexities and demonstrate distinct commonalities within background life histories and trajectories towards crime. These include elevated rates of trauma victimisation, mental health difficulties, substance dependence, and interpersonal relationships characterised by instability and dysfunction. Additionally, within New Zealand, the female prison population is predominantly wāhine Māori. Interventions targeted to address offending behaviour in women therefore must be responsive and to the multifaceted needs of this unique population.

 

The current study utilises an experiential qualitative methodology, and culturally responsive framework, to explore women’s experiences as participants of the Kōwhiritanga group-based offence-focused rehabilitation programme. The intention was to understand both enablers and barriers impacting the women’s capacity to effectively engage in the intervention, as well as post-programme impacts on wider lifestyle and wellbeing. Many themes raised by the participants align with women-centric intervention literature emphasising the importance of strengths-based, trauma-informed, and relational focused approaches. Findings also indicate that responsive practice within a prison setting must consider wider contextual impacts such as custodial staff and the physical environmental. Clinical implications for a targeted approach to responsivity in practice when engaging with women, and suggestions for sitewide integration and implementation, are highlighted.