Women's Pathways Into, Through and Out of Prison: Understanding the Needs, Challenges and Successes of Women Imprisoned for Drug Offending and Returning to Communities in Thailand (PID051)

9.30am – 10.30am EDT, 29 March 2023 ‐ 1 hour

Parallel Workshops

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, and criminal justice policy/practices, 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 formerly 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/formerly incarcerated women and focus groups with (n = 16) correctional staff, this research identifies what constitutes re-entry successes and explores the needs, and challenges of women returning to the community in Thailand. Findings showed that women had multifaceted and intersectional needs which directed their pathways into, during, and out of prison.