Women's Imprisonment

First published in 1983, Womens Imprisonment explores the meanings of womens imprisonment and, in particular, the wider meanings of the moment of prison. Based on officially sponsored research in Cornton Vale, Scotlands only womens prison, the book makes extensive use of interviews with sheriffs, policemen, and social workers, as well as observation in the prisons, the courts, and the lodging-houses. The author quotes from interviews with women recidivist prisoners, the judges who send them to prison, and the agencies which assist them in between their periods of imprisonment. In doing so, questions are raised about the meanings of imprisonment and the penal disciplining of women at the time of original publication. The book also examines the changing and various meanings of imprisonment in general and the invisible nature of the social control of women in particular.