ABSTRACT
Such is the constitution of the female prison estate. Each of these elements has been documented in prison service surveys and annual reports, in a way which forms an image of a 'typical' female inmate.3 Together these facts are usually understood to constitute the identity of the average woman in prison, an abstract figure to whom criminologists, practitioners and prison officers alike refer, and from whom it is suggested policy should flow (HMCIP 1997: §2.22). Yet, without further refinement, such abstractions are little more than descriptive categories with scant intrinsic meaning. They form the image of a normative 'type', removed from any context. Only in a general sense can this information about female prisoners communicate 'who' the women are. It cannot explain why the women came to prison nor how they feel about it. It does not give an account of the women's own understanding of incarceration, nor of the role and function of prison in their own lives.
