ABSTRACT
Playing the key role in the punishment and containment of women, the prison system has historically experienced recurrent states of 'crises' and attempts to reform. This chapter analyses the impact of Baroness Jean Corston, asking why her strong review failed to ignite a transformation of women's imprisonment in England and Wales (E&W). It begins with a reference to the prison's historical role in regulating and punishing women and the episodic attempts to reform women's penal regimes from the nineteenth century onwards. The chapter explores Corston's vision and official responses to her recommendations, identifying the perspectives adopted by successive Labour, Coalition and Conservative UK governments. It considers the post-Corston, continued 'crisis' in imprisonment, touching on how intersectionalities shape women's experiences. The persistence of the 'numbers crisis' is the most visible and quantifiable barrier to achieving Corston's recommendations towards significant decarceration. There is a need for strategies to be developed and progressed to abolish the damaging and violent institution of the prison.
