ABSTRACT
There is a dearth of literature covering post-prison experiences in the Aotearoa New Zealand context, but relevant research from Australia and overseas provides background knowledge. This chapter introduces and highlights the issues that people face after release from women’s prisons, and notes how these issues link to wider structural inequalities in society. Furthermore, this chapter explores the support available for women post-release, and how the majority of the current programmes and support are underfunded, unsuitable or inaccessible. Following that, gender responsiveness and desistance, which dominate the post-prison literature, are described and explored. This section will include international critiques and suggest that the expectations from prison and post-prison programmes are unrealistic, because they fail to address the wider impact of social, political and economic marginalisation and stigmatisation.
