ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to focus on the imprisonment experience of women during and after their release from prison in Spain. From a theoretical perspective, three recent pieces of research must be highlighted regarding the situation faced by women in Spanish prisons. Firstly, Cerezo (“Women in prison in Spain. The implementation of Bangkok Rules to the Spanish Prison Legislation”, European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 22, 2016, 133–151) described the situation of discrimination against women in prisons, such as the lack of specific rehabilitation programmes for women, the lack of mental health care and the limited use of non-custodial measures. Secondly, Juanatey dedicated her paper to understanding the large female population in prisons. Finally, Navarro has carried out an in-depth analysis of the profile of incarcerated women, with the object of then concentrating on mothers denied their liberty. This chapter will build upon a research which has a sample of 50 questionnaires and 11 interviews. We will present some of the main conclusions from the quantitative and qualitative analysis of 11 semi-structured interviews in order to know more about their imprisonment experiences. The results show the importance of maternity and some difficulties such as drug use, violence and mental health issues.
