ABSTRACT
This chapter explores whether the Baroness Jean Corston review decontextualised women's imprisonment from broader social structures, albeit unintentionally, thus reinforcing the belief that the site for intervention, if women's imprisonment is to be reduced, is the individual woman, her life and her choices. A critical, radical analysis is adopted, prioritising the significance of state power and processes of criminalisation in understanding both women's imprisonment and the failure to implement Corston's proposals. It is suggested that not only are criminalised women let down by the state but also that official discourse focusing on women's lives and choices rather than structural contexts and institutional failings leads to continued reliance on punitive responses to manage inequalities. The chapter also explores what happens when the processes involved in the criminalisation of women, placing an emphasis on the historical, social, economic and political contexts, are foregrounded.
