ABSTRACT
Australia’s criminal justice system is busy – very busy. Incarceration rates continue to rise, with prison cells occupied by many of society’s most vulnerable, marginalised, and excluded people. Women represent a smaller prison population than men. Women with cognitive disabilities form an even smaller prison population, so the question arises – who cares? In truth, as this research demonstrates, the answer is ‘not very many’. The focus is predominantly with male offenders, including those with intellectual and cognitive disabilities. It is only recently that women’s incarceration has received academic and institutional attention, with recognition that women’s offending is distinct to that of men, and importantly, their needs when incarcerated are also very different. Many women entering prison do so with histories of trauma, to which the prison itself makes a substantial contribution. For women with cognitive disabilities, prior experience of abuse, neglect, ridicule, and exclusion from virtually every societal domain are replicated, indeed amplified, in the prison setting. Most poignantly, the vulnerability of women with cognitive disabilities is not just a matter for Corrective Services – it is a human rights issue that cannot be simply ‘swept under the rug’.
