Dr Sarah Waite

Women, Shame, and Stigma is a zine that has been co-created by academics to communicate and share the connections and commonalities of women’s experiences across a Criminal Justice process. Utilising research findings and lived knowledge of policing, probation, and the prison system, the pages expose the complex continuums of shame and stigma and the gendered nature of systems in inducing and compounding women’s experiences. In making the zine available, the authors have two primary aims. First, to share the experiences of women in a creative and accessible format, enabling readers to visualise the depth of stigmatic and shameful experiences. Second, the authors hope to highlight the reflexive experience of this process, driving home its value as a method of knowledge construction and as an act of resistance towards the fast-paced, neoliberal academia that shapes our senses of accelerating time pressures. The accompanying text piece examines and reflects upon the trajectory of the zine, with a view to sharing both the knowledge and experience with others.

ABSTRACT

‘Vulnerability’ is a commonly used but little understood term in the field of social policy and beyond. The refocusing of our criminal justice system around notions of ‘vulnerability’ has had wide‐reaching consequences which often escape both academic and political attention. Seeking to advance analysis of the concept of ‘vulnerability’, we explore its operationalisation in women's prisons and argue that this is often in direct opposition to the way that the women themselves understand and experience the label of ‘vulnerable’. We draw upon notions of agency, risk, and resilience to re‐examine how the ‘vulnerability zeitgeist’ may, in fact, be poorly serving those it aims to support and protect. Through utilising lived experience and empirical inquiry, this article problematises the term ‘vulnerability’, its operationalisation by prison staff, and suggests further work is needed in order to understand women's experiences of the term and its impact upon their time in prison.

Lived experience criminology has tended to focus on the boundaried experiences of the carceral space, despite the criminal courts being the state’s primary route to criminalisation. In recognition that involvement with the criminal justice system is not a static process, this paper seeks to theorise the continuum of experiences of those criminalised by the state. Through the use of feminist epistemologies, this paper interrogates women’s ways of knowing through the embodied and sensory experiences of the criminal courts system in England and Wales. By pushing lived experience (LE) criminology beyond traditional methods of auto-ethnographic enquiry and connecting the harms of the state, the paper builds towards a fuller interrogation of the processes of women’s criminalisation. In doing so we aim to contribute to the growing body of feminist LE criminology and disrupt the ‘male, pale, stale’ narratives (Cox and Malkin, 2003; Earle et al., 2023) around experiences of criminalisation. In the vein of Les Back (2007) we argue for a system that listens more to all voices and appreciates more widely all forms of knowledge.

Trust is certainly perceived as a contentious term within prison environments. When sent to prison people have their trusted status removed and are subject to risk management policies and procedures, underpinned by assessments of trust.1 Historically, relationships between staff and prisoners have been divisive, with outward expressions of trust made by either side considered to be cultural betrayal.2 In addition to this, the prioritisation of security heightens and shapes conceptions of trust, which can then also differ significantly between institutions.3 More generally, people in prison often have adverse experiences of trust, particularly relating to state criminal justice institutions and broader social structures, meaning prisons are broadly distrusting environments.4 Despite these hurdles, there are multiple research studies that evidence the existence of trust in prisons, drawing attention to its benefits,5 its challenges,6 and the ways in which it can operate.7

The Prisons and Custody team at Leeds Trinity University (LTU) is pleased to contribute to this call for evidence. This evidence is drawn from the research, practice, teaching, and training expertise within the team, who have all worked within the Criminal Justice System and are currently delivering an MSc in Applied Custodial Leadership, in partnership with Unlocked Graduates and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). The Masters Programme has been running for 3 years at LTU, with an approximate intake of 120 participants per year, all working full-time as Prison Officers in over 20 public sector prisons in the UK for the duration of the programme (2 years). The submission focuses on addressing questions 1, 2, 5 and 8 but our response speaks to some other areas of interest to the inquiry.

Staff–prisoner relationships are a key feature of prison life. Moreover, trust is a fundamental quality in the social environment of a prison. Despite experiencing incarceration qualitatively different from men, explorations of women’s experiences of trust in staff–prisoner relationships are limited. The experiences presented in this chapter are based on ten semi-structured qualitative interviews exploring staff–prisoner relationships at a high performing open women’s prison in England. The findings suggest that trust plays a key role in the daily lives of the women interviewed and is at the heart of their experiences of staff–prisoner relationships in differing forms. This chapter will analyse key concepts within the literature on trust and develop these arguments through an intersectional lens. The chapter seeks to highlight how these themes intersect and cause and alleviate tensions in trust in these complex and involuntary relationships. It will be argued that pockets of ‘genuine/thick’ trust can be experienced by incarcerated women within an open prison environment when relationships or actions are perceived to operate beyond the prison regime and to be motivated by care and empathy.

This article examines women's experiences of moving from a closed to an open prison in England. Transition to an open prison is often viewed in a positive, reformist light and although androcentric auto-ethnographical work has demonstrated challenges associated with this pivot when serving a long-term sentence, much less is known about the experiences of women. Using interview discussions, this article draws upon the concept of transcarceral habitus to examine experiences of transfer and adaptation to the open prison within the broader context of the lives of criminalised women. By extending our understanding of the women's open prison as a site of punishment and recognising the connections and pluralities of women's carceral experiences, this article seeks to disrupt unhelpful binaries that legitimise the incarceration of women and the open prison estate.

Lived experience (LE) criminology has tended to focus on the boundaried experiences of the carceral space, despite the criminal courts being the state’s primary route to criminalisation. In recognition that involvement with the criminal justice system is not a static process, this chapter seeks to theorise the continuum of experiences of those criminalised by the state. Through the use of feminist epistemologies, this chapter interrogates women’s ways of knowing through the embodied and sensory experiences of the criminal courts system in England and Wales. By pushing LE criminology beyond traditional methods of auto-ethnographic enquiry and connecting the harms of the state, the paper builds towards a fuller interrogation of the processes of women’s criminalisation. In doing so we aim to contribute to the growing body of feminist LE criminology and disrupt the “male, pale, stale” narratives( around experiences of criminalisation. In the vein of Les Back, we argue for a system that listens more to all voices and appreciates more widely all forms of knowledge.

This study examines the professional identity development of graduate prison officers working in two women’s prisons in England following completion of Women’s Estate Specific Training (WEST). While the professionalisation of prison work has received growing attention, the gendered dynamics of working in the women’s estate and the impact of gender-informed training on graduate recruits’ experiences remain underexplored. Using a qualitative semi-longitudinal design, the research followed a cohort of Unlocked Graduate officers over one year, employing focus groups and semi-structured interviews to explore how they navigated the complexities of gendered custodial work, institutional culture, and relational and emotional labour. Reflexive thematic analysis identified three interrelated themes. First, officers negotiated their professional identities amid tensions between their rehabilitative ideals and institutional constraints, often confronting conflicts between personal values and operational demands. Second, gender-informed training shaped approaches to relational and trauma-informed work, revealing both its potential to enhance care and its limitations within rigid institutional structures. Third, officers’ experiences highlighted the ways systemic, patriarchal, and managerialist practices shaped the women’s estate, reproducing structural harms that positioned both women and staff as responsible for mitigating outcomes beyond their control. The findings demonstrate that while gender-responsivity offers conceptual progress, it risks reinforcing paternalism unless reimagined as a transformative critique. Graduate officers’ reflections show that professional identity in the women’s estate is not only shaped by training but by the ethical, critical, and hopeful negotiation of structural injustice. The study underscores the need to move beyond gendered managerialism toward gendered justice, recognising prisons’ incapacity to meet women’s needs and challenging the burden of care placed on individual officers. By illuminating these dynamics, the research contributes to scholarship on prison officer professionalisation, gendered custodial work, and the ethical and emotional labour of prison practice, offering both a mirror and a challenge to contemporary penal reform.

In the current chapter, we present a case study of a co-produced educational intervention focused on menopause in the women’s prison estate in England and Wales. Drawing on collaboration between academic staff and prison officers enrolled in a postgraduate programme, the project aimed to address a critical gap in prison officer training around women’s health, ageing, and care. While the distinct needs of women in custody have gained increasing policy recognition, menopause remains an under-researched and underresourced issue within prison settings. Symptoms such as anxiety, fatigue, and hot flushes can be misunderstood or misinterpreted, contributing to stigma, disciplinary responses, and unmet needs. Through a series of workshops, officers and academics collaborated to develop a menopause education resource, culminating in an animated training tool designed to be both practical and reflective of real-world prison dynamics. The project employed a co-production approach rooted in shared learning, mutual respect, and the valuing of lived experience. The chapter draws on autoethnographic reflections from the team, offering insight into the emotional labour, trust-building, and institutional navigation required for meaningful collaboration. Reflections highlight the potential of co-produced training to not only build knowledge and empathy, but to support a shift in how the role of the prison officer is understood, centring relational practice and shared expertise alongside traditional custodial responsibilities. The chapter concludes by exploring the broader benefits of co-producing menopause education with prison officers, arguing collaborative approaches to training can enhance gender-responsive practice, inform more effective practice, and strengthen staffprisoner relationships. Menopause, we argue, is not a marginal issue, but a powerful entry point for addressing gender inequality and for demonstrating how co-produced training can promote greater empathy, understanding, and dignity within the criminal justice system. Key Words: women, health, menopause, co-production, prison officer training

This report presents the findings of an independent evaluation of the Problem-Solving Courts (PSCs) for women in Greater Manchester, focusing on the experiences of those involved in the process. Launched in 2014, the Greater Manchester PSCs for women is the most well established and longest running model for women in England and Wales, originating as an alternative to custody. The research centres women’s voices, while also incorporating the views of Probation staff and Magistrates, to better understand the relational approach, as well as the tensions and challenges, and to explore how PSCs can be improved to better support women.