Post-Corston reflections on remanded women's experiences in Northern Ireland

This chapter examines current practices for remanded women in Northern Ireland. With reference to Baroness Jean Corston, it explores the failure in Northern Ireland to implement previous recommendations to ensure women's diversion into community sanctions and gender-responsive imprisonment. At a time of ever-reducing community provision, women categorised as 'offending' and requiring punishment will continue to be channelled to prison. The chapter interrogates conceptualisations of 'pathways' to custody through analysis of women's lived experiences prior to imprisonment. It explores women's experiences within the distinct penal context, challenging conceptions of the gender-specific reform that Corston had envisaged and noting the continued marginalisation of women within a male-focused system. While Corston's recommendation for diversion was significant, her vision was restricted by a criminal justice framework underpinning community alternatives. In effect, Corston proposed the sanitisation of the punishment administered to women and the initiation of proportionality, which continued to locate women on a carceral continuum where they were considered deserving of punishment.