Image of Cork City Courthouse (photo credit: Maggie O’Neill, 2024)

 

Women in the criminal justice system: key facts

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Although women represent a small proportion of the prison population in Ireland, their numbers have grown in recent years. In 2021, 487 women were committed to prison, compared to 155 in 1999 (Irish Penal Reform Trust, n.d.). Many women detained in Ireland are either remanded pre-trial or sentenced to non-violent, minor offences such as non-payment of fines, road traffic, or theft-related offences. 

 

Women are also more likely to be sentenced for short periods and incarcerated in prisons designed for men. As reported by the Irish Penal Reform Trust (2022), in 2021, “85% of all sentenced committals of women were for 12 months or less” (2022: p. 19). While short sentences are lengthy enough to result in the loss of accommodation, employment and caregiving responsibilities, they are often not long enough for women to be able to improve their circumstances (ibid.). This is a cause for concern given the increasing number of women serving short-term prison sentences and the overcrowded conditions in Irish prisons. The Irish Penal Reform Trust (n.d.) believes that the best way to limit the use of imprisonment in Ireland is by developing an integrated system of alternatives to custody.

 

The research evidence shows us that women are prosecuted for summary offences, do not offend as much or as seriously as men, women’s criminal careers are shorter, and women are less likely to have a co-offender (Gelsthorpe, 2004; and Quinlan, 2015). We know that poverty, trauma, childhood trauma, violence and abuse, poor mental health and addictions play a part in their life stories; that many are mothers and their pathways into crime are about economic need, coercive control, chaotic lives, as well as difficult relationships with men marked by coercion and control (Mc Hugh, 2013; Quinlan, 2015; Windle et al., 2022; O’Neill,  2024; Baldwin, 2023; Lynch and Seaman, 2022; and Grace et al., 2022).

 

While each woman’s story into and out of offending is unique, the accounts of many converge, as women within the criminal justice system often have a history of unmet and (or) trauma-related needs and complex social situations which are multiple and intertwined. Poverty is a particularly acute issue for women in prison, which can be further heightened by substance misuse, mental health issues and experiences of physical, psychological and (or) sexual abuse (Grace et al., 2022). Imprisonment of women is governed internationally by the 2011 Bangkok Rules, which highlights the need for policies responding to the needs of women. However, as Windle and colleagues (2022) point out, Ireland has been slow to implement a gender-specific approach for low-level offending. 

 

Issues of overcrowding

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At the time of writing, there are two women’s prisons in Ireland: the Mountjoy Dóchas Centre, a 

medium-security prison that forms part of the Mountjoy Prison Campus and a new female prison in Limerick, a medium-security prison for females for all six Munster counties. Before its existence, Limerick Female Prison was a wing of the male prison. When the Dóchas Centre opened in 1999 and the new female Limerick Prison in 2023, both facilities were regarded as ‘state-of-the-art’ units designed to meet the needs of the female population. Despite the desire to provide “progressive gender responsive reforms”, the ever-increasing number of women in prison and the lack of alternative accommodation has resulted in overcrowding in both of the country’s female prisons as they operate above capacity (Baldwin, Elwood and Brown, 2022: p. 107; see also Windle et al., 2022; English, 2024; and O’Neill, 2024). 

 

Matters of overcrowding touch upon women’s day-to-day existence within the prison and amplify the stress and the pains of incarceration. It also raises frustration levels and generates tension. This was noted by Lisa, who spent time in the Dóchas Centre, stating: 

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The place is more eh packed now than what it was, its em more confined. Em it’s real like the big yard you could walk in and out but like now the small yard we're in - gate is shut all the time. Only a small little space you get to move so you’re all kinda stuck with the same lot of people in the same space and you kinda get sick of it (Mc Hugh, 2013: p. 22)

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Overcrowding compromises available resources and erodes prison standards. Rather than an opportunity for change, the prison system shifts its focus away from rehabilitation to maintaining control through a more security-oriented perspective (Windle et al., 2022). Temporary release, in particular, has acted as a kind of ‘safety valve’ to relieve issues of overcrowding (Costello, 2013). This is the case in the two women’s prisons, where women are sometimes released without an adequate plan or housing provision. As described by Emily: “Then you go out and you have to cope with finding a place to live, you know all the functions, all the normal things, reality, paying the bills, finding somewhere to live. You know so yeah” (Mc Hugh, 2013: p. 27). 

 

Gendered pains of incarceration

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Women are thrust into a system where their needs are overlooked because the prison system was designed for and largely run by men. As Vicky Seaman, a support worker at the Cork Alliance Centre, explains, women's challenges are different because the criminal justice system was not designed with their needs in mind (V. Seaman, personal communication, January 30, 2024). Although, in some rare cases, women find respite from the outside world in prison, it generally has a particularly punitive effect, causing disruption not only in the women and their families' lives but also in their caregiving responsibilities. If sent to prison, many mothers can not entrust their children to the care of their fathers. Consequently, children are often separated and distributed among other relatives, neighbours or institutions (Granja, da Cunha, and Machado, 2014). 

 

Maternal imprisonment can have a negative impact on both a mother and her children. That said, in many cases, children will already be facing material hardship and social disadvantage before their mother’s incarceration. While children experience the incarceration of a parent in uniquely different ways, imprisonment may only serve to exacerbate their situation (Prais and Critoph, 2023). Even for a short period, the imprisonment of a mother triggers a reconfiguration of the household, which is an ongoing process, forcing family members to reposition themselves in relation to unexpected changes (Granja, da Cunha, and Machado, 2014).

 

Given that there are only two women’s prisons in Ireland, prison visits can become expensive and difficult for family members to organise. Under these circumstances, maintaining contact or re-establishing familial relationships can be a challenge for women who are incarcerated. As noted by Vicky Seaman, perhaps a grandmother has assumed responsibility for the children, and getting to the prison is too difficult because it is another city or visitation times clash with school hours (V. Seaman, personal communication, January 30, 2024). Another issue is that mothers may encounter feelings of shame and may not want their children to visit them in prison. This sentiment was shared by some of the women in Mc Hugh’s research, such as Anna, aged 26, who disclosed: “See, it’s been a bit long now that I would rather if I was to see them not in such a like…, on me own, not out there with everyone you know what I mean cos it’s going to be very emotional for me like” (2013: p. 18). 

 

Stigma and shame

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Despite evidence that short sentences profoundly disrupt women's and their families' lives, there is a lack of viable alternatives. It is impossible to ignore that there are many missed opportunities to offer support. As pointed out by Baldwin, Elwood and Brown (2022), women could and should be supported at a number of points on their journey to prison, as a child and as an adult; instead, women are more often than not judged on their failures in their prescribed social roles. “You can see the patriarchy seeping into the court system”, noted Vicky Seaman (V. Seaman, personal communication, January 30, 2024). Having been abused by her partner and forced to move ‘things’ for him, Mary, a mother of one and pregnant with her second child, was caught taking drugs into the prison (Baldwin, Elwood and Brown, 2022). Out of fear of being murdered by her violent partner, Mary pleaded guilty. Despite mothering through adversity, she came under scrutiny when the judge said to Mary, ‘What kind of mother are you?’  and told her that having her son put into care was his best chance of having a ‘stable life’ (ibid.: p. 113). 

 

Women like Mary are doubly stigmatised (or triply stigmatised if we are to include ethnicity and culture). They are judged for breaking the law and violating conventional social roles such as idealised notions of motherhood. Narrating her lived experience, Lucy recounted how the feeling of shame was the heaviest consequence to carry in recovery: 

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As a Mother, a woman in addiction and going in and out of prison, courts, having my court cases in the evening, echo multiple times and carries a different kind of shame. For years I walked around with my head down destroyed from the public shame that comes with being a mother in this situation. Along with the shame of looking in my children's eyes and promising it won't happen again, when deep down I knew I couldn't guarantee that, and eventually I would let them down again and destroy the hope they build up each time I came out of prison, and try to do my very best only to become victim of the vicious cycle again. That feeling of shame that comes from leaving your children down over and over again it's indescribable - I don't have the words to explain. 

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(Lucy, personal communication, January 17, 2024) 

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Motherhood is challenging regardless of circumstances. However, for mothers like Lucy who have experienced incarceration, negotiating a motherhood role can be a significant source of stress, especially combined with other existing stressors, such as unstable accommodation, financial strain, mental health difficulties, and struggles with addiction or recovery (Seaman and Lynch, 2022). As stated by Vicky Seaman: “There is no creche outside AA meetings” (V. Seaman, personal communication, January 30, 2024). 

 

As a structural barrier to accessing support, idealised notions of motherhood make it challenging for mothers to seek help and support. This is largely due to a very real fear of being judged by professionals and having their children taken away. They are afraid of the system coming down on top of them, which is a huge weight for women to carry (V. Seaman, personal communication, January 30, 2024). This was expressed by Esther, who struggled with homelessness, addiction and motherhood.

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I was struggling with my addictions ... struggling around housing. Some of my kids were in the HSE and stuff ... I would have ended up pregnant again .... I did a journey of that I suppose you know, mother baby units and then back to hostels again. I was doing parenting courses, treatment centres again and in and out of treatments and stuff trying to get clean. (Seaman and Lynch, 2022: p. 56)

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Esther lived with uncertainty, a sentiment that can be felt throughout many women’s stories. For it is the professionals (i.e. social workers and probation officers) who made decisions about Esther and her children’s lives, and while most likely taken with the best intentions, the loss of agency caused strain (Seaman and Lynch, 2022). 

 

Breaking the cycle

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Returning to the community after release is no easy task. Breaking away from the cycle of poverty and crime is an uphill battle for many women who are disproportionately at risk of homelessness or sleeping rough after release. Having to ring up emergency homeless shelters and walking around the streets with nothing to do during the day heightens the possibility of running into old triggers and associates (see Mc Hugh, 2013). Being homeless or sleeping rough can increase the risk of experiencing physical, mental and sexual abuse, as well as poly-drug use, overdose and reoffending (Costello, 2013). Janet, aged 38, recounted the difficulties of homelessness and how this impacted her substance use, disclosing:

 

I was day to day in the hostels…I had to queue for a sleeping bag one night but thank god I got a place on a friend’s couch. I don’t even like that you know, disturbing people cos your home is your castle you know but…anyway before I knew it I was back taking drugs. (Mc Hugh, 2013: p. 26). 

 

Even when accommodation appears more stable, there are other potential issues that women face trying to break the cycle of incarceration. After being released from prison, Mary regained custody of both her sons. Then she met Dean, who became very controlling: 

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I did whatever he asked. I couldn’t leave, I had no family, no money, nowhere to go, no way to feed my kids. So I just took it and bit by bit I started drinking again, it was the only way to cope. I felt such a failure, I hated myself, I hated him, I hated my life, what my life had been, what it was shaping up to be, I hated everything. (Baldwin, Elwood and Brown, 2022: p. 114)

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The vulnerability and the bargaining people like Mary have to do, to simply exist and survive after returning to the community is a common story, explained Vicky Seaman (V. Seaman, personal communication, January 30, 2024). After being sexually exploited and abused by her partner and his friends, Mary ‘snapped’ and hit her partner with a cricket bat until he was unconscious (Baldwin, Elwood and Brown, 2022: 115). After turning herself in, she was sent back to prison.

 

With the weight of society’s judgment on her shoulders, Mary was released from prison. Without money, a home, a job, and her children, her emotions grew and fed off each other, instilling a sense of hopelessness. “What was even the point in trying to stay sober?” she said, reflecting on her life (Baldwin, Elwood and Brown, 2022: p. 116).

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My fate was sealed. So really the next ten years are a blur, in and out of prison drunk and sober, mostly drunk. Lots of short prison sentences for stupid things, sometimes just three weeks, I couldn’t even tell you how many sentences of less than three months I’ve done but I know it’s a lot. I felt like I was on a conveyor belt –the officers would laugh when I came back and say ‘you again’ –I felt like a joke, everything felt inevitable. (ibid.)

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Mary’s account of being embedded in a cycle of poverty and crime is not an unusual one, and sadly, neither is the lack of support. After an excessively long time, she found kindness from an officer during her last prison sentence: “She listened, she got me support, she got me counselling and drink support, and even made sure it would carry on when I was released.” (ibid.).

 

Similarly to Mary, Lucy’s story of breaking the cycle was a ‘mentally draining rollercoaster’. She had been through therapy, treatment centres, working with probation services and AA meetings but was consistently challenged and stuck in a cycle of: 

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relapsing- getting arrested - appearing in court - getting sentenced then released on either temporary release or community support scheme - trying to pick myself back up again, trying to function with daily life signing on everyday with the gardai, going to Limerick every week to sign on, attending meetings associated with staying out of prison in the city center while needing to use public transport and inevitably meeting old acquaintances -while trying to stay away from people places and things to stay sober and also trying to meet my family's needs - eventually getting completely overwhelmed and the cycle slowly starts again with relapse etc. (Lucy, personal communication, January 17, 2024) 

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After several years, Lucy was in a state of torment and pain. With determination, she accepted support from the Cork Alliance Centre, which provided her with knowledge about addiction and answers as to why she was ‘stuck on this mentally draining rollercoaster’. She was given tools to cope with challenges in her life and anticipated future difficulties. Slowly but surely, she wanted to make better choices to avoid repeating the same situations. What is evident from Lucy’s story, like many others, is the level of resilience, courage and strength in defying the odds in the hopes of a better future.

 

Courage and strength

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Relative to men, there is a dearth of research about women in the criminal justice system (O’Neill 2024), and this is especially the case for studies on women’s strength and resilience. Research focusing on women’s survival of multiple challenging realities highlights women’s resilient capabilities. Take the case of Dee, who summarised her real and raw experience of the criminal justice system, stating:

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It was awful, it was shit, it hurt, and I’m scarred, my life was chaotic and complicated before prison. My life as a mother in prison was broken. I’ve experienced more abuse in my life than most people do in a lifetime. I was an addict; I suffer from nightmares and trauma and depression. All of that is true, but don’t just call me complex, don’t just call me vulnerable. I’m strong but I want to be stronger. I’m free but I want to be freer. I’ve moved on but I want to go further ... I want society and services to support me not just label me, I want people to help me create chances for others not just give one to me, I don’t want to be held back I want to be driven forwards. (Baldwin, Elwood and Brown, 2022: 126)

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Dee’s wish for a society and system to support her becoming ‘stronger’ and ‘freer’ underscores how breaking the cycle of disadvantage should not only focus on the individual but also the social context, social structures and available supports. Yet, mothers like Dee are resilient and strong, but this does not matter if the ‘scaffolding’ is not there. As explained by Vicky Seaman, ‘scaffolding’ should be implemented for women like Dee to access appropriate strength-based, gender-sensitive and trauma-informed support to empower women and help them move beyond merely surviving to thriving (V. Seaman, personal communication, January 30, 2024). “Let’s put the scaffolding in place to help her fulfil this role we know she is capable of”, added Vicky Seaman (ibid.)

 

In summary, the research evidences that women who commit crimes are always stigmatised, they are defined as mad or bad, and almost always ‘Othered.’ Caroline Fennell (1993), and many feminist criminologists, have shown that women who do not conform to feminine stereotypes are often unfairly treated by the legal system. When it comes to crimes against women, sexual and violent crimes, it is they who are pathologized, as much research (e.g. Carlen, 1985; Black, 2009, 2015, 2020; Seal and O’Neill, 2020; Baldwin, 2022; and Grace et al., 2022) and media analysis, such as Jane Gilmore’s (2019) book and the Sexual Violence Centre Cork’s campaign ‘Fixed It’  highlights. 

 

Acknowledgment: Thank you to Sheila Connolly and the Cork Alliance team—Vicky Seaman, Miriam Ryan, Jean McCarthy, and Serena O’Neill—for their generosity, expertise, and support. Special thanks to Vicky and Lucy for contributing to the text. Special thanks to Ciara Doyle, who undertook research and interviews and contributed to authoring this text as part of her work placement with Maggie from Cork College of Commerce.

 

References

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Baldwin, L. (2023) Gendered Justice: Women, Trauma and Crime. Gloucester: Waterside Press.

 

Baldwin, L., Elwood, M. and Brown, C. (2022) ‘Criminal Mothers: The Persisting Pains of Maternal Imprisonment’. In: Criminal Women: Gender Matters, co-authored by The Criminal Women Voice, Justice and Recognition Network (CWVJR), Sharon Grace, Maggie O’Neill, Tammi Walker, Hannah King, Lucy Baldwin, Alison Jobe, Orla Lynch, Fiona Measham, Kate O’Brien, and Vicky Seaman. Bristol University Press, pp. 107-131.

 

Black, L. (2009) Paper Women: The Representation of Female Offenders in Irish Newspapers. MA Thesis. Dublin, DIT. Available from: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/aaschssldis/1/ [Accessed 26 May 2024].

 

Black, L. (2015). ‘The representation of offending women in the Irish press: A content analysis’, Irish Probation Journal, 12, pp. 160-178. 

 

Black, L. (2020) ‘The Pathologisation of Women Who Kill: Three Cases from Ireland’, Social History of Medicine, 33(2), pp. 417–437.

 

Carlen, P. (1985)  Criminal Women. Cambridge: Polity

 

Courts Services (n.d.) Cork Courthouse Washington Street [online]. Available from:https://www.courts.ie/cork-courthouse-washington-street [Accessed 10 July 2024].

 

Costello, L. (2013) Women in the Criminal Justice System: Towards a non-custodial approach. Dublin: Irish Penal Reform Trust. 

 

Discover Ireland. (n.d.) Cork Courthouse [online]. Available from: https://www.discoverireland.ie/cork/cork-courthouse [Accessed 11 July 2024].

 

English, B. (2024) Prisoners sleeping on camp beds in Limerick Women’s Prison despite new wing. Limerick Post Newspaper. 29 April [online]. Available from: https://www.limerickpost.ie/2024/04/29/prisoners-sleeping-on-camp-beds-in-limerick-womens-prison-despite-new-wing/ [Accessed 4 June 2024]. 

 

Fennell, C. (1993). Crime and Crisis in Ireland. Cork: Cork University Press.

 

Gelsthorpe, L. (2004) Female Offending A Theoretical Overview. In: G. Mclvor. ed. Women Who Offend. Jessica Kingsley, pp. 13-37. 

 

Gilmore, J. (2019) Fixed It: Violence and the Representation of Women in the Media. Viking. 

 

Grace, S. et al. (2022) ‘Introduction’. In: Criminal Women: Gender Matters, co-authored by The Criminal Women Voice, Justice and Recognition Network (CWVJR), Sharon Grace, Maggie O’Neill, Tammi Walker, Hannah King, Lucy Baldwin, Alison Jobe, Orla Lynch, Fiona Measham, Kate O’Brien, and Vicky Seaman. Bristol University Press, pp. 1-13.

 

Granja, R., da Cunha M. P. and Machado, H. (2014) The Social and Economic Costs of Female Imprisonment: The Prisoners’ Point of View. In: Carrol, E. and Warner, K. (eds.) Re-Imagining Imprisonment in Europe: Effects, Failures and the Future. Dublin: The Liffey Press.

 

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Lucy. (2024) Personal communication with the author, 17 January.

 

Mc Hugh, R. (2013) Tracking the Needs and Service Provision for Women Ex-Prisoners. Dublin: Association for Criminal Justice Research and Development.

 

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Prais, V., and Critoph, S. (2023) MATERNAL IMPRISONMENT IN IRELAND: A SCOPING STUDY. Dublin: Irish Penal Reform Trust.

 

Quinlan, C. (2015). Women, imprisonment and social control. In: Healy, D., Hamilton, C., Daly, Y. and Butler, M. (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Irish Criminology. Abingdon: Routledge, pp.522-544. 

 

Seal, L. and O’Neill, M. (2020) Imaginative Criminology: Of spaces past, present and future Bristol: Policy Press.

 

Seaman, V. and Lynch, O. (2022) ‘Knifing off? The inadequacies of desistance frameworks for women in the criminal justice system in Ireland’.  In: Criminal Women: Gender Matters, co-authored by The Criminal Women Voice, Justice and Recognition Network (CWVJR), Sharon Grace, Maggie O’Neill, Tammi Walker, Hannah King, Lucy Baldwin, Alison Jobe, Orla Lynch, Fiona Measham, Kate O’Brien, and Vicky Seaman. Bristol University Press, pp. 37-63.

 

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