‘It's all meant to be about resettlement’: Deconstructing the function of women’s open prisons in England & Wales

Open prisons are establishments for individuals whose risk is low enough to be managed in a minimum-security environment. Their primary aim is to gradually facilitate resettlement and reintegration into the community. Until recently, open prisons have received limited attention from researchers or policy-makers in England exceptions have included Dr Sarah Waite’s study of staff-prisoner relationships and my PhD research, on which this article draws.1 One important consequence of this inattention has been the apparent taking-for-granted of open prisons’ function as places of (a particular kind of) transition and resettlement. However, recent changes to the process of progressing to open conditions, which have emerged largely in response to population pressures within the closed prison estate, deserve further exploration. Drawing on data from a study of women’s open prisons in England & Wales, this paper explores the impact of these developments on women’s open prisons and their resettlement function. In particular, it foregrounds the perspectives of women held in open prisons, and of those working there, on transitions into and through open prisons, and how this affects the dynamics and function of these establishments.