Inside: Ireland’s Women’s Prisons, Past and Present

This is a comprehensive study of the experiences of women prisoners in Ireland over the last 200 years. The book describes the prisons within which women were and are imprisoned, the crimes for which they were imprisoned, the sentences imposed upon them, and the prison experiences provided for them. Quinlan explores historically, socially and spatially, women’s experiences of imprisonment in Ireland, and makes some fascinating points, such as Ireland imprisoned more women in the 1800s than any other jurisdiction in the world, and fewer women in the 1900s than any other jurisdiction in the world. The book draws on published and archived memoirs, historiographies, prison records and reports. In this contemporary analysis, interviews were conducted with thirty people involved with and working in women’s prisons. The contemporary structures of women’s prisons are explored through photographs, and the managerial, organisational and architectural structures of the prisons are also examined.