Reports indicate that women in prison have poor physical and mental health and have complex support needs, and there is an unacceptable mortality rate for women released from prison (Carlton & Segrave, 2016).

This mortality rate can be linked to the fact that on release, women typically experience immediate poverty. They may leave a Corrective Service Centre with no clothes, no money, and no home and often fractured and complicated social arrangements.

While the reasons for these factors are varied, what can be done to help is also more complicated than it may seem. Finding work can be one factor on a very long list of things needed to help get back on track.

One of the first things anyone does as they prepare for the job market is to think about a written application, and then there are the very practical issues of personal presentation. As you would expect, prison life is not conducive to developing positive self-image, women often gain weight and individual identities can become stigmatised.

Who is there to help as these women re-enter society and look for work? And why is employment such an important and empowering experience for these women?