‘Nothing’s really that hard, you can do it’. Agency and fatalism: the resettlement needs of girls in custody

Abstract

This report presents the results of a qualitative study, funded by the Sir Halley Stewart Trust, of the resettlement needs of 17-year-old young women in a single young offender institution in England and Wales. Using in depth qualitative interviews with 16 girls in custody and two follow up interviews in the community, the study aimed to give expression to the girls’ views on what support they thought would be required, both while in prison and in the form of resettlement provision on release, if they were not to reoffend. The sample size, while small, is equivalent to the capacity of the young offender institution where field work was conducted and to around one third of the total female population of the secure estate on any one day. Field work was conducted between December 2011 and November 2012. Girls constitute a small proportion of children below the age of 18 in custody and have consequently tended to be ‘invisible’ from a research perspective. Yet girls in prison are among the most vulnerable young people in society and recent falls in youth imprisonment have tended to amplify that vulnerability, as less serious cases have been diverted to community based interventions. Such developments have posed additional challenges for the already difficult task of providing effective resettlement.