This article charts the rapid rise in the use of imprisonment in recent decades before considering some of the most pressing issues of concern in the use of imprisonment today. First among these is prison overcrowding, which continues to blight the record of many countries in their treatment of prisoners. To illustrate the potentially dire consequences of overcrowding – a problem common to many other countries and regions – an account is given of a recent visit to a prison in El Salvador. The article then provides an overview of the relevant regional and international standards on the treatment of prisoners, referring also to the role of judicial bodies in ensuring implementation.

The death of Ashley Smith represents the first time in Canadian legal history that correctional officers were criminally charged in the death of a prisoner under the care of the state. In response to these unprecedented charges, the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO) mounted a highly public campaign in defense of the officers. In this article, I review UCCO’s media statements following Smith’s death, submissions to various government review committees, and the current Global Agreement between UCCO and Correctional Service Canada (CSC) regarding federally sentenced women. I suggest these narratives work to reproduce administrative segregation as necessary to manage “troubled young women” who are constituted as an unsafe working condition for officers. I highlight the failure of UCCO to influence government policy, unlike the effective success of unions in the United States, and I challenge the place of UCCO in Canada’s trade union movement.

Women who are released from prison continue to face challenges stemming from their imprisonment. This article discusses the ways in which the prison and, by extension, the state follow women out of prison into their communities. While the state attempts to ensure “successful reintegration” for ex-prisoners, its policies, which reflect a neoliberal agenda of individual responsibilization, may in fact hinder women's chances of integrating into their communities. The article explores women's experiences of (re)integration through the voices of female ex-prisoners who served long prison terms, their families, and their advocates. The control experienced in prison echoes in women's lives on the outside: they experience dislocation, marginalization, and a need to (re)negotiate their lives. While women may physically leave the prison, the experience remains imprinted on their minds and bodies as the state continues to govern them from a distance, both through the after-effects of imprisonment and through continued surveillance.

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity, substance misuse problems and related health and social problems among women prisoners newly committed and a cross-section remanded and sentenced in the Irish prison population. In 2002 women represented 10.7% (1043) of all persons committed to the Irish Prison system, and 3.3% (104) of the daily average number of persons in custody. We surveyed psychiatric morbidity in these two groups to assess the need for psychiatric services for women prisoners, and to compare Irish morbidity with an international average.

Method: We interviewed 94 newly committed women prisoners within 72 hours of committal, representing approximately 9% of female committals per year. We also interviewed a cross sectional sample of 92 women, representing approximately 90% of all women in custody. Mental illness and substance misuse was measured using the SADS-L, SODQ and a structured interview.

Results: Five (5.4%) of the committal and 5 (5.4%) of the cross-sectional sample had a psychotic illness within the previous six months. 8 (8.5%) of the committals and 15 (16.3%) of the women in the cross-sectional sample had a major depressive disorder in the last six months. 8 (8.6%) committals and 14 (15.2%) in the cross-sectional sample had an anxiety disorder within the last six months. 61 (65.6%) of the women interviewed at committal and 61 (65.2%) of the cross-sectional sample had a substance misuse problem in the last six months.

Conclusions: There is a high prevalence of mental illness and substance misuse problems amongst women newly committed to prison and in a cross section of those remanded or sentenced in prison in Ireland. We found evidence of a cycle of deprivation and institutionalisation. These findings highlight the need for the integration of community and forensic psychiatric services, and for ongoing collaboration with drug services.