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
