Service Delivery: Who Can Help?

Criminalized women often have high needs and require support while incarcerated and on release. In this chapter, women and service providers discuss what is needed to enhance existing supports and what services must be added to ensure that formerly incarcerated women get what they need. Formerly incarcerated women stated that they need more of existing services but that these services can be improved with added frequency and attention to gender and trauma. Service providers advise that there are multiple barriers for women on release from prison and suggest ways of making services more accessible. Women interviewed took personal responsibility for changes needed for the desistance process, while service providers saw the multiple barriers impeding their process. I argue that both these ideas are needed to support desistance processes. Women need to access services, but service providers must support their agency while advocating to minimize barriers.