Chapter 16 : Concluding reflections

This book set out to examine the inter-relationship between imprisonment and the expansion of community punishments internationally. In particular, our concern was to highlight the human rights implications of responses to women within the criminal justice system and the extent to which they relate to social justice imperatives. The preceding chapters provide international case studies of policy in action, underpinned by theoretical and analytical engagement with notions of human rights and social justice as they are manifested in practice. It would seem that penal policy does not reflect social justice.