The Workspace for Mapping, Engaging, and Networking with, for, and by Incarcerated Women (WOMEN) project addresses the unique challenges faced by incarcerated women in Europe. Despite making up only 6.1% of the prison population1, women in detention often experience greater vulnerability due to past trauma, caregiving responsibilities, and limited access to rehabilitation programs.
Recognizing this issue, the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality presented a Motion for a European Parliament Resolution in 2008, emphasizing that women’s incarceration reflects their broader societal position. The resolution argued that prisons are “essentially designed, built and run by men for men”, failing to accommodate the specific needs of incarcerated women.
To bridge this gap, the WOMEN project promotes a paradigm shift from large-scale prisons to detention houses, which are small-scale, differentiated and community-integrated facilities that better support women’s lives during and after detention. The initiative aims to develop expertise in working with incarcerated women and facilitate knowledge-sharing across Europe.
To achieve this, the project will adopt a Human-Centered Design approach and incorporate multiple perspectives for an in-depth understanding of incarcerated women’s diversity and their needs. Through (online) workshops and visits to best practices, WOMEN aims to enable discussions and exchanges between professionals, academics, policymakers, and individuals with lived experience. This know-how will contribute to and be disseminated by various RESCALED Knowledge Workspaces.
The WOMEN project, funded by Erasmus+, is a transnational collaboration involving three core teams from different countries. These include RESCALED, a European movement based in Belgium focused on the implementation of detention houses, Rubikon Center, a Czech NGO that helps individuals move beyond their criminal past, and Silta, a Finnish non-profit organization dedicated to increasing societal equality, participation, and welfare. With the support of Erasmus+, these organizations aim to improve conditions for incarcerated women and enhance their opportunities for maintaining integration with society.
- World Female Imprisonment List 6th ed. ↩︎
