Women in Correctional Homes in West Bengal

"The author's work offers a profound and provocative exploration of the female carceral experience in West Bengal, India. The research adopts a staunchly critical and feminist criminological perspective. Its primary strength lies in its ability to deconstruct the criminal label, revealing how the intersection of poverty, patriarchy, and post-colonial geopolitics creates a pipeline from vulnerability to incarceration. A key creative contribution is the concept of the gendered border. The author argues that international boundaries, such as the Radcliffe Line, are not merely political abstractions but are 'inscribed on the bodies' of impoverished women who cross them in search of survival, only to be met with institutional apathy. Furthermore, the work’s critique of 'regimes of femininity' within prisons is insightful. It highlights a prison system that functions more as a tool of social control than one of genuine rehabilitation." —Susyan Jou, Distinguished Professor of Criminology, National Taipei University, Taiwan This book investigates the experiences of women inmates in Alipore Women’s Correctional Home and Dum Dum Central Correctional Home in West Bengal, India. It explores their socio-economic background, the major factors that led to their incarceration, the nature of their crimes, the problems that women inmates and their children face inside the correctional homes, and their dealings with the judiciary. Using a mixed methods framework, this volume helps us to understand how multiple hegemonies can affect the offence done by a particular woman. Through inmate interviews, this book provides a window into their struggles and decisions. The narratives contain rich information on their motives and ‘modus operandi’ and produce data on how the ‘self’ is constructed by reflecting upon the complex nature of values, identities, cultures and communities of the inmates. The analytical framework further challenges positivism in contemporary criminology. Advancing feminist criminological agendas, this book aims to help influence the creation and implementation of public policy to improve the conditions of female inmates in correctional homes in countries like India. Trijita Gonsalves is Associate Professor in Political Science, Lady Brabourne College, Kolkata, India.