WOMEN, REINTEGRATION AND THE PENAL SYSTEM IN SINGAPORE: A NEGOTIATION OF GENDERED DOCILE BODIES

Abstract

Women have been sidelined in criminological literature. This is true in the study of the female criminal career, comprising the pathways into criminal justice involvement, the in-prison experience, and the pathways out of criminal justice involvement. In Singapore, especially, little has been done to study women in this respect. Considering the rehabilitative framework which Singapore’s penal system has in place, as well as the rising representation of women in the convicted penal population, there is value in exploring the post-incarceration reintegration experience of returning women in Singapore. This study presents a set of qualitative interviews of the experience of eight returning women. It draws upon the Foucauldian conceptual framework of docile bodies to explore, firstly, what the markers of a successful reintegration are to these women, and secondly, whether notions of traditional gender roles play a part in the negotiation of such markers. The value in this study lies providing a more nuanced understanding of the lived realities of these returning women directly from their point of view.