Service Accessibility in Prisons Under New Public Management: Incarcerated Women's Perspectives and Responses

ABSTRACT Whilst the policy purpose of prisons is containment and rehabilitation, prisons must also provide a range of services to people who are incarcerated. Researchers have examined how service provision is complicated by features of the prison environment directed at safety and security, but less attention has been paid to the impact of managerialist practices focused on economic efficiency, service quality and resource allocation. Largely imported from the private sector, these practices seek to drive efficiency by managing input costs and positioning service users as customers, but they may impede service provision in prisons as they do outside prisons. The aim of the current study was to explore how these challenges are experienced by women and service providers in women's prisons in Queensland, Australia. It drew on data from workshops involving 75 mothers in prison and 24 service providers. Transcripts were subject to inductive thematic analysis. Participants reported that they perceived service provision as hampered by a lack of resources and by slow, convoluted, opaque, and unreliable administrative processes, although there were also examples of responsive services. Women responded to barriers by attempting to influence service provision within or outside rules or by withdrawing from services altogether. Their withdrawal decreases demand and reduces pressure on staff to make rationing decisions. However, this also obscures the lack of supply of essential services enabling administrative barriers to persist. Any attempt to improve service delivery in women's prisons can only succeed if services are appropriately and consistently resourced and accessible.