As my co-editor Jean Hine observed in a past issue of our journal: ‘The Criminal Justice System, along with many public services, is in a state of flux, with numerous proposals, white papers and legislation in various stages of implementation’ (Hine 2012:1).

Paul Senior the co-founder of this journal and Co-Editor from the first issue in 2002 until his retirement in 2016 recently passed away.

The Macpherson report, also known as the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, was published in February 1999.

In 2013 I wrote an article published in a special edition of British Journal of Community Justice (BJCJ) suggesting that the proposed Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) agenda would jeopardise the work undertaken with perpetrators of domestic abuse (Gilbert, 2013).

In 2016 the Transition to Adult Alliance published its research report on young women in the criminal justice system, Meeting the needs of young adult women in prison, by Rob Allen.

Many organisations, including criminal justice sector organisations, have an expectation that change should occur quickly in the lives of the women with whom they work. As a result, organisational (or process) time readily overrides that of service-user time.

The Corston report (1) is a government commissioned research and recommendations paper on imprisoned women issues, led by Baroness Corston and published in 2007.

In March 2013, I was sentenced to a two-year supervision order (probation) and a deferred sentence for two years. It was the beginning of my journey into the person and, more importantly for my wee boy’s development, the mother I am now.

This paper recognises that interest and concerns about the plight of women involved in offending and the criminal justice system are not new but attention to this issue has increased internationally in recent years.

In 2007 Baroness Corston articulated a vision of creating a ‘distinct, radically different, visibly-led, strategic, proportionate, holistic, woman-centred, integrated approach’ with women in the criminal justice system (Corston, 2007:79).