Establishing a ‘Corstonian’ continuous care pathway for drug using female prisoners:linking Drug Recovery Wings and Women’s Community Services

This article outlines the findings from a rapid assessment of pilot Drug Recovery Wings (DRWs) in two women’s prisons and compares the DRW approach with work undertaken in Women’s Community Services (WCSs) commended by the Corston Report (2007). The findings indicate that DRW1 was working more successfully in providing a ‘Corstonian’ approach than DRW2 and the reasons behind this are explored. The paper argues that, whilst pockets of good practice such as WCSs and ‘Corstonian’ DRWs are to be commended, unless there is a continuous care pathway, modelled on Corston’s ideas for working with vulnerable female offenders such as recovering drug users, such work will be limited in its effectiveness. Ideas for how such a systematic approach might work will be outlined.