Purpose of this guide This guide is designed for use by prison management, staff, policymakers and others involved in the criminal justice process, including legislators, judges and law enforcement officials. It aims to provide practical guidance on improving existing rehabilitation programmes and services and designing new ones, looking at different country contexts and taking into account location-specific challenges and opportunities. Whilst existing documents look at the development of rehabilitation programmes in detail,4 there is little guidance available specifically on the rehabilitation of female prisoners. This guide aims to bridge that gap and provide practical solutions as to how criminal justice systems can improve their efforts in this area. This is done by highlighting some of the many innovative examples of promising practice in the rehabilitation of female prisoners around the world, which can engage and inspire others.5 The guidance can also be used by international organisations, NGOs and monitoring bodies in their advocacy efforts, and to provoke discussions amongst the broader community about improved rehabilitation for female prisoners. This guide summarises the importance of good prisoner rehabilitation and social reintegration programmes and identifies the main barriers to successful rehabilitation, including the particular barriers faced by female prisoners and by specific groups of female prisoners such as girls, foreign nationals and women from ethnic minority groups. Identifying these barriers provides an insight into why additional efforts are needed to assist the rehabilitation of women offenders. It is crucial that those involved in prisoner rehabilitation understand that what works in one country, or even in one prison, will not necessarily work in another location, and a programme that is successful for one prisoner might not have the same outcome for another. For this reason, the examples in this guide are illustrative and are intended to provide ideas for the development of new programmes. In practice, and in all locations, rehabilitation programmes should be designed according to the local context, taking into account the prisoner population profile, available resources and employment market needs. The guide concludes with a set of 10 fundamental principles for the successful design and implementation of rehabilitation programmes for female prisoners. Penal Reform International and Thailand Institute of Justice | Guide to the rehabilitation and social reintegration of women prisoners | 03