BASELINE FOR SUCCESSFUL REHABILITATION This programme also aims to improve the situation of children of imprisoned mothers, including efforts to rebuild children’s contact with their mothers and to help them access psychosocial, education, healthcare and other support services in the community. PRI has opened a day nursery at the women’s prison in Tbilisi, where young children up to the age of three live with their mothers. Additionally, the project seeks to improve the technical and management capacity of government institutions, employment agencies, the private sector and other agencies working with vulnerable women and children, and to build partnerships and coordination in the design, delivery and management of support schemes. This includes regular working group meetings to identify needs and foster cooperation between state and non-state actors working in the provision of rehabilitation services to women prisoners and former prisoners. To date, the project has provided support services to over 600 beneficiaries, including 40 children of prisoners. One of the partner organisations – the Women in Business Association (GAWB) – organises vocational training courses and business education for women prisoners and former prisoners, and, after the women have completed business education courses and prepared their own business plans, provides them with small grants for their own start-up businesses. GAWB has also established a shelter to accommodate homeless former women prisoners, including women with young children, in order to provide them with a safe place to live until they can support themselves. The project also pays for medicine and medical services for project beneficiaries if state medical programmes do not cover the costs. PROMISING PRACTICE: Therapeutic communities in Australia Wandoo is a dedicated alcohol and drug rehabilitation prison for women in Perth and the first female prison in Western Australia to run an intense rehabilitation programme, known as a ‘therapeutic community’. The facility can treat up to 77 selected minimumand medium-security prisoners, who must demonstrate a desire to treat their addiction. It aims to provide ‘a safe, healthy, supportive and respectful space to recover and make positive, lasting changes’. Wandoo offers dedicated and intensive trauma-informed treatment within a therapeutic community. Women are supported via multi-disciplinary case management to reduce addiction, improve mental and physical health and reduce the chances of reoffending. Women The focus of Wandoo is to offer a supportive at Wandoo are also offered transitional environment where women can break the and post-release support for their ongoing cycle of addiction and drug-related offending. rehabilitation. Individual assessments, classification and allocation Individual risk and needs assessments are a key component of prisoner rehabilitation and are essential for ensuring that prisoners are housed in facilities that are equipped to meet their education and training needs, taking into account multiple social, legal, healthcare and other rehabilitation considerations. They are also crucial in establishing the level of security required and to reduce the risks of bullying, violence, exploitation, suicide or self-harm. However, many assessment tools have been designed with male prisoners in mind and the needs of female prisoners have often been overlooked. As the Nelson Mandela Rules make clear, successful rehabilitation requires individualisation of treatment and a flexible system of classifying prisoners in groups.64 Rule 11 deals with the separate allocation of prisoners based on their sex, age, criminal record and the legal reason for their detention. Other principles outlined in the Rules also rely on good classification and assessment procedures, including those related to prisoner searches, allocation, the application of disciplinary measures and supervision requirements during family visits. The allocation of women prisoners in particular should take into account their caretaking responsibilities, their individual preferences and the availability of appropriate programmes and services.65 Penal Reform International and Thailand Institute of Justice | Guide to the rehabilitation and social reintegration of women prisoners | 25