Characteristics of women prisoners Female prisoners face additional barriers to rehabilitation that are often not recognised or effectively tackled within criminal justice systems. The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education has pointed to the lack of research on the particular educational needs of women prisoners, noting that there is, in particular, little attention paid to the number of women with learning difficulties in detention, with the majority of research focused on male prisoners.25 The lack of knowledge about women prisoners’ educational and other rehabilitation needs is particularly problematic given that they are usually very different from the needs of men. As a result, the opportunities offered to women are often poorly thought through and ineffective. This section of the guide summarises four key challenges faced by female prisoners, including challenges related to their personal situations and challenges that stem from criminal justice responses to their imprisonment. Pathways to prison Men and women have many parallel and often overlapping pathways to prison. These include substance abuse, social marginalisation, poverty and mental health conditions. There are also specific gendered pathways to imprisonment that need to be understood and tackled. To successfully rehabilitate prisoners, authorities need a good understanding of their personal backgrounds, the circumstances that led them to prison, and an awareness of the obstacles they may face on release. Any rehabilitation programmes that do not take these factors into account and which do not provide the necessary care, assistance and treatment are likely to fail. Many prisoners, and in particular female prisoners, have been convicted of non-violent offences. These offences are often related to substance dependence or due to economic pressure and the need to provide for children and other family members.26 As the commentary to Rules 57–58 of the Bangkok Rules notes, many women are in prison ‘as a direct or indirect result of the multiple layers of discrimination and deprivation, often experienced at the hands of their husbands or partners, their family and the community’. Widespread domestic violence against women and sexual abuse prior to imprisonment have been documented in many countries worldwide. Penal Reform International and Thailand Institute of Justice | Guide to the rehabilitation and social reintegration of women prisoners | 11