This month I’ve been acting as international advisor to a project by Penal Reform International, which is preparing to push for gender-specific reform in Georgia’s criminal justice system. Funded by the Open Society Foundation, the project will advocate on behalf of the 300 or so women in the country’s prison system, and all those who will come after. It will analyse criminal justice policy, practice and legislation and recommend gender-specific considerations during decision-making by judiciary and parole mechanisms, with a particular focus on the use of non-custodial measures for women who aren’t a violent risk to society. It will also raise awareness on women’s gender-specific needs in criminal justice system and the gendered negative impact of imprisonment, for them, their families, and society.

Currently most justice and correctional systems fail to take into account the factors that colour, often harmfully, women’s experiences of criminal justice and detention,…