The research looks at the uses of museum and gallery education with female offenders. It aims to:
• provide evidence that working with the arts has a positive effect on the rehabilitation of female offenders;
• argue that participation in arts projects for offenders is their cultural entitlement and should be facilitated by the authorities as a human right;
• investigate the problems that arts organisations have in delivering projects to female offenders and suggest ways to overcome these problems.
This qualitative research used observations, questionnaires, field notes and semi-structured interviews through to participation and action research. Projects were undertaken with the Victoria and Albert Museum (the V&A), in HMP Askham Grange and in HMP Holloway.

The key question raised by this research is 'to what extent does living in a rural area impact on the successful resettlement of female offenders and the specific disadvantages that they face’. The research examines how aspects of rural crime may differ from urban crime, and the particular difficulties female offenders in a rural environment face when complying with a court order or prison licence. The main focus of the research is the availability and accessibility of community based partnerships and agencies in rural areas. The research is based on interviews with eighteen women who were interviewed in the probation office where they reported – five in Carlisle, eight in Barrow-in-Furness, four in Whitehaven and one in Workington. Key-workers from various agencies were also interviewed and the problems of delivering a service to offenders in rural areas discussed

The objective of this project was to examine the processes that assist with effective resettlement for juvenile girls with specific reference to the work of the Rivendell Unit* by:
• identifying the concerns that young women and staff have about effective resettlement specifically in terms of gender;
• identifying successful current practice for this group in resettlement;
• identifying barriers to effective resettlement; and
• charting the experience of resettlement for these young women and follow-up issues over a set period of time.