Prison does not stop at the prison gates. Women who leave bring with them the debilitating effects of a custodial sentence and encounter suspicion, hositility and neglect when they try to make a place for themselves in society. This is about those who, in this context, struggle to change their lives - to overcome the impact of a prison past on their future. Central to the book are the experiences of 34 women who discuss their lives and the problems and possibilities of change. Drawing on these accounts, Mary Eaton explores the structural pre-conditions necessary for subjective change and the structural blocks which many women encounter as both women and ex-prisoners. Many of the women have succeeded in changing their lives. or might succeed if the material inequalities to which they are all subject were to be recognized and taken seriously by those who perennially exhort them to turn their backs on crime and lead good and useful lives.