The pathways in and out of crime differ according to gender, people's life histories, social situations and networks. Before being sentenced, many women have been living in vulnerable and traumatic life situations and violent relationships. Substance abuse often plays a crucial role in committing crimes. Being released from prison and re-entering society is a process that requires women's own motivation to desist along with help and support from society. This chapter shows how women narrate and describe their experiences after being released from prison and especially how they report the ways in which the welfare system responds to their needs. They discussed their needs for support and services, how they saw the logic of the service system and whether and how they managed to get the services they needed. Being released from prison leads women to a situation with complex and multiple needs, which is challenging the welfare system's ability to help them.

In this chapter, the authors analyse how the Finnish welfare service system, as it consists of different institutions and professionals, meets or fails to meet the needs of women in varying vulnerable life situations. The participants are women with severe substance abuse problems, women sentenced for committing a crime and poor lone mothers living on basic social benefits. The findings show that women's experiences of encounters with welfare professionals as well as their access to and use of the services share a number of characteristics. They described several barriers and problems related to the complexity of the service system. These included receiving only limited support for basic needs combined with the experiences of stigmatisation and the lack of trust in professionals and problems with face-to-face interaction with them. There is a moral stigma on these women, who have failed both as 'active citizens' and as 'decent women'. The welfare system does not recognise their specific needs as women. The guiding principle of the Finnish welfare service system is gender equality rather than a feminist or gendersensitive approach, and women-specific welfare services are rare.

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Väitellessäni vuosi sitten vietettiin kansainvälistä naistenpäivää. Naistenpäivän tausta-ajatuksena on paljon muutakin kuin ruusut ja suklaarasiat. Sen avulla on haluttu kiinnittää huomiota tasaarvoon ja etenkin sen puuttumiseen ja puutteellisuuksiin sukupuolten välillä. Myös väitöskirjassani on tasa-arvo ja sen puuttuminen merkittävässä asemassa. Monien tasa-arvokysymysten joukosta siinä on ollut kyse etenkin mahdollisuuksien tasa-arvon lisäämisestä. Sen edistäminen tarkoittaa, että heikoimmista lähtökohdista tuleville naisille tarjotaan sellaisia tukitoimia, joilla heidän on mahdollista saavuttaa yhtäläisiä edellytyksiä yhteiskuntaan osallistumiseen. Mutta toki väitöskirjassani on kyse myös sukupuolten välisestä tasa-arvosta ja sen puuttumisesta. Siinä on kyse myös epätasa-arvoa tuottavista risteämistä, kuten luokasta, iästä, taloudellisesta asemasta, seksuaalisuudesta ja etnisyydestä.