This thesis explore women’s needs when reentering society after having served a sentence at the female prison Färingsö, outside Stockholm and whether those needs are being met in the reentry strategies that are being provided. Parallel to this the thesis also examines if there, based on nonconformity and gender theories, is a socially constructed representation of women maintained in the rehabilitation work.

The method of this thesis applied semi-structured interviews and used snowball sampling to expand the network of informants to obtain the data necessary. Totally five interviews were carried out. Previous research has shown that women in prison have much more complex problems than men and that there is a need for reentry strategies that take gender in account.

The results showed that in terms of being able to reenter back in society, women needed help to structure a previously chaotic life. This by getting individual counseling, housing, employment, adequate rehabilitation programs, education and being able to build a network outside the prison, as this could function as a safety net when being released and reentering back into society. The women also pointed out that there is a need for better information and more individual planning, especially in relation to the release from prison.

In regards to the question whether there is socially constructed representation of women held in the reentry strategies this could mainly be seen in the work women get to do in prison, such as knitting, sewing and packing baby-bags. This correlates with a normative femininity where the woman is seen as a person with high moral and a nurturing nature. The result also showed that women in prison act in response to societal normative messages about how a woman should be.