In 1998, 567 women prisoners were surveyed regarding the status of work and training regimes in women's prisons and to put this in the context of the women's previous work experience, aspirations for the future, and perceived barriers to taking up a working life on release. One year later, 178 women from the original survey who had been released for a period of 5 to 9 months were reinterviewed to find out about their post-release labor market experiences and how these related to their prison experience. There appeared to be little integration of work and training regimes. The majority of inmates with no previous educational record were not doing anything in prison to help redress this, and were not planning anything for after their release. Approximately half of those with literacy and/or numeracy problems did not consider themselves to have received sufficient help. The document describes a widespread need for more help for women inmates in planning for their release, in terms of readjusting and reintegration, social skills, housing, finding work, arranging benefits, and reestablishing family bonds. Notes, tables, references