Human Rights and Prisons - Rethinking Crime and Punishment

prisoners were ignored. Such approaches also result in the bullying
and intimidation of older prisoners by younger prisoners.
8.3 Gender
Law and policy framework
Policies regarding the detention of women are set out in the Corrections
Regulations (rr 24 and 65 which provide for the separation of female and male
prisoners) and in national policies (PSOM, M.03.02) that pay attention the
specific needs of women.
Issues
The imprisonment rates of women has continued to grow. Although the
apprehension rates for women have been relatively stable over the last
decade, women are being imprisoned at an escalating rate, „approximately
two to three times faster‟ than the rate for men (Tolmie, 2007:11.2.3). In
1983, the number of women in prison was approximately 110; by 30 April
2010, this had increased to 512 (including 122 women on remand).
Women make up just over 6% of the total prison population. In terms of
ethnicity, the over-representation of Māori is acute within the female
population. In 2010, 61% of female sentenced prisoners were Māori, 29%
Pakeha, 4% Pacific peoples and 6% „other‟ ethnicities (Rainford, 2010).
The reasons why women are being increasingly imprisoned are varied,
reflecting shifts in attitudes towards female offenders. There are lower
custody thresholds in relation to drug offences; increases in the use of short
custodial sentences; increases in the numbers of women placed on remand;
notions that women and girls should be treated the same as men (such that
children are not used as mitigating factor to keep women out of prison, as was
historically sometimes the case); and fears about new „breeds‟ of violent girls
and women, that, on investigation, have been seen to be subject to
overstatement (Codd, 2008; Player, 2007; Tolmie, 2007).
The profile of women in New Zealand prisons reflects the nature of women
imprisoned in other jurisdictions. As Kingi et al (2008:4) highlight, „Women
enter prison with a range of problems. They tend to be poor or welfare
dependent, have few educational qualifications, have mental health problems,
histories of drug and alcohol abuse and tend to have experienced high levels
of victimisation‟.
International research (Loucks, 1998) has also shown that the number of
female prisoners who have suffered violent and, in particular, sexual abuse is
very high. These factors highlight that female prisoners are in need of
treatment and support systems that deal with both their previous victimisation
as well as their offending behaviour.
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