Human Rights and Prisons - Rethinking Crime and Punishment

in a study that exposed the limits of female compliance to and completion of
community-based offending programmes, Martin et al (2009:879) note the
current limited gender awareness in the construction and delivery of
programmes, and the failure of correctional services „to take into account
gender-specific needs and risks‟.
In earlier work, Easteal (2001) contends that women have fewer genderfocused
programmes and supports available for them. The economies of
scale that can be achieved across male institutions – in terms of providing
focused programmes or „throughcare‟ provisions – are not met in the same
way for women. In New Zealand, for instance, female prisoners have far less
access to specialist programmes than men 12 (see section 5.2). Women are
placed at a disadvantage in terms of having their needs met.
Internationally, female prisoners can also find that they do not have the same
ready access to medical, psychological or support staff as male prisoners.
For example, women can face waits for health assistance because relevant
staff are predominantly based at other male prisons, and make special trips to
the female prison. Provision is not always be available when it is required. In
New Zealand, women‟s prisons do have their own medical staff on site.
The male default can also be apparent in the construction of prisons, and their
associated regimes. Over the last decade, women‟s prisons have become
increasingly securitised, reflecting standards at male establishments. At an
international level, this approach continues to face criticism on the basis that
female prisoners, as a group, do not pose the same security risk to the wider
community as men (Carlen and Worrall, 2004).
Mothers in Prison
At an international level, it is estimated that between 50-80% of women in
prison are mothers. As a group, they are far more likely than male prisoners
to have lived with their children before imprisonment (Kingi et al, 2008). In
2003, the Department of Corrections estimated that 47% female prisoners had
dependent children at the time of their imprisonment (Kingi, 2009). PARS
estimates that about 20,000 children in New Zealand are affected each year
by having a family member in prison.
Given the female role in the care of children, and the fact that women are
often detained further away from home than men, children are faced with a
serious loss of contact. While male prisoners can often rely on their partners
to take care of their children, women often have to rely on substitute caregivers
– grandparents, family members, whānau, foster families and CYF
residences. In the UK, it has been recorded that only 5% of children with a
mother in prison will stay in the family home when the mother goes to prison
(Kingi, 2009). The issue of who looks after children is not simple, and there is
often a lack of stability in care provisions. On release, women can also
struggle to reassemble their families and homes (Codd, 2008).
12 The Department of Corrections does, however, run the Kowhiritanga programme that can
target female-focused issues. Kowhiritanga is delivered in each of the women‟s prisons.
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