Women offenders: after the Corston Report - United Kingdom ...

Ev 12 Justice Committee: Evidence18 December 2012 A, B, C, D and Kate JohnsonThere are AA meetings, which are held on a weeklybasis in the prison, which the prison accommodates.There are very supportive prison staff and a lot of carefrom normal officers, even if there was no psychiatrictreatment available. I was treated as a high risk, so Iwas monitored very closely and supervised throughoutmovements in the prison. The everyday officers andthe alcohol treatment people did their absolute utmostto give as much pastoral care as they could.Q55 Rehman Chishti: You would say that peoplecould benefit by having proper mental health treatmentwithin prison.C: I don’t think there is any counselling for mentalhealth issues and there is no referral outside onceyou have served your sentence. You can usually getall the medication you want, providing you knowwhat it is you want and you can convince the doctorsin the prison system enough; but, no, that is the onlytreatment that there is.B: Can I say something about the drug thing? You aregetting people physically off drugs, but all the groupsand things are not compulsory. So people might bephysically off drugs, but mentally you are just goingto come out and go back on them. My experience hasbeen very different from C’s. I didn’t find any care.Kate Johnson: The programme in Bronzefield was apilot project that was funded by the DAT. We did a kindof wrap-around service with them where women couldgo in, detox and have a programme. Then, through acare worker, they are referred to us. We went in beforethe end of the programme and did a whole approach,but that isn’t common.Q56 Rehman Chishti: A, you were going to saysomething on this.A: On the issue still of mental health, I have been asevere self‐harmer for 20 years and I never self‐harmedfor the last eight years; 12 months ago I actuallyself‐harmed in one of the open prisons. I have never,ever been given any counselling in all my sentence.I have been heavily medicated. I decided to come offall this medication myself eight years ago, and, I hada lapse 12 months ago. In the open prison I asked forsupport to get me some kind of medical professionalto help me. Two days before I was released somebodycame to see me and said, “I’ve come to start the workwith you”—two days before I was released. I said,“I’m about to go out the door”, and I’m still waitingthree weeks later for this support that has never beenmentioned by anybody since.Q57 Seema Malhotra: Thank you so much forsharing so much about your experiences. I just wantto ask a little more. You talked about your familyrelationships when you went in and how they may havebeen affected, whether that is with wider family or withchildren. I am interested to know whether anythingcould have helped. Would you change anything aboutthe way prison works that would help you better keeprelationships with family where you wanted to?B: With the whole visiting thing, you are not going tohave a good relationship with anyone. I was put onclosed visits for a year of my sentence on suspicion ofhaving drugs. I wasn’t caught with anything. You’rejust behind glass. So, to have any sort of relationshipwith anyone is impossible, isn’t it?C: I have certainly known of women who I’ve beenin prison with who’ve had small children, and in thevisiting area they can’t get off their seat; so they can’tget down and hug their children. It’s very difficult tohave any physical contact with them. It’s very muchdown to the wider family to bring the children to theprison to see the mother. It’s very difficult.B: Men tend not to be as supportive to women. Womentend to kind of visit men more than men visit women.A: Also, there’s the distance. I have a son, and when Ifirst got sentenced I had two choices of prisons. Onewas down south and one was up north. I ended up in[HMP X] and my son was in [county], and it was veryfew and far between with the visits. Even now, to thisday, my son is with my brother. I am quite fortunate,but the rapport with my son is not good. It could havebeen made better if I had been maybe closer and visitswould have been easier to access me.Q58 Jeremy Corbyn: For all of you, how did youspend your time in prison? Was it doing nothing, wasit education, was it working or was it just being lockedup and staring at the wall?C: Bronzefield make you have a programme. You arenot allowed to sit and do nothing, or it’s very unusual.They either make you go to the gym, you have asupervised sport and then you are able to work inthe gym on your own, or they make you do a danceclass or yoga or something. A lot of those classes aredesigned to build team building, so you are punishedor penalised if you choose to sit all day in your cell.Q59 Jeremy Corbyn: Did you find that good?C: Yes, absolutely.B: Bullwood Hall has a cardboard box factory andyou are sewing shorts all day long. That’s what youdo in that prison. Different prisons are different. Thereis very good education and things in Holloway. Can Imake a suggestion? You’ve got televisions in cells, whydon’t you show some inspirational DVDs? Instead ofpeople just watching “Jeremy Kyle” or whatever, putsomething good on the telly.Jeremy Corbyn: It sounds like a double punishment.B: Get some ex‐prisoners to make some DVDs of howthey have turned their life around and things and showthem that.Q60 Jeremy Corbyn: Did you have access to DVDs?B: There is a DVD player in the office that does gothrough all the tellies in the cells, and at Christmas orsomething they’ll put a film on, so they could do it.Q61 Jeremy Corbyn: But you did not have access toa DVD library itself.B: No.C: You could in Bronzefield if you were an enhancedprisoner.Q62 Jeremy Corbyn: A, what about you?A: I don’t know what to say.Q63 Steve Brine: What did you do all day for 18years?