Women offenders: after the Corston Report - United Kingdom ...
Women offenders: after the Corston Report - United Kingdom ...
Women offenders: after the Corston Report - United Kingdom ...
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Ev 38 Justice Committee: Evidence29 January 2013 Jacqueline McKenzie, Deborah Cowley, Rachel Halford and Sherry AshfieldThe o<strong>the</strong>r issue that we may not want to think about isthat not every woman who has children wants to retainor resume <strong>the</strong> role as mo<strong>the</strong>r and primary carer. Wehave to train our staff to be able to hear when womenare saying, “I may love my children but I may not wantto resume <strong>the</strong> role as primary carer with <strong>the</strong>m.” In ourexperience, that is something that professionals findhugely difficult.Q185 Jeremy Corbyn: Can I ask, coming in on thisone—and thanks for <strong>the</strong> evidence you have given us—what is <strong>the</strong> view of all or any of you of how long amo<strong>the</strong>r should keep her child in prison where she has alonger sentence? I have met women in Holloway whoare extremely stressed at <strong>the</strong>ir children being takenaway from <strong>the</strong>m or o<strong>the</strong>rs that feel it is right because<strong>the</strong>y do not want <strong>the</strong>ir child in its early years developingin a prison environment. Do you have views on this?This is for women who have substantial sentences.Sherry Ashfield: Again, I would like to see a systemwhere we can respond to <strong>the</strong> individual needs both of<strong>the</strong> mo<strong>the</strong>r and also of <strong>the</strong> child.Q186 Jeremy Corbyn: A flexible approach.Sherry Ashfield: Yes. That will depend a lot on <strong>the</strong>physical location in which <strong>the</strong> children are livingwithin <strong>the</strong> prison conditions. Some of my colleaguesmay have more information on that.Rachel Halford: I would agree. It has to be flexible,absolutely. The location is really important. If you werehaving smaller custodial units or you look at some of<strong>the</strong> open prisons, <strong>the</strong>n why couldn’t <strong>the</strong> children stayfor longer? But you have to look at <strong>the</strong> impact on <strong>the</strong>child. Hence, I think <strong>the</strong> limit now is 18 months. Itis very difficult. I have worked with women who areserving longer sentences whose children have beentaken away at that 18‐month point, and actually for<strong>the</strong> mo<strong>the</strong>rs, as traumatic as that has been, <strong>the</strong>y havefelt that it has been for <strong>the</strong> best, not for <strong>the</strong>m to beseparated because <strong>the</strong>re was absolutely no way <strong>the</strong>ywere going to be able to leave with <strong>the</strong>ir child, but for<strong>the</strong>ir child to be in a different environment, to be in anormal environment, <strong>the</strong>y felt was better in <strong>the</strong> longterm for <strong>the</strong>ir child.Q187 Andy McDonald: Can I ask you about mentalhealth and accommodation issues? The recent criminaljustice joint <strong>the</strong>matic inspection of alternatives tocustody for women <strong>offenders</strong> examined <strong>the</strong> work ofprobation and community partners and found mentalhealth housing was generally poor. We have heardthat many women are released from prison and find<strong>the</strong>mselves homeless. You have touched upon some of<strong>the</strong>se issues already, but what specific gaps are <strong>the</strong>recurrently in <strong>the</strong> provision of accommodation andmental healthcare for women <strong>offenders</strong> and those atrisk of offending?Rachel Halford: Accommodation is a no brainer.It goes without saying that <strong>the</strong>re are hugeproblems with accommodation across <strong>the</strong> board.A fundamental need for anyone who is going to notreoffend and succeed when reintegrating back intosociety is accommodation; <strong>the</strong>y need finance andaccommodation. Accommodation is really limited.There are six probation hostels for women in <strong>the</strong>country. There isn’t one in London, which is absolutelyinsane. Anyone in London who needs to go to somekind of accommodation, like probation, would have togo to Reading or Bedfordshire.As far as mental health accommodation is concerned,we are talking about supported accommodation and itis limited. I do not have a huge knowledge base. Myknowledge base on <strong>the</strong> availability is really small and Ibelieve that is because <strong>the</strong>re is a limited availability onmental health supported accommodation. The supporthas been minimal across <strong>the</strong> board, but I have to saythat now we have <strong>the</strong> introduction of <strong>the</strong> personalitydisorder pathway. What comes with that is this—andit is fantastic because this is for women who havehigher mental health needs: <strong>the</strong>re is an opportunityof working within <strong>the</strong> prisons, through <strong>the</strong> gate, into<strong>the</strong> community, into accommodation and into <strong>the</strong>irown accommodation with specialist support. So <strong>the</strong>reis an opportunity of something new happening hereand it is a pathway—which is NOMS and nationalhealth—which is fantastic. We will wait to see what<strong>the</strong> outcomes are, but it is something that is happeningin <strong>the</strong> prisons and in <strong>the</strong> community, and we wouldhope that <strong>the</strong>re would be increased provision within<strong>the</strong> community off <strong>the</strong> back of this.Deborah Cowley: One of <strong>the</strong> things about having afamily‐friendly prison would be that, if <strong>the</strong>re wereproper engagement with family members wherepossible, in terms of sentence planning, it couldbe a huge advantage in relation to accommodationsubsequently. We have an example where a prisoner’smo<strong>the</strong>r was ignored when she moved to a differentprison, having had a very good relationship, and herdaughter was sent to a hostel next door to a men’s hostelwhere her whole behaviour was around inappropriatesexual relationships with men and she needed supportto stop that. Family members can be a really importantpart of that planning.Sherry Ashfield: One of <strong>the</strong> concerns I have is aboutlong‐term accommodation. While you are right that<strong>the</strong> hostels do an incredibly good job for women withvery complex needs and have a history of providingextremely good service provision for <strong>the</strong>m, at somepoint <strong>the</strong>y need to leave and <strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong>y move intoano<strong>the</strong>r form of supported accommodation in <strong>the</strong>community, but usually that is quite time limitedas well. I am quite interested to see where we go interms of <strong>the</strong> personality disorder agenda because weknow from working with women with disorderedpersonalities that <strong>the</strong>y need a high level of stabilityover a very long period of time. So <strong>the</strong> accommodationthat we have is not great, it is in very low supply andalso it really is very time limited and very much gearedto specific points in someone’s sentence.Certainly, we have seen women who have ended upcoming back into <strong>the</strong> system maybe four years <strong>after</strong><strong>the</strong>ir index offence, and when we looked with <strong>the</strong>mat what went wrong a lot of it was about transitionalperiods, moving from one form of accommodation intoano<strong>the</strong>r. So when we are talking about accommodationwe need to think not just about what happens at <strong>the</strong>point at which a woman is released but actually beprojecting quite far forward and thinking, “Where willshe go next and have we all <strong>the</strong> things in place that weneed to?”