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

Justice Committee: Evidence Ev 415 March 2013 Liz Calderbank, Val Castell and Liz Rijnenbergnot have a women’s community project. That said,NOMS has provided some money for 2013–14 toextend women’s community projects to a few areas,particularly in the south-west—to Wiltshire and Dorset.I think that the absence of the national women’s team inNOMS has led to a standstill in the development of thestrategy. It would be really helpful if representatives inDepartments across Government had a set of joined-uptargets to ensure that all the needs of women are met.One of the issues that causes me particular concern isthe fact that we still do not have the resources necessaryto support women and their children to prevent themfrom going into custody and to prevent those childrenbeing cared for by other people. Val mentioned theimportance of residential alternatives for women, andthis is something that we should try to drive forward aspart of a wider strategy.Q196 Mr Llwyd: In several pieces of evidence thatwe have received in connection with this inquiry, therehas been concern that this problem is not recognisedacross various Departments, as you rightly highlight.Liz Rijnenberg: That would be an excellent idea.Q197 Mr Llwyd: That’s a pretty succinct answer.Liz Rijnenberg: It’s not a complicated notion, is it?Q198 Chair: It is also an interesting answer, becauseI think that Mrs Grant would say that she was the leadMinister.Liz Rijnenberg: Well, yes.Val Castell: I think that she would also benefit frombeing backed up by people with a clear duty to lead inthe various different Government Departments.Q199 Mr Llwyd: As a one-time practitioner myself,I am obviously interested in the sentencing process.May I ask, Ms Castell, whether there has been adifference of approach by magistrates in the way thatthey sentence women since Corston?Val Castell: There has, in those areas that have hadaccess to alternative sentences, especially in thoseareas that have had the intensive alternative to custodypilots running in them. I shall refer to IACs insteadof trotting out the full name of intensive alternative tocustody all the time.Where you have had the IACs running, there has beena very clear lead from the probation service to makesure that magistrates know the implications of usingcustodial sentences as opposed to alternatives, wherepossible. There has been a great deal of very good workon putting together robust alternatives, and magistrateshave had faith in those alternatives and have usedthem. Where you have not had IACs running, therehas been some use of community sentences instead ofcustodial ones, but that has been limited by the fact thatthe community sentences have only been alternativecommunity sentences for women; they have not beencustodial alternatives.We tend to approach sentencing in quite a linear way,and our sentencing guidelines tend to lead us downthis route. It’s low-level risk; it’s final discharge; it’smedium-level; it’s community sentence; it’s over thecustody threshold. If you have come to the point in thesentencing guidelines where it says, “This offence isso serious, you’re over the custody threshold,” then,when looking for community alternatives, you tend tobe looking for something that is more robust than astandard community option. By and large, even wherewomen’s sentences exist, if all they are offering is astandard community option, that still does not reallygive us all the options that we need to look at custodialalternatives.Q200 Mr Llwyd: Would I be right in thinking, forexample—this is something that I have raised before inthe House—that people who are drug addicted who goon a community sentence will breach, unless they aretaken off drugs to begin with, because of their chaoticlifestyle. That is inevitable, is it not?Val Castell: I would not say completely inevitable,but it is quite likely. If somebody breaches, it doesnot necessarily mean that they would automaticallygo into custody, because we look very carefully,when somebody comes into court for breach, atwhat probation is telling us on the breach report. Ifsomebody is trying but finding it difficult, that is avery different story from somebody who is not tryingat all. If somebody is trying and finding it difficult,we will look to see whether we can let the sentencerun and whether we can get it completed, and to seewhether there are ways that we can help with getting itcompleted. Custody very much tends to be a last ditch,if somebody really is not complying.Q201 Nick de Bois: I would like to turn, if I may,to the current approach to women offenders. Myquestion is directed first to Ms Calderbank—and to MsRijnenberg, if you wish to follow up on this.Can you explain what sort of provision is made by trustsfor women offenders serving community sentences inareas without a women’s centre? Is there a notabledifference in levels of performance—or should I sayoutcome?—between areas that have gender-specificservices and those that do not?Liz Calderbank: The answer to that question is thesame as the one before. It is actually very variable, asyou would probably anticipate.Q202 Nick de Bois: May I help? I was sensing thatwe were coming on to that ground. I suppose that thequestion is whether there is a discernible general shiftbetween the two—where there are services or not. Isuspect that you will point out that each area is verydifferent. I suppose that I am looking for a pattern.Liz Rijnenberg: I do not think that we have anystatistical evidence of notable differences in areasthat do not have women’s community centres. Wehave national data in relation to reoffending and shortcustodial sentences, but it is questionable whether thatwould be comparable across trusts. The importantthing is the added value that you get from a women’scommunity centre, because you have a number ofservices all in one place, which is very important.In areas where there are no community centres, theprobation trusts and local partnerships have donewhat they can to provide the best possible service. Forexample, in Swindon in Wiltshire, where there is nowomen’s community project, Barnardo’s runs a serviceat one of the family centres, where women can go and