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

Ev 62 Justice Committee: Evidence26 March 2013 Helen Grant MP, Ian Porée and Michael Spurrhuge. It is massive in terms of stopping them offendingand reoffending. We put £360,000, I believe, ofgrant funding into an organisation called Action forPrisoners’ Families, which provides voice and supportto a number of very good voluntary sector charitableorganisations that work with children and families ofoffenders outside in the community and in prisons. It isvery important that we do as much as we possibly canin this area. I have been reassured and encouraged to agood extent on my various visits to prisons when I haveasked about this issue. They tell me of the family daysthat they run, homework clubs, release on temporarylicence and, in some locations, parenting programmes,so that, even though they are incarcerated, offenderscan improve their parenting and maintain those veryimportant connections. On children and babies, thereis another aspect. As I am sure you know, we haveseven mother and baby units around the country. Theyprovide places for 77 women and 84 babies, to allowfor twins.Mr Llwyd: We saw them yesterday at Styal.Helen Grant: I saw one when I was at East SuttonPark. There was a young lady there with twins, andit was very interesting to see how she was managing.The absolute aim with mums and babies is to makesure that the mum achieves the same very good levelof help, care and support in prison as she would in thecommunity. From the organisations and the mother andbaby units I have looked at, there certainly seems to bea considerable amount of care and support. Mothers areusually—in fact, always, unless it is a great surprise, ofcourse—admitted to these units in advance of havingtheir babies so that they can start preparing to becomeparents and can engage in pre-natal classes. They arenot required to start work and to engage in the variousprogrammes until around six weeks afterwards, subjectto their own health. Then they will, of course, beencouraged to go back to work and to get involved inthe programmes. We have Ofsted-registered child careto take care of that and of the babies.Q304 Chair: Who is conducting the review of thecustodial estate, and when will it be over?Helen Grant: It is being conducted by a lady calledCathy Robinson, who is a very experienced formerprison governor of Feltham. I believe it was announcedon 10 February, and it has begun. 1 They are now doinganalysis and sorting out meetings. We expect a reportby the summer.Q305 Chair: Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector OfPrisons has spoken and written about women he saysare “distressed, damaged or disturbed”, for whom hesays prison is “simply the wrong place” and “simplyunacceptable”. Where should such women be held—inwhat kind of institution?Michael Spurr: If the courts send them to prison, wehave to hold them in prison. If they are displayingmental illness, we have arrangements with the NHS totransfer women who require secure psychiatric care tothose places. As we said earlier, the issue is to ensurethat the right sentencing disposal is provided by thecourts. That is a matter for the courts. If they send them1Correction by witness: The review of the women’s estate wasannounced on 10 January 2013 and not 10 February.to prison, we have to ensure that the regimes and thecare that they receive in prison are appropriate. Thechief inspector’s concern was that some of the peoplethere would be better, I guess, in hospital rather thanin prison.Q306 Chair: Actually, there is a distinction betweenthose who have clear mental health issues, who canbe referred to the mental health side, and those whohave clinically untreatable personality disorders, whorepresent a potential danger and have a high risk ofreoffending.Michael Spurr: That is why I mentioned the work thatwe had already begun and are expanding with the NHSon personality disorder. It includes the Primrose unit inLow Newton, which will be expanded to a personalitydisorder unit at Foston Hall and Drake Hall. In the eastand west midlands, we are rolling out support in thecommunity for those who have personality disorder;I mentioned Crowley House approved premises inBirmingham. All of that is being driven in partnershipwith the Department of Health, with Department ofHealth funding, to make better use of the funding thathas been used in the NHS on personality disorder,recognising that an awful lot of people with personalitydisorder end up in prison and that it is in everyone’sinterest to provide support, both in prison and whenthey go back to the community, to minimise the riskthat they could create and cause to the public.Q307 Chair: Does the review of the custodial estatepresume a reduction in the number of women in prison?Helen Grant: No.Q308 Chair: So there is no set direction of travel forthe review of the custodial estate.Helen Grant: It is a review that will look at thelocation, the geography, the accommodation, thefitness for purpose and the number of regimes acrossall 13 prisons. It is being considered very carefully. Iwould not want to make any assumptions about whatCathy Robinson will come up with or recommend. Wehave just asked her to have a very good look at it.Q309 Chair: Will she look at an issue like this one—whether the prison system as we currently understand itis the right place to deal with this category of prisoner?Michael Spurr: No, she will not look at that. As Iexplained earlier, it is not a review of sentencingoptions or the potential alternatives; it is a review ofhow we can best use the custodial estate. She will, ofcourse, take account of prison population projections.That is important. With a small estate such as thefemale estate, there always has to be some flexibility ofuse, because small changes can make a big difference.With a small estate, you have to have enough flexibilityto be able to respond; that is one of the reasons we aredoing the review. Rather than simply saying, “We havea few spare places, so we will close a few more at themoment,” we need to look at how we are using theplaces to get best impact for the women that we holdin custody.Helen Grant: She will certainly look at alternativeconfigurations.