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

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Ev 66Justice Committee: Evidence8. Clarity on the leadership and championing of the work on women offenders and women at riskof offending, identified in the Corston Report as an essential requirement.9. Tackling now the urgent work needed, with central oversight, to embed women’s communityprovision within local commissioning infrastructures, utilising the awareness and ownership ofthe Gender Duty requirements to the full as well as other legal and policy obligations.10. A willingness by government to take advantage of the creativity and commitment of partnersin the voluntary sector, including funders, to advance systems-change through innovation andthe use of new mechanisms to release resources from the “crisis” end of the system. Re-visitingthe Justice Committee Report—Justice Reinvestment, January 2010 would be beneficial to anywork on systems-change.Peter KilgarriffRachel HalfordChair, Corston Independent Funders’ Coalition (CIFC) Women in PrisonMark WoodruffClaire JonesThe Monument TrustWomenCentreRob BellFrances CrookThe Paul Hamlyn FoundationThe Howard LeagueJulian CornerDeborah ColesThe LankellyChase FoundationInquestTim CuttJaqueline McKenzieThe Allen Lane FoundationHibiscusPenny VowlesVicki Helyar-CardwellThe Northern Rock FoundationCJAAndrew CooperRoma HooperThe Diana Memorial FundThe Griffins SocietyElizabeth RantzenClive MartinThe JP Getty TrustClinksGeorgina NaylerJackie RussellThe Pilgrim TrustWomen’s BreakoutPeter KilgarriffPeter HandThe Swan Mountain TrustMake Justice WorkTeresa ElwesRichard GarsideThe Bromley TrustCCJSBrian WheelwrightJuliet LyonThe Wates Family TrustPrison Reform TrustKevin McGrathThe McGrath TrustEdwina GrosvenorJudy Moody-StuartThe Wakefield and Tetley TrustDavid SandersonThe Rank FoundationDebbie PippardThe Barrow Cadbury FundAugust 2012Written evidence from HM Inspectorate of PrisonsSummary— This submission is based on HM Inspectorate of Prisons’ experience of inspecting prisons holdingwomen.— Our submission focuses on alternatives to custody, the treatment of and conditions for women incustody, and the need for improved governance and leadership in the management of womenoffenders.— The level of need in women’s prisons is visibly greater than in the male estate. Despite improvement,the women’s prison estate is still not configured to best manage the women it holds.1. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMI Prisons) is an independent inspectorate whose duties areprimarily set out in section 5A of the Prison Act 1952. HMI Prisons has a statutory duty to report on conditionsfor and treatment of those in prisons, young offender institutions and immigration detention facilities. HMIPrisons also inspects police custody jointly with HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) and will in 2012take on responsibility for inspecting court custody, customs custody facilities (jointly with HMIC) and securetraining centres (with Ofsted).
Justice Committee: Evidence Ev 672. HMI Prisons inspects women’s prisons on a five-year cycle. Each cycle includes a full inspection as wellas a follow-up inspection, the timing and extent of which is proportionate to risk. All our inspections arecarried out against published criteria known as “Expectations”. Women’s prisons are inspected against a genericset of Expectations for all adult prisons, albeit that there are additional expectations specific to women’sestablishments. Expectations are based on and referenced against international human rights standards includingthe United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for WomenOffenders (the Bangkok Rules). All inspections are carried out by a team specialising in the inspection ofwomen’s prisons.3. Inspection findings are brigaded under the four tests of a health prison which are:— Safety—prisoners, particularly the most vulnerable, are held safely;— Respect—prisoners are treated with respect for their human dignity;— Purposeful activity—prisoners are able, and expected, to engage in activity that is likely tobenefit them; and— Resettlement—prisoners are prepared for their release into the community and helped to reducethe likelihood of reoffending.4. Under each test, we make an assessment of outcomes for prisoners and therefore of the establishment’soverall performance against this test. Assessments are on a four-point scale: good, reasonably good, notsufficiently good and poor. In short follow-up inspections, we assess progress in implementing therecommendations we made at our last inspection, concluding that sufficient, or insufficient, progress is beingmade against each healthy prison test.5. Our assessments are based on a range of sources of evidence including:— surveys of a representative sample of prisoners at each establishment;— discussions with prisoners in groups and individually;— discussions with staff, managers, visitors and service providers;— records, policies and data; and— observation.6. In 2011–12, we inspected seven women’s prisons. Three of these were announced full inspections whilefour were unannounced follow-up inspections. 1 In 2013–14, we will move to an almost entirely unannouncedinspection programme.7. HMI Prisons also carries out thematic inspections on cross-cutting issues. Several of these thematicinspections have concerned women in prison.Overview8. We welcome the opportunity to submit information to the Justice Committee in the context of its inquiryinto women offenders. In our inspections of women’s prisons, we have found evidence that the Corston reporthas resulted in an improvement in the experience of women in prison. Despite this improvement however, thegovernance and leadership problems to which the Corston report referred remain almost untouched. Withoutaddressing these problems and fully appreciating the different needs and circumstances of women in prison,further improvements will be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.Alternatives to Custody9. The Corston report concluded that more was needed by way of alternative sanctions and disposals forwomen offenders. In October 2011, we published a joint thematic report, with HM Inspectorate of Probationand HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, looking at the extent to which non-custodial options werebeing taken up for women offenders. 2 This inspection recognised that to achieve equitable outcomes for maleand female offenders, different approaches need to be taken.10. We found that a lead given by the Ministry of Justice and National Offender Management Service hadbeen successful in promoting considerable activity at a regional and local level in relation to women offenders.While Probation Trusts and others had responded to this, they did not have the systems in place to effectivelymeasure what impact they had. We were concerned that some probation staff lacked the skills and knowledgeto work with women offenders effectively and were disappointed by the lack of empathy some staff showedtowards women. We were also concerned that the financial climate threatened the sustainability of some of thework that had been undertaken. Our report concluded that despite the efforts made, the size of the femaleprison population was still a matter of concern. Too many women were still serving short prison sentences,1The prisons inspected in 2011–12 were Low Newton, Morton Hall, Peterborough, Send, Styal, Askham Grange and Downview.The reports of these inspections are available on our website at http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/inspectorate-reports/hmiprisons/prison-and-yoi2HMI Probation, HMCPSI and HMI Prisons, Equal but different? An inspection of the use of alternatives to custody for womenoffenders (October 2011).
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