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

Justice Committee: Evidence Ev 85— “On my arrival I was searched handed a bag and saw a nurse who said I did not need to see a doctortill the next day. Even though I told her I had long disease and was a methadone script. I have nowbeen here over two weeks and was given a doctor’s appointment a few days after I arrived but wasnot told how or what to do. By the following evening I was so ill that an officer took me to see thedoctor who refused to see me even though the officer pleaded with him as I was so ill. But thedoctor would not see me and point blank refused. He told the officer that there was a methadonescript for me at the wing and that I would have to wait for medication till 5 o’clock in the afternoon.Even though the Officer spoke to him and told him that I was vomiting continuously and that I wasdizzy to the point that I was held up by the officer. The officer apologised for the doctor. I was given65 mls of methadone without seeing the doctor and I did not see a doctor until over a week later.So I was in prison over a week before I saw any sort of doctor. Lots of women have similarexperiences with seeing doctors when they need to, there seems to be a Huge waiting time beforethey are seen by the right doctor. And if for any reasons such as headaches, toothaches etc womenare waiting days for painkillers, as an example I had an asthma attack on my first night and it tookthe nurse half an hour to bring me my pump. What is going on with women’s health in prisons Ihave had so many stories told to me and I have seen many more. What is going on with health inour prisons?”3. Community Provision for Women— “Do these even exist anymore? It seems clearly apparent to me after all the people I have met sincecoming to prison, that custodial sentences are being dished out left, right and centre. So many people,including myself, of previously good character for whom this was their first offence. Custodialsentences for drink driving or non-payment of a TV license seems a little extreme to say the least.Of course, I do not pretend to know all the facts, but it would certainly be interesting to see somestatistics regarding the volume of community sentences as opposed to custodial ones.”3.1 Barriers to engagement— “I got sentenced to the NDAR Programme and had to go to the Moss Side Probation Office to do it.I was really embarrassed walking in, as I know lots of people in the area and I was scared thatpeople would recognise me. I live in a strict religious community and if they found out I was onprobation, I would be treated like an outcast.”— “I was on the NDAR. We had to sit in a big room and there was about ten men and me. I was theonly woman! There was no way I was going to talk about stuff in front of all those men. Then whenI wanted to go to the toilet, the staff made me use the men’s toilet as there were no ladies toilets inthat part of the building. I didn’t go back and in the end I could have been breached if my supportworker hadn’t got involved.”— “I have to travel from Rochdale to the centre of Manchester for the ‘Women’s Programme’. I’ve gotthree kids and it’s a real struggle to get them all to school and then get three buses into Manchesterin time for the start.”— “I’ve had a tag and it was really hard. Not for me, but my eldest son is 15 and if he wasn’t back intime for my curfew, I couldn’t even go to the bottom of the street to look for him. I was alwaysscared that I was going to get in trouble if I was out past 7pm, but at the same time I was moreworried about him.”— “Community Payback is the worst…..We would sit down on our breaks and you could see peoplefrom the local community looking at us. You knew they were just thinking; ‘Look at that bunch oflazy gits’. They would turn their heads or even worse, shout at us, it was awful. I had a big yellowjacket on and I would have died if any of the mums I see at school had seen me.”— “Sometimes, not enough people turned up to do the group and so my probation officer would do it1–2-1 with me. We got through a whole session in 15 minutes one time. It felt like she was justrattling through it to get me out of the office. She wasn’t interested and I got nothing out of it.”— “I did my order at Longsight where they do all the Community Payback. In the morning, there wouldbe loads of young lads hanging about waiting for the mini bus. Sometimes you would have to walkthrough a crowd of about 20 lads. It was scary.”— “There was loads of reading and writing, I didn’t understand half of it.”— “I had four different Probation Officers over 12 months. It was rubbish. I never got to trust any ofthem. I would just get to know one and then they would be off and I would have to start all overagain with a new one.”3.2 Good points— “I’m on the ‘Women’s Programme’ in Manchester. It’s long and it’s hard but it’s the best one I’vebeen on. I’ve done others but this has been the only one where I feel I got a grip on all the reasonswhy I have been getting into trouble in the first place. Because it’s so long, I got to know the othergirls and the staff and I wasn’t so embarrassed about telling them stuff as I knew that some of themwere going through the same thing.”