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

Justice Committee: Evidence Ev 95Written evidence from Action for Prisoners’ FamiliesAction for Prisoners’ Families (APF) is the national organisation for those concerned with the well-being ofprisoners’ and offenders’ families and has 1700 members. Sending women to prison damages family life andseparates children from their mothers, it is unknown how many children are affected annually. There is nosystematic collection of data on where the children of prisoners live or which services they are accessing. ThePrison Reform Trust estimates that in 2010 more than 17,240 children were separated from their mothers dueto imprisonment. Women in prison are more likely to be lone parents than women in the general population 25 .Maintaining Family Ties1. The closure of women’s prisons and the failure to introduce small custodial units (which have beenproposed by many academics, penal reform organisations and various reports over the years) has resulted inwomen custody being held a long way from home. This distance places a huge strain on family relationshipsand even short trips on public transport can become arduous for those bringing babies and small children tovisit their mothers in prison. Maintaining telephone contact is very expensive yet many women try and calltheir children every day in an effort to stay in touch.2. Problems for families visiting their relatives in prison are not new. These include difficulties bookingvisits, expensive travel costs, security restrictions and being able to get into the prison promptly for the startof the visit. However what particularly concerns women, is where their children are in local authority care orwith relatives who can’t or won’t bring them to visit. Unlike visiting a hospital, anyone under 18 years of agehas to be accompanied by an adult when visiting a prison. This means that even teenagers are unable to visittheir mothers or bring younger siblings in unless appropriately chaperoned. Looked after children are unlikelyto be brought frequently to visit their mothers, as children’s services do not have sufficient resources to facilitateweekly, fortnightly or even monthly visits.3. Black, minority ethnic and foreign national women are more likely to report that they had not had a visitwithin their first week in prison compared with white and British women 26 . In a recent MOJ report, 15% ofprisoners stated that they needed help concerning problems related to family or children with 8% requiring alot of help. Women (27%) were more likely than men (13%) to report being in need of support with a problemconcerning family or children. 274. It has been well documented, and accepted by NOMS policy makers, that the maintenance of familyrelationships is a factor in reducing re-offending. For women prisoners in particular, concern over their childrenis a great cause of angst, yet support for prisoners in dealing with any family problems they may have is verypatchy. Projects which support prisoners’ family relationships not only contribute to a reduction in re-offendingbut also improve the likelihood of better outcomes for their children.5. One model that has been piloted is the Integrated Family Support Service run by Pact and NEPACS, twovoluntary sector organisation, which was funded by the Department for Education. Family Support workersbased in prisons provided one-to-one interventions, advice, case work and family mediation for prisoners andtheir families. Their work helped to re-establish contact between families, increased family contact and resultedin a mother discovering the outcome of care proceedings which had resulted in adoption. Prisoners with lessfamilial worries resulted in a reduction of self-harm and a calmer prison. The project also piloted IntegratedFamily Support Advocates in the community to support the children and families of offenders. They workedwith local authorities and partnerships such as Integrated Offender Management Units and Troubled Familyteams and sought to facilitate greater inter-agency co-operation 28 .Mother and Baby Units6. A recent report published by Sheffield Hallam University and the University of York 29 highlights someof the issues for pregnant and post-partum women in custody. Importantly there are no figures on the numbersof these women in prison making it difficult to ensure there are sufficient services available to them. The reportalso states that women resident on Mother and Baby Units are expected to leave their babies when they areaged between 6 and 8 weeks old so they can take part in the normal regime. This is in stark contrast to mothersworking in the community who are subject to statutory maternity leave provisions.7. APF is also concerned about women who have been separated from their babies either because theyhaven’t applied for a place on a MBU or because they were not able to get one. It is unclear what servicesthese women are offered or even if prison staff are aware of these women’s familial circumstances.25Social Exclusion Unit (2002) Reducing reoffending by ex-prisoners, London: Social Exclusion Unit26 HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (2009) Race Relations in Prisons: responding to adult women from black and minority ethnicbackgrounds, London: The Stationery Office27Ministry of Justice (2012) Prisoners’ childhood and Family backgrounds, London: Ministry of Justice28 Integrated Family Support Service Evaluation Report (2012) Pact and Nepacs www.prisonadvice.org.uk29 Alberton, K et al (2012). Tackling health inequalities through developing evidence-based policy and practice with childbearingwomen in prison: A consultation