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

Ev 96Justice Committee: EvidenceAdoption and Family Court Proceedings8. APF, in partnership with the Rights of Women, produced a series of leaflets for women called “YourChildren, Your Rights”, which gave basic information about parental responsibility, adoption and careproceedings. These were reproduced in Inside Time, the prison newspaper, and in Women In Prison’s magazineas there was such a demand for information by women in prison about the family justice system. They hada great many concerns about the court orders that were being made over their children whilst they werein custody.Impact of financial cuts9. Cuts to prison budgets and new methods of commissioning services have undoubtedly had an impact onservice provision for women in prison. Prison governors receive no specific funding to meet the costs of familysupport work, parenting courses, prison visitors’ centres or supervised play areas. The First Night in CustodyService for women entering HMP Holloway, which had operated for many years, and the Kinship Care SupportService both run by Pact have closed and as far as APF is aware the Children and Pathway lead post has alsogone. Services set up to support women in prison often have very short term funding and restrictive budgets.Conclusion10. Most women in prison serve very short sentences. In the year ending June 2012 58% of women enteredprison under sentences of six months or less, a rise of 8% on the previous year. 30 These short sentences areextremely damaging often resulting in women losing their homes and possessions, as well as undermining theirfamily relationships. Many women going into prison may not have been their children’s main carer but thisdoes not mean they did not have regular contact and good relationships with them. Parental imprisonment,rather than arrest or non- custodial sentences cause negative changes in their children’s behaviour. Sentencersshould be informed on the effects that sending parents to prison has on their children 31 . Allowing women toserve their sentences in the community and supporting them via local services is not only cheaper but alsoresults in better outcomes for them and their families.January 2012Executive SummaryWritten evidence from the Ministry of Justice1. The Government is fully committed to addressing women’s offending. Many female offenders who endup in prison have a wide range of needs and too many go through a revolving door of reoffending. We mustensure that women who offend are rehabilitated, whether they serve sentences in custody or the community.Women have consistently accounted for 5% of the prison population for the last five years, and 15% of thosesupervised by Probation Service under community orders or suspended sentence orders for the last four years2. The Government is developing a programme of reforms to deliver on the coalition commitment of arehabilitation revolution on which the Ministry of Justice will publish further details shortly. It is importantthat there is close alignment between these plans and the strategy on female offenders.The nature and effectiveness of the Ministry of Justice’s strategy for women offenders and those at risk ofoffending3. The Ministry of Justice will publish the Government’s strategic objectives for female offenders and acompendium of the ongoing cross-Government work that supports their delivery in the New Year. A copy willbe forwarded to the Committee.4. To date, our key priorities have been to reduce reoffending by women by addressing factors associatedwith offending, such as mental health, drug and alcohol misuse, homelessness, domestic and sexual abuse,employment and finance; and to ensure that our approach in the community and in custody meets femaleoffenders’ distinctive needs.5. Key elements of our current cross-Government workplan for female offenders are set out in Annex A. Ourfocus is primarily on those women who enter the criminal justice system, with whom we have direct contact.However, since current work will address factors associated with women’s offending it may also benefit womenat risk of offending.30 Table 2.1c, Ministry of Justice (2012) Offender Management Caseload Statistics Quarterly Bulletin October to December 2011,London: Ministry of Justice31 Murray, J.,Loeber, R., & Pardini, D. (2012). Parental involvement in the criminal justice system and the development of youththeft, depression, marijuana use, and poor academic performance. Criminology,50(1), 255–302.