Women offenders: after the Corston Report - United Kingdom ...
Women offenders: after the Corston Report - United Kingdom ...
Women offenders: after the Corston Report - United Kingdom ...
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Justice Committee: Evidence Ev 976. In terms of progress, <strong>the</strong> available data show some positive trends:— Historically female prisoners accounted for more than half of self-harm incidents but this is nolonger <strong>the</strong> case: between 2010 and 2011, self-harm incidents involving female prisonersdecreased by 30% compared to a 10% increase for incidents with male prisoners.— While <strong>the</strong> rate of female individuals self-harming remained constant between 2010 and 2011(at 294 self-harmers per 1,000 female prisoners), <strong>the</strong> average number of incidents per femaleprisoner fell from 10.1 to 7.1, <strong>the</strong> lowest since 2004.— While every death is a tragedy that has profound consequences, <strong>the</strong>re has been a reduction in<strong>the</strong> number of women’s self-inflicted deaths in prison in recent years; from a peak of 14 in2003 to two in 2011.— <strong>Women</strong> are doing slightly better than men in terms of outcomes for community sentences: in2011, 58% of community orders for women ran full course, compared to 54% for men; and,for both sexes, 11% of community orders were terminated early for good progress.7. The proportion of women reoffending, those receiving community sentences, and those in prison hasstabilised:— Between 2006 and 2010, <strong>the</strong> proportion of all female <strong>offenders</strong> who re-offended within oneyear of release from custody or receiving a court order or caution, reprimand, warning or testedpositive for opiates or cocaine was between 18% and 19%. In <strong>the</strong> same period, <strong>the</strong> proportionof all male <strong>offenders</strong> who re-offended within one year was between 28% and 29%.— <strong>Women</strong> represented 15% of all <strong>offenders</strong> supervised by <strong>the</strong> Probation Service on communityorders in 2011. This proportion has been stable since 2007.— The proportion of females in <strong>the</strong> overall prison population has been stable at 5% since 2007.8. We recognise that more needs to be done to reduce reoffending and will take this forward as part of <strong>the</strong>Government’s approach to <strong>the</strong> Rehabilitation Revolution delivering a Rehabilitation Revolution in how wetackle reoffending.The nature and effectiveness of Ministry of Justice governance structures for women’s offending9. Strong leadership for female <strong>offenders</strong> is provided by Helen Grant, as Minister for <strong>Women</strong> in <strong>the</strong> CriminalJustice System, who is actively supported by Lord McNally and Jeremy Wright (Minister for Prisons andRehabilitation).10. At official level <strong>the</strong>re are dedicated teams who work closely on <strong>the</strong> female <strong>offenders</strong> brief in both MoJand <strong>the</strong> National Offender Management Service (NOMS) under <strong>the</strong> leadership of <strong>the</strong> Director for Sentencingand Rehabilitation and <strong>the</strong> Chief Executive for NOMS.11. Within NOMS, <strong>the</strong> Director of Commissioning and Commercial has overall responsibility forcommissioning offender services for men and women in custody and <strong>the</strong> community, which is informed byspecialist commissioners responsible for a wide range of women’s services. A team in NOMS providesevidence-based strategic advice and guidance to ensure commissioning activities are outcome-focused,appropriately targeted and delivered to <strong>the</strong> required standard to ensure offending behaviour and needs areaddressed.12. In 2013–14, local Probation Trusts will be responsible for <strong>the</strong> commissioning of services for female<strong>offenders</strong>, based on local needs. These services will be monitored under an “assurance model” of contractmanagement by NOMS to ensure that Probation Trusts are providing good quality services to female <strong>offenders</strong>.We will publish fur<strong>the</strong>r information shortly about our plans for changes to <strong>the</strong> commissioning of probationservices. We recognise, as set out in <strong>the</strong> NOMS Commissioning Intentions document, that <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>re are aparticular set of needs and priorities which are relevant to services for female <strong>offenders</strong> and we will ensure<strong>the</strong>se are addressed within our overall approach.The extent to which work to address <strong>the</strong> multiple and complex needs of women <strong>offenders</strong> is integrated acrossGovernment13. We work in partnership with o<strong>the</strong>r Government Departments, including <strong>the</strong> Departments for Health,Work & Pensions, and Communities & Local Government, and <strong>the</strong> Home Office, to deliver our workplan forfemale <strong>offenders</strong>. Although focused on women in <strong>the</strong> criminal justice system, since <strong>the</strong> workplan addressesfactors associated with women’s offending such as mental health and substance misuse, abuse andhomelessness, it could benefit women who may be at risk of offending.14. There is strong cross-Government responsibility for addressing <strong>the</strong>se issues. Justice Ministers provideeffective leadership through frequent discussions with o<strong>the</strong>r Ministerial colleagues on women’s offending aspart of <strong>the</strong> Government’s rehabilitation reforms. Ministers are members of a number of inter-ministerial groupsthat support this work, including violence against women and girls, homelessness and human trafficking. Thisleadership is supported by Helen Grant’s joint role as Minister for Equalities.