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

Justice Committee: Evidence Ev 103Services in the Community to Support Community Sentencing— The Voluntary and community sector run Women’s Community Services, which provide services insupport of the completion of community orders, aim to address factors associated with women’soffending including drug and alcohol addiction, mental health, domestic violence and abuse and arean important part of our approach to women in the criminal justice system. They provide a widerange of support to female offenders serving community orders, including assistance withaccommodation, financial problems and relationships. The National Offender Management Serviceis providing £3.78 million funding for 31 Women’s Community Services in 2012–13, which is inaddition to Probation Trusts’ basic settlements and is given with a contractual expectation ofenhanced services to female offenders. This funding has now been embedded in the NationalOffender Management Service community budget baselines to allow for continued support ofprovision for women.— In 2013–14, local Probation Trusts will be responsible for the commissioning of services for femaleoffenders, based on local needs. The National Offender Management Service CommissioningIntentions 2013–14 negotiation document explicitly asks Probation Trusts to demonstrate how theywill ensure the appropriate provision of women’s services going forward and specifically outlinesthe opportunities for Women’s Community Services to enhance the community based sentences forfemale offenders. This document was published in October 2012 and negotiations commenced inNovember 2012.— The Ministry of Justice and Government Equalities Office are each providing £150k infrastructurefunding over three years (2011–12 to 2013–14) to Women’s Breakout to provide a voice and supportfor organisations working to support female offenders. In 2012–13 National Offender ManagementService are working with Women’s Breakout to on further develop an understanding of Women’sCommunity Services provision across the country. This will inform NOMS consideration of Trustproposals for the provision of services for female offenders as part of the commissioning process.December 2012IntroductionWritten evidence submitted by Prison Reform Trust1. The Prison Reform Trust has a long standing interest in reducing women’s imprisonment and thedevelopment of effective alternatives to custody. Amid concern about the rapid increase in the number ofwomen prisoners in 2000 we published the groundbreaking report Justice for Women: The Need for Reform, areport on the findings and recommendations of the independent Committee on Women’s Imprisonment, chairedby Professor Dorothy Wedderburn, subsequent reports included Lacking Conviction: The Rise of the Women’sRemand Population and Troubled Inside: Responding to the Mental Health Needs of Women in Prison.2. The Prison Reform Trust contributed to Baroness Corston’s seminal review of women with particularvulnerabilities in the criminal justice system through Juliet Lyon, our director’s, membership of the reviewgroup and Dr Kimmett Edgar, our head of research’s, commissioned work on remand and bail. We establishedand provided the secretariat for the independent Women’s Justice Taskforce, publishing its report in 2011,Reforming Women’s Justice.3. The Prison Reform Trust has been awarded a three year grant by the Pilgrim Trust to support our strategyto reduce the number of women in prison. This new programme will draw on the success of our work to reducechild imprisonment. “Out of Trouble” has made a significant contribution to a 40% reduction in child custody.4. Since 2000 a Fawcett Society committee of inquiry into women in the justice system; three HM PrisonsInspectorate thematic reviews; a Cabinet Office report; and a report by the Social Exclusion Unit have addedto the significant body of research evidence. All of these reports, together with the Wedderburn and Corstonreviews concluded unequivocally that the imprisonment of women could, and should, be reduced.5. There is a substantial body of support for reform amongst civic society organisations and the public. TheNational Council of Women recently passed a unanimous resolution calling on the Government to introduce arigorous strategy to reform women’s justice, prioritising community solutions. In December 2011 theSoroptimist International UK Programme Action Committee took the decision to lobby to reduce women’simprisonment. The WI leads a well established campaign to ensure that people with mental health problemsand learning disabilities in the criminal justice system are diverted into appropriate treatment. A recent ICMpoll showed that 80% of those surveyed strongly agreed that local women’s centres where women address theroot causes of their crime and do compulsory work in the community to payback should be available. 386. In an unprecedented move, during June 2008, concerned that their grant-making investments in this fieldwere being applied to a failing system, more than 20 independent philanthropic foundations formed the CorstonIndependent Funders Coalition to encourage the government to implement the Corston Reportrecommendations.38 ICM opinion poll for the Corston Coalition, 26–28 November 2010. Sample of 1,000 adults 18+ in GB, by telephone omnibus