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

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Ev 122Justice Committee: Evidence3.5 The introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) is resulting in many local partnershipsreviewing structures and future commissioning arrangements. Along with the introduction of Health and WellBeing Boards (HWBBs) and new arrangements for funding offender health, there is an opportunity to set localintegrated targets. Probation Trusts are not statutory members of HWBBs but are making strong strategic linksand with a central drive also this will ensure that the complex needs of women offenders are prioritised.Alongside this there should be a clear focus within the Troubled Families agenda of preventative work whichdirects resources to children whose parents are involved with crime reduction agencies—this should not belimited to those children with parents in prison but cover the wider spectrum of community orders, particularlythe children of medium to high risk offenders.4. The extent to which the gender equality duty has become a lever for mainstream service commissionersoutside of the criminal justice system to provide services which tackle the underlying causes of femaleoffending4.1 The Gender Equality Duty has been replaced by a public duty under the Equality Act 2010 for all publicauthorities in relation to eliminating discrimination, advancing equality and fostering good relations across allgroups. This public duty requires public authorities to pay due regard in both service delivery and employmentpractice across the protected characteristics. This includes in relation to working with women offenders.4.2 The Equality Act 2010 makes it clear that services commissioned by the public sector have the samelegal focus as services provided by the public sector, irrespective of who the provider is, the public sector dutyis extended through the work of that agent. It is critical then, through the work of commissioning, that dueregard is paid (as the law requires) to the needs of the service users.4.3 It is unclear to what extent this has been a lever to provide gender specific services. Unless the resources,partnership structures and a clear focus from government together support such change, especially within aclimate of reduced budgets, this can become yet another issue for competing budgets. Where partnership canprovide an opportunity to support this work there is the potential for this to be very positive.5. The suitability of the women’s estate and prison regimes5.1 In June 2012 the number of women prisoners stood at 4,116, 47 fewer than at the same point in 2011.However, during the whole of 2011 there were 10,181 women received into custody—this figure gives a morerealistic feel of the extent of the issue. In total 26% had no previous convictions compared to 12% of men. Ofthose serving less than 12 months 29% were without previous convictions compared with 12% for men. During2011 4,260 women entered prison on remand, but 60% did not receive a custodial sentence 8 . The majority ofwomen are in custody for low level crime (theft, handling stolen goods) linked to substance misuse, mentalhealth issues often compounded by their own experience of being victims of sexual/domestic abuse. Too manywomen still end up in custody as a result of breach action (1,052 in 2009, although it is unclear whether thisis for failure to comply or is combined with additional offences 8 ).5.2 Women often serve their sentences too far from their home area—this is a particular issue for Waleswhere there is not a female establishment which means that women have to serve their sentence in Englandwhere it is difficult to meet their specific cultural/language needs. The geography of the female estate meansthat women receive fewer visitors than male prisoners and have more problems maintaining the links whichwill help their resettlement. An option would be for part of the female estate to be replaced by small,geographically dispersed residential units and women’s community centres to provide a more appropriateinfrastructure to facilitate women to serve their sentences and engage with resettlement services. West MerciaProbation Trust are in the process of developing a women’s residential alternative to custody communityoption: this would be a community order with a 7 week residence requirement which could include a curfew/unpaid work as an additional requirement. Maintaining accommodation, contact with children and family,education and training and addressing health issues would be key components of the proposal. Given that 60%of those women on remand do not go on to receive a custodial sentence and that in 2011 58% of women weresentenced to 6 months or less 8 this would be a viable alternative.5.3 PCA’s view is that MoJ strategy should include an explicit commitment to reduce the use of custody forwomen and to invest wholeheartedly in alternatives for those women who present a low risk of harm. Althoughit has reduced, large numbers of women are still going into custody and are at risk of going into custody. Thisfails to take account of the costly negative impact on the women themselves losing their accommodation andcaring role and on the community where alternative child care often needs to be found etc. This is still oftenfor relatively low level index offences, where women end up being breached because of the significantdifficulties posed in working to address their very complex needs and problems. There still appears to be aninsufficient recognition of the very real barriers that women’s complex needs present.6. The volume range and quality and sustainability of community provision for women including approvedpremises6.1 When the Joint Inspectorate examined the work of probation staff with community partners to meetwomen’s needs, it was found that provision across some pathways was poor. For over half of the women intheir case sample, mental health services were unsatisfactory. This continuing failure to deal effectively with
Justice Committee: Evidence Ev 123women’s needs in the community makes it likely that prison will continue to be used as seemingly the onlydisposal available to the courts for vulnerable women who appear before them and who are living rootless,chaotic lives.6.2 The expansion of the use of women’s “one stop shops” or WCPs which provide a holistic set ofrehabilitative interventions within a single safe space, have been one of the most promising achievements sincethe publication of the Corston Report. However, the provision is “patchy” with not everywhere having a WCP.Also sustainability is questionable with cuts in funding across all government departments—the funding is nowbuilt into the baseline budgets for Probation Trusts but this amounts to less than 3.5 million for the currentfinancial year—putting this in perspective it costs on average £56,415 per annum for a female prison place yet64% of women serving less than 12 months offend within one year 8 . The evidence is that women are morelikely to complete a community order than men with the cost of an intensive order being between£10,000–£15,000. There continues to be a great need for alternatives to custody for women who pose no riskof serious harm and the financial cost benefits are arguably strong.6.3 Surrey and Sussex Probation Trust (SSPT) undertook a piece of research involving 192 women offenders.It was validated by Leicester University and evidenced that support from Probation Officers to women whohave experienced domestic abuse and self-harm was highly valued: women offenders reported feeling more incontrol of their lives and able to take responsibility for their actions 9 . More research of this kind which exploresthe views of women using the Service would help in shaping the design and provision of services.6.4 There is evidence from OASys data 1 that there is an emerging “high need, high cost” group of womenwho have the highest likelihood of re-offending, have the most complex needs—(91% with a drug misuseneed), but most worrying is that this segment is characterised by having the youngest age profile. This is thegroup most likely to need an alternative to custody such as Women’s Approved Premises (WAPs), The majorityof WAPs have similar problems to women’s prisons in that they are few in number and often far from thewoman’s home area. Those which are in place work hard to provide a holistic women-centered approach andmost have excellent links with the VCS and WCPs. However, the structure and regimes of WAPS were builtaround the need to provide enhanced supervision for male offenders and many are on a journey to deliver a“different and distinct” approach for women. The majority are certainly unsuitable in their present form forwomen who are convicted of low to medium level offending and the expectation has been that the enhancedBASS meets the needs of these women. Interestingly, the Joint Inspectorate 3 reported some concerns about thelow usage of enhanced BASS but speculated as to whether this was because the service was intended for lowor medium risk women who should not need to go to custody, therefore bailing them to BASS was possiblyseen as unnecessary.6.5 PCA supports the drive to maintain a continued focus on the use of alternatives to custody which utiliseviable women specific provision including the development of alternative residential options which wouldreduce the risk of offending and offer supportive environments for a range of women with services tailored totheir risk and need profile.7. The availability of appropriate provision for different groups of women offenders including under 18s,women with children, foreign nationals and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic women and those with mentalhealth problems7.1 While identifying common threads in the experience of girls and women in the CJS, there are concernsthat diversity issues are inadequately addressed, such as the distinct needs of older women, pregnant womenand Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic women (BAME). While BAME groups constitute 9% of the overallpopulation of England and Wales, BAME women account for 28% of the female prison population. Inaddressing the distinct position of girls and women within the criminal justice system, any future strategy musttherefore consider the way that gender intersects with other protected characteristics.7.2 There is still no national strategy for the 15% of the female prison population classified as non-nationals.Women with no recourse to public funds face a range of distinct challenges. There is currently only one VCSorganisation, Detention Advice Service, that is able to offer advice on immigration issues to female prisoners.September 2012References1. Cabinet Office (2009) Short Study on Women Offenders. London: Cabinet Office.2. NOMS Women and Equalities Group (2012) A Distinct Approach: A guide to working with womenoffenders.3. Criminal Justice Joint Inspection (2011) Thematic Inspection Report: Equal but different? An inspection ofthe use of alternatives to custody for women offenders.4. Gelsthorpe, L (2011). “Working with women offenders in the community: a view from England and Wales”in R Sheenan, G Mclvor and C Trotter (eds). Working With Women in the Community, Cullumpton :Willan.
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