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

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28 <strong>Women</strong> <strong>offenders</strong>: <strong>after</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Corston</strong> <strong>Report</strong>“We saw that in <strong>the</strong> first 48 hours when women came out of prison <strong>the</strong>y had so manyappointments to go to. They would be running across <strong>the</strong> city to go to differentappointments-<strong>the</strong>ir probation appointment, and going to this and going to that.That was when <strong>the</strong> idea arose to put everything in one place. The woman haseverything pretty much in one place and she can attend everything. <strong>Women</strong> werefailing in those first 48 hours just because of having to manage <strong>the</strong> appointments.” 12664. We also heard from <strong>the</strong> Swan Project about <strong>the</strong> innovative approaches that have beenadopted in Northumberland—a large county, with a dispersed, predominantly rural,population—where a virtual women’s centre was created to provide a range of support towomen in <strong>the</strong>ir home communities. 127 Sharon Spurling, director of <strong>the</strong> project, explained<strong>the</strong> broader range of provision that was made possible through <strong>the</strong> funding that was madeavailable for women’s community projects:The <strong>Corston</strong> report helped us move away from looking pretty much only atenforcement [of community orders]. We were able to do much more of <strong>the</strong> wraparoundstuff, looking at people’s accommodation, <strong>the</strong>ir families and <strong>the</strong>irrelationships. We were able to build quite strong partnerships across <strong>the</strong> publicsector, in social services, probation and health, as well as working with GPs. One of<strong>the</strong> things we welcomed was <strong>the</strong> additional suggestion of working with women ondomestic violence issues and prostitution [...] There is a danger that earlyintervention and looking at <strong>the</strong> wider issues that affect women and lead to womenoffending could be lost, because we are going back to being very insular and lookingjust at offending, and not <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r issues that are going on. 12865. <strong>Women</strong>’s centres can provide a suitably challenging environment in which to serve acommunity order or period of probation supervision having been released from custody.Baroness <strong>Corston</strong> recounted a discussion she had with a 41 year old women who had beenin and out of prison since <strong>the</strong> age of 15:“I said, "What difference has it made?" She said, "It has been much more difficultthan being in prison. When I was in prison <strong>the</strong>re was always someone to blame: ifmy mo<strong>the</strong>r had protected me; if my stepdad hadn’t done that to me; if I hadn’t beencoerced into drugs; if I hadn’t been poor; if I hadn’t been pimped; if I hadn’t had tobecome a sex worker; if I hadn’t got pregnant when I did and <strong>the</strong> way I did."Someone else was always to blame. She said, "Coming here, I have been forced toacknowledge what my role was in that happening to me." She said, "It has been muchmore difficult than being in prison and it has involved me."” 129We had similar conversations ourselves when we visited <strong>the</strong> Inspire Centre in Belfast. Thewomen we met <strong>the</strong>re were overwhelmingly positive about <strong>the</strong> support <strong>the</strong>y had received, inparticular: access to out of hours telephone support; a dedicated consistent team; a networkof support; help with all issues; <strong>the</strong> ability to confide in staff; increased self-confidence andself-esteem; and support from <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r women using services. One described it as “a big126 Q 108127 Q 105128 Q 81129 Q 19

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