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

Women offenders: after the Corston Report 31female offenders likely to receive a community or custodial sentence fall into thiscategory. 140 For example, we heard that in Birmingham courts are able to order genderspecific activity requirements at Anawim, whereas in Northumberland, no suchrequirement was available. 141 The lack of availability of treatment programmes for moreserious women offenders can also limit sentencers’ and pre-sentence report writers’options to give or recommend community sentences where they may be appropriate. 14271. Our witnesses called for a more explicit focus on reducing the number of womenentering prison. Clinks cited the number of women entering prison for breach as a primeexample of the scope for this, by for example, giving “greater discretion to criminal justicepractitioners and sentencers alongside a richer understanding of the complex reasonsbehind breaching and the development of appointment systems and locations that supportwomen’s compliance”. 143 Juliet Lyon saw further potential to reduce use of custody bygiving more attention to remand, mental health and learning disability diversion andthrough a new commitment by Government. 14472. We discussed with the women from Women in Prison, Revolving Doors Agency andKazuri their views of the robustness of existing community sentences in comparison toprison. They spoke of their experiences of custody in predominantly negative terms: theywere introduced to criminals and drug users, rather than being given the opportunity toaccess drug treatment; there was too little focus on rehabilitation; and a negative impact onmental health problems; it can also be habitual. 145 One woman described it as “warm andsafe but not very challenging in terms of taking responsibility”, whereas she felt a “lot moredemanding community sentence” would have made her face up to her issues, including heraddiction, and promote a sense of responsibility: “That would have given me anopportunity to do something about my self-worth, because my self-esteem was rockbottom.” 14673. Courts do not always have sufficient information about the needs of the women on tobase decisions about appropriate sentences. This may stem from the absence of access totimely assessments, for example, for mental health, or learning disabilities. 147 One of thewomen we spoke to highlighted the reticence of some women to reveal their problems, forexample, related to mental health, in the public setting of a courtroom. 148 Val Castell of theMagistrates’ Association explained:“The amount of information that we get in court is very much dependent on what awoman is prepared to divulge to the probation service and the defence solicitor.Some find it very difficult to open up. It is another area where, if you have a women’s140 Ev 124141 Q 92, Q 100142 Q 168. See also Ev w14143 Ev 89. See also Ev w74144 Q 164. See also Ev w45145 Qq 65–66146 Q 66147 Ev 103, Ev w51, Ev w57148 Q 31