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

Women offenders: after the Corston Report 37Gaps in provision for women offenders89. Limited attention has been paid to the needs of specific groups of female offenders, inparticular, those with learning disabilities, those from black and minority ethnic groups,including foreign nationals, those with personality disorders, or otherwise representing ahigh risk of harm to the public, and girls. 181 For example, Bedfordshire Probation Trusthighlighted that women offenders are largely treated as a homogeneous group in NOMS’commissioning guidance in terms of their risks and needs. 18290. Currently publication of data by the Ministry of Justice on ethnicity and gender isseparated; this means that examining the experiences of black, asian and minority ethnicwomen is not routinely possible. 183 As with men, the numbers of black and asian women inthe criminal justice system remain disproportionate to the numbers in the population butthere is a lack of focus on this specific problem. The Prison Reform Trust drew ourattention to several studies that highlight some differentials in the experiences of BAMEwomen in prison. 184 There is also a lack of evaluation to illustrate how effective currentcommunity based provision is in meeting the particular needs of women from minorityethnic groups. 18591. Part of the problem appears to stem from the fact that female offenders are themselvesa minority group, and that sufficient progress has not yet been made in developing adistinct approach to their treatment. Joy Doal of Anawim highlighted the difficulty thatwomen’s community projects face in providing appropriately for the needs of sub-groupsof women: “Having 31 centres in the country does not allow a lot of room for specialism.The 31 are specialisms themselves because they are specialisms for women.” 186 JackieRussell further explained:“…it is the fact that the individual is a woman that is very significant; the ethnicbackground is not so significant. Of course it is important, but when a woman is anoffender and needs support around offending, her affiliation, if you like, is to a groupof women as opposed to black people. The things that come out that need addressingare more about her gender than her ethnicity, but that does not ignore the fact thatthere are things about her ethnicity that are very important.” 187This had no apparent detrimental impact in terms of a difference in outcomes for minorityethnic women. 188181 See for example Ev 103, Ev w11, Ev w14, Ev 114, Ev w49, Ev w60, Ev w77, Ev w109182 Ev w16183 Ev 103184 Ibid.185 Ev w51. See also Ev w109.186 Q 118187 Q 116188 Qq 117–118