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

40 Women offenders: after the Corston Reportdoes exist, some options, for example Approved Premises which hold women representinga medium or high risk of harm, mean that women are often not able to have their childrenliving or even visiting them on site, and other options, for example, in the social andprivate sector, may be unsafe, for example with no locks, or inadequate, for exampledamp. 20499. Success in reducing reoffending will require greater access to housing. Rachel Halfordof Women in Prison described accommodation as a “fundamental need for anyone who isgoing to not reoffend and succeed when reintegrating back into society” 205 Yet, the need tofind suitable accommodation for women highlights starkly the resource intensive nature ofrehabilitative support. 206 Jacqueline McKenzie from FPWP Hibiscus described to us thecase of a shoplifter who had been released from prison without accommodation:“She was a victim of domestic violence so could not go back to what was her familyhome. She could not find any accommodation and we spent, I think it was, two tothree days literally trying to find her somewhere, which included walking up anddown the high street trying to book her into bed and breakfast at our own cost,which we had great difficulty doing because she had no ID because her ID was at thehome that she shared with her former partner.” 207100. We heard about some examples of good practice, for example, that of Re-Unite, whichwas developed to help meet the housing and support needs of mothers who would behomeless upon release from prison, so that they can be reunited with their children. 208 Ittackles a cruel Catch-22 situation: if a mother leaving prison does not have custody of herchildren when she applies to her local authority as homeless, she is eligible for nothinglarger than a one bedroom property. However, when she has only such a property, she isdenied custody of her children. Re-Unite provides larger accommodation to give her theopportunity to seek to regain custody, and works with the family as a whole. Somewitnesses welcome the move to outcome-based commissioning and believe it has potentialto increase community based accommodation provision, including approved premises andbail accommodation.101. Rachel Halford feared that recent changes to the housing benefits system had furtherrestricted the availability of private accommodation, which had been providing a partialsolution to the problem. She explained that women were faced either with having to leavetheir accommodation and move somewhere in the outer London boroughs, losing all theircontacts, or, if they wished to stay in accommodation with which they were familiar andfelt safe, they were not eating, for example, to provide the extra rent. 209102. We heard that there was some potential for improved access to housing for somehigher risk women through the personality disorder pathway. 210 Yet, Sherry Ashfield of the204 Ev w1, Ev w12, Ev w67, Ev w104, Ev w132205 Q 187206 Q 222 [Ms Calderbank]207 Q 189208 Ev w67209 Q 190210 Q 187 [Ms Ashfield], Q 211 [Ms Rijnenberg]