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

64 Women offenders: after the Corston Reporttemporary licence and, in some locations, parenting programmes and mother and babyunits, which “reassured and encouraged” her. 335164. The Government’s review of the female custodial estate should include a thoroughconsideration of prison regimes with a view to better supporting the development andsustainability of family ties; affording women the opportunity to develop their parentalskills; and safeguarding the welfare of children.Resettlement165. We encountered several examples of regimes being insufficiently tailored to theresettlement needs of women. 336 A prisons inspectorate survey found that 38% of womenin prison did not have accommodation arranged on release, and that only a third ofwomen who wanted help and advice about benefits and debt received it. Another exampleof this is the emphasis that is placed on education, training and employment with a view topromoting prisoners’ employability on release—which Baroness Corston described as “theholy grail of the Prison Service”—that may not be priorities shared by the womenthemselves, for whom it is often more important to find accommodation, particularly forthose who wish to reunite their families. 337 The education manager at HMP Foston Hallsuggested that the prime objective should be to make sure that women who are mothershave the skills to look after and raise her family on release, for example, budgeting andparenting skills. 338 On the other hand, Working Chance, a charity which offers professionalrecruitment services to female ex-offenders, were critical of a lack of emphasis ondeveloping work and employability skills within female prisons, having found that womenwho have overcome their problems are highly motivated to find work, which may alsoenable them to support themselves and their children on release. They proposed moretraining such as IT, bookkeeping, customer service, and administrative skills is needed. 339The women that gave evidence to us had mixed experiences of constructive activities,although they were generally positive about education, programmes, and opportunities toexercise. 340166. Nick Hardwick felt that giving responsibility for through-the-gate services to reducereoffending to new providers under the Transforming Rehabilitation proposals had thepotential to neglect the role of prisons themselves in both preparing prisoners for releaseand reducing re-offending. 341 Rachel Halford raised concerns that the extent of cost cuttingwithin the system risked reducing levels of staffing to the extent that existing rehabilitativework would be undermined. 342 The review of the prison estate should examine theimpact of recent, and planned, cost savings and resulting headcount reductions both onregimes and resettlement provision in women’s prisons.335 Q 303336 See for example Ev 103, Ev w21, Ev w23, Ev w41, Ev 89337 Ev w21, Q 27338 Ev w21339 Ev w132340 Qq 58–64341 Q 247 [Mr Hardwick]342 Q 166