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

74 Women offenders: after the Corston ReportGiven the difficulties women face finding accommodation on release from prison, thisindicates that either the criteria for acceptance to an approved premises needs to be alteredor the reasons why these approved premises would only be half full needs to be addressed.192. Those witnesses who provided evidence on Approved Premises saw potential forthem to extend their services. A larger network of approved premises could serve a dualpurpose. They could extend their existing role of offering a staged introduction back to lifeoutside prison to more women and could be used more extensively to prevent the need forwomen to be sent to custody in first place, for example, for addressing women’s substancemisuse and mental health issues. 405 Adelaide House saw potential opportunities for theirexperienced staff to provide direct case management and supervision of residents. 406 Onthe other hand, Bedfordshire Probation Trust which hosts another of the women’sapproved premises noted many of the women accommodated there with complex needssuch as substance misuse and mental health issues benefited from the level of enhancedsupervision that the regime provides but as they do not represent a high risk, the use of,and sustainability of, this type of resource in such a way is questionable. 407 Avon andSomerset Probation Trust contend that most women do not require the level of controlcurrently provided by an approved premises. 408193. Approved premises could also deliver non-residential community based support,including using their expertise to work with those women who display manipulative andentrenched behaviours, or to work in close collaboration with women’s centres to providea full range of support to women. For example, Adelaide House sought more capacity toprovide voluntary beds for women who typically serve short sentences. 409 Elizabeth Fry,which runs the Approved Premises in Reading, believed that opportunities to exploit moreflexible use of accommodation which can meet the multiple and complex needs ofoffenders are missed because of the apparent rigid demarcation between ApprovedPremises and bail accommodation; the restriction which prevents anyone under 18 fromvisiting an Approved Premises means that many women with children will decline theoffer of bail placement in the community as perversely they will have much greater contactwith their children when remanded in a custodial setting. 410 Adelaide House suggested that,with appropriate risk assessment, female approved premises could allow for family contacton site. 411194. Our witnesses also proposed that more creative use could be made of bailaccommodation and local authority accommodation to provide a range of housing optionsthat would be more appropriate to women’s needs, including for those on bail, electronicmonitoring or curfews. 412 The RR3 Women’s Taskforce recommended that, as a last resortwhere remaining in the home is impossible, women-specific, family-friendly bail405 Q 209 |Ms Rijnenberg], Q 51406 Ev w7407 Ev w16408 Ev w63409 Ev w7410 Ev w1411 Ev w7412 See for example Ev w1, Ev w7, Ev w28, Ev w67