Women offenders: after the Corston Report - United Kingdom ...
Women offenders: after the Corston Report - United Kingdom ...
Women offenders: after the Corston Report - United Kingdom ...
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<strong>Women</strong> <strong>offenders</strong>: <strong>after</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Corston</strong> <strong>Report</strong> 83and target resources accordingly—is ano<strong>the</strong>r example where progress has been fartoo slow. We welcome NOMS’ intention to accelerate work on <strong>the</strong> specific needs ofwomen, but we are extremely disappointed that over six years <strong>after</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Corston</strong><strong>Report</strong> <strong>the</strong>re is still not sufficient evidence about what those needs are, or how best toaddress <strong>the</strong>m. Before embarking on any new policy development, NOMS mustconsider gender as a matter of course ra<strong>the</strong>r than seeking to reduce any detrimentalimpact on women of <strong>the</strong> general approach <strong>after</strong> <strong>the</strong> event; in many respects efforts toaddress <strong>the</strong> distinct needs of women are still lagging behind developments for men.(Paragraph 80)Sentencing guidelines8. We do not consider that substantive changes to <strong>the</strong> overall sentencing frameworkwould be helpful at this time and recommend that emphasis is placed on ensuring agreater consistency of provision to <strong>the</strong> courts to enable <strong>the</strong>m to sentence from arange of options specifically appropriate to women, including robust alternatives tocustody. More attention must be paid to <strong>the</strong> potential impact of imprisonment ondependent children both during <strong>the</strong> sentencing process, and once a parent, whe<strong>the</strong>rfemale or male, has been imprisoned. These issues should be addressed as a priorityby <strong>the</strong> Advisory Board, which could usefully both examine whe<strong>the</strong>r lessons can belearnt from international practice on taking child welfare into account during <strong>the</strong>sentencing process, and ascertain how <strong>the</strong> children of prisoners could be betteridentified and relevant services, including schools, subsequently notified. Wewelcome <strong>the</strong> Sentencing Council’s inclusion of primary child caring responsibilitiesas a mitigating factor in sentencing guidelines and we would appreciate an updatefrom <strong>the</strong> Council about <strong>the</strong> extent to which this factor is taken into account insentencing decisions. Similarly we would like to be kept informed about <strong>the</strong> impacton sentencing of introducing <strong>the</strong> mitigating factor on vulnerability to exploitation in<strong>the</strong> drug offences guideline. (Paragraph 87)9. Generic community provision for women offers a route for diverting vulnerablewomen from crime and tackling <strong>the</strong> root causes of offending. Significant steps havebeen taken towards achieving Baroness <strong>Corston</strong>’s vision for a network of suchprovision, and <strong>the</strong>re are promising signs that this seems to have begun to have apositive impact on trends in women’s imprisonment, albeit at a disappointingly slowpace. Over half of those women sentenced to custody still receive short sentences.There appear to be several explanations for this: appropriate community provisionremains unavailable; <strong>the</strong> court perhaps did not know <strong>the</strong>re was adequate provisionavailable; or <strong>the</strong> court was not confident that <strong>the</strong> community provision wasappropriate or acceptable to wider public opinion. This agenda has not progressed ata sufficiently fast pace since 2007, and we have not found evidence of <strong>the</strong> systematicchange in approach that Baroness <strong>Corston</strong> advocated. It is not acceptable forineffective prison sentences or fines to be imposed because of a lack of provision forappropriately challenging community sentences and facilities. Sentencers must befully informed about <strong>the</strong> range of community provision available for women, itseffectiveness in preventing offending, and <strong>the</strong> ineffectiveness of short custodialsentences for women who have not committed offences so serious as to require acustodial sentence. (Paragraph 88)