26/07/2022
Police Oracle
The House of Commons Justice Select Committee has raised concerns about the lack of progress in the MoJ's female offender strategy in a report published today.
The report starts by setting out the facts and figures about women in prison. Women represent less than 5% of the total prison population. They are often sentenced to custody for non-violent, low-level but persistent offences, and are more likely than men to be sentenced for short periods of time. Female offenders are often the most vulnerable in society and have varied and complex needs. Many have experienced mental health problems, substance misuse, homelessness, abuse and trauma in their lives.
The Ministry of Justice recognised these challenges in its 2018 Female Offender Strategy, published four years ago in June 2018. The strategy said the government wanted to see fewer women coming into the criminal justice system, fewer women in custody (especially on short sentences), and a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully, as well as better conditions for those in custody. The purpose of the Committee’s report is to assess the MoJ’s performance to date against these priorities.
Fewer women in prison
Fewer women are being arrested (see our article yesterday) and the number of women in custody has fallen from 3,958 in February 2017 to 3,219 this month. However, the Ministry of Justice now predicts that this figure will increase by a third over the next three years. In the strategy, the Government said it intended to improve Out of Court Disposals as an alternative to custodial sentences, but the Committee found there is still no clear evidence that more women are being diverted away from custody through this route.
The Committee wants the Government to set out what funding it plans to put in place to support the development of women-specific pathways to support alternatives to prison sentences and to say when these pathways will be operational.
Self-harm and trauma
Over the past decade there has been an alarming increase in the level of self-harm in the female prison estate which continued throughout the pandemic (when the figures for self-harm for men in prison fell). The Committee praises the development of a new Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) process but says that the new system on its own will not have the required effect. On a related issue, the Committee welcomed the MoJ’s goal of moving towards a trauma-informed approach for women in prison but wanted much more detail on which staff will have training on this issue and how the impact of the training will be measured.
Impact on family life
The Committee points out that sending women to prison can have a significant effect on the family, particularly when (as is usually the case) they are the primary carer. The Committee is very critical of the MoJ for its slow progress in developing the five women’s residential centres highlighted in the strategy as intended alternatives to prison. To date, the site for just one 12-bed centre has been announced (Swansea) and it is not expected to open until 2024.
Housing on release
Finding suitable accommodation on release is one of the most significant and urgent barriers to resettlement with recent research estimating that close to six out of ten women leave prison homeless. The Committee urges the MoJ to work with partners across Government to develop a strategy that provides appropriate accommodation for women leaving prison.
Repeated reports and enquiries have highlighted the issue of housing for released prisoners, yet the problem appears to be at least as bad, if not rose, than ever. This issue typifies the Committee’s frustration with the slow pace of progress on women in prison. There has, essentially, been a cross-party consensus on the need for women to be treated differently within the criminal justice system and for more women to serve their punishment in the community since Baroness Corston’s eponymous report published in 2007 and yet very little has changed in practice.