WOMEN, CRIMINAL JUSTICE & TURNING LIVES AROUND
BRIEFING FOR
MEMBERS OF
PARLIAMENT
You can help reduce the human and financial cost of prison to
your communities, victims, women who are imprisoned and
their children - and help women in your constituency turn
their lives around. In January 2017 there were 3,900 women in
prison. If each constituency had one less woman in prison every
Christmas Day until 2020, there would be 2,020 women (or
fewer) in prison by the end of December 2020.
Produced by Women in Prison and supported by Barrow Cadbury Trust
THREE FACTS TO KEEP IN MIND
Women in prison are often victims themselves
•Over half of women in prison have been victims of domestic or sexual violence.
•Over half have experienced abuse or neglect as a child,
and a third grew up in care.
•Serious mental health problems are endemic in
women’s prisons and are often a response to trauma.
•84% of women’s prison sentences are for non violent offences such as theft that are often related to poverty and addiction.
There is a better way
•Diversion, community alternatives and women’s
centre interventions result in lower reoffending rates
than prison.
•Prison isn’t working - most women serving short
prison sentences are back in prison within a year.
•A prison place (£42,000 per year) costs over ten times more than a community sentence (£3,000).
Prison harms
•A few weeks in prison is enough time for a woman
to lose her home, job and children. The stigma can last
a lifetime.
•When women leave prison, 6 out of 10 have no home
to go to and 9 out of 10 have no employment.
•9 out of 10 children with a mother in prison are forced
to leave home to go into care or live with relatives.
•In 2016, 22 women died in prison (12 took their own
lives) - the highest number on record.
•21% of self harm in prison is by women (although
they account for 5% of the total prison population).
WHAT TO LEARN ABOUT YOUR
CONSTITUENCY
Who is going to prison and why?
Does your local police force run diversion schemes
to keep women out of prison? How many women are
prosecuted each year and for what offences? What
length of sentences do women receive? What are the
reoffending rates? How many women are remanded and,
of these, how many receive a custodial sentence? Do
some local magistrates and judges express the view that
prison is the best place for a woman to be given help?
What happens in prison and afterwards?
How far from your constituency is the nearest women’s
prison? What percentage of women are homeless when
they leave prison? How many have a job? What services
and support do they receive? What happens to children
in your constituency when their mother is in prison?
What women’s services and women’s centres are
there in your constituency?
How are these services funded and for how long?
Are there gaps in services and waiting lists? Are there
supported housing, mental health treatment and
detoxification options for women with complex needs?
Are there any models of national best practice?
STEPS YOU CAN TAKE
■
Visit your local women’s services, women’s centre & the women’s prison closest to your constituency: Talk to women, their families and children. Meet with service providers and governors to find out how services link up when women leave prison. Identify gaps in services. Women who have faced huge challenges, violence and neglect, often since childhood, have assets and capabilities. These women can and do become active citizens, given the opportunity. Find out about these ‘good news stories’ from your constituents.
■
Influence local commissioners and decision makers: Promote investment in services for women affected
by the criminal justice system to your Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), local authority leaders and commissioners of health and children’s services. Make maximum use of joint commissioning to invest in
best practice and shift focus from prisons to prevention and holistic support in the community.
■ Make your constituency a leader in achieving the 2020 goal: Agree with local partners simple targets to reduce the number of women imprisoned, increase diversion, cut reoffending and increase investment in women’s services. Ensure outcomes are monitored and evaluated to prove value for money for your constituents.
■ Use your voice in Parliament to achieve a fair, just and cost effective system that helps women turn their lives around and those of their families and delivers justice. It could be a personal legacy of which to be proud.
For more information www.womeninprison.org.uk or [email protected] and www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/women