Engendering Justice - from Policy to Practice - The Fawcett Society

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Chapter Three: Continued.Women and Justice – Meeting the Needs of Female Offendersto legal advice, such as being able to elect to have theirown solicitor rather than the duty solicitor. All suspectsshould be provided with the Criminal Defence Serviceinformation sheet which sets out entitlement to legal adviceand the custody staff should ensure that individuals haveunderstood this entitlement.The Commission welcomes the research which is beingconducted by the Legal Services Research Centre intowhether suspects and defendants in the criminal justiceprocess understand their legal rights when arrested andthe main factors influencing their choice of solicitor. Thefieldwork for this research has included interviews with167 female prisoners in HMP Send and HMP Downview.This research is crucial and appropriate funding should beprovided to allow thorough research in this area to continue.Once the case progressed to Court, numerous offenderstold the Commission that they were dissatisfied with theirbarrister or the time they were able to spend with him/herand many added that they had not understood the courtprocess. As one female offender stated “I didn’t understandhow it all worked, I had never been before. I neededmore time with my barrister.” 21 This type of comment wasfrequent.Evidence also suggested there was little information asto what women could expect as a sentencing outcome.Anawim, a voluntary sector organisation working inBirmingham, told the Commission:“We meet women in the prison and they had no ideathey would go to prison and have not even arrangedsomeone to pick the children up from school let alonelook after them for the next few weeks. They need betterpreparation and information from their solicitors.” 22Barristers and solicitors also need to be aware of thespecific harms which can result from custody for womenand their families and ensure that this is clearly presented tothe Court. As a Magistrate recounted:way. She had a male lawyer who perhaps didn’t take theimplications on board.” 23The Poppy Project (providing accommodation, support andoutreach for trafficked women within Eaves Housing) toldthe Commission that poor legal advice has also resulted ina number of trafficked women pleading guilty to charges(such as for holding false documents) whilst evidenceabout their trafficking had not been raised in their defence.Defence lawyers are under an obligation to make enquiriesas to whether there is any credible material showing thattheir client may have been a victim of trafficking 24 andappropriate services such as the Poppy Project should beinvolved at an early stage.Women offenders with children face similar issues to thoseexperienced by female victims and witnesses (see ChapterFour) due to the lack of childcare facilities available atthe courts. This can cause additional anxiety for femaleoffenders. As TWP told us:“When attending court, people often have to arrive for9.45 for the morning sitting but they are given no definitetime of when they will be appearing, meaning they couldbe sitting and waiting for hours…If women have nochildcare they are forced to take their children to courtwith them and there are no childcare facilities available…Sometimes women do not even know why they are atcourt and often attend court with no idea of what theoutcome is likely to be. This means they do not knowwhether they have to set plans in place for childcare or atenancy if they are given a custodial sentence.” 25The Commission recommends that courts should providechildcare services and probation staff or a speciallydesignated member of court staff should be able toavailable to assist the mother with arrangements for herchildren in case she is given a custodial sentence.“We had a case last week where a woman was being sentto prison for non-payment of fines and it only emerged bychance after sentence that she was a single mum with a3-month-old baby. So she was re-sentenced in a differentPage 24
Figure 3: Female Reoffending Rate by Length of Custodial Sentence 2000-2006 29Source: Statistics on Women and the Criminal Justice System, Ministry of Justice, January 2009, p.61The Judiciary and the Sentencing of Female OffendersOf course it is right that the judiciary should jealouslyguard its independence from Government and theexecutive. But that does not mean that it should ignorethe concerns expressed by others about the trends forwhich its decisions are responsible. The family justicesystem is asking itself whether it is indeed unjust tofathers. The criminal justice system could also ask itselfwhether it is indeed unjust to women. 26(Lady Justice Brenda Hale DBE, Lord of Appeal inOrdinary, December 2005)Since its inception the Commission has drawn attention tothe fact that: too many women are being imprisoned onshort sentences for non-violent crime; there is an over-useof remand for female defendants; and there are too manyforeign national women in prison, particularly those servinglong sentences for drug-smuggling offences. Much ofthe rise in the female prison population can be attributedto a significant increase in the severity of sentencing. Forexample, in 1996, 10 percent of women convicted of anindictable offence were sent to prison. While in 2006, 15percent of women were. 27 Short sentences continue tohave a devastating effect on the lives of women whileleading to increased rates of reoffending. As a prisonworker commented to the Commission, “Getting sentencedto four weeks for driving whilst disqualified, what does itachieve” 28A lack of information available about sentencing practicesmakes it very difficult for any analysis of the reasons behindthis increase in the severity of sentencing. This dearthof information is an issue of particular concern to theCommission, resulting in limited knowledge as to the effectof sentencing guidelines or trends in sentencing in relationto female offenders.The Commission understands that the new SentencingCouncil, proposed in the Coroners and Justice Bill, willbe coordinating the collection of data on sentencing.Information on gender, ethnicity, previous convictions,mitigating circumstances and aggravating factors is crucialin the long term in order to understand sentencingpractices and trends. Mechanisms and resources shouldbe put in place to collect this information. However, in theshort term, the NOMS regional structure could be utilisedto compile information which is currently available suchas offence type and sentencing outcome. It is crucial thatsteps are taken to collect this information and in fact, thecollection of data and the implementation of monitoringsystems to assess the different impacts of sentences onwomen and men are necessary in order to comply withthe GED. This duty will also apply to the new SentencingCouncil.The Commission has consistently recommended that theSentencing Advisory Panel should conduct a thematicreview into women offenders. However, the Commissionwas told by the Sentencing Advisory Panel, that a lackof resources and the need to prepare guidelines for newlegislation, had led to an inability to conduct research onthis issue. The proposed Sentencing Council must besufficiently resourced to enable such research, includingrecent trends in sentencing and whether the availablerequirements of the community order are effectively meetingthe needs of women offenders.Page 25
Page 1 and 2: Engendering Justice- from Policy to
Page 3 and 4: ContentsForeword 5Executive Summary
Page 5 and 6: ForewordFor the past five years, Fa
Page 7 and 8: Executive SummarySince 2003, Fawcet
Page 10 and 11: Executive Summary continuedon domes
Page 12 and 13: Executive Summary continuedFemale O
Page 14 and 15: Chapter One: Continued.Methodology
Page 16 and 17: The Five Years of the CommissionCom
Page 18 and 19: Chapter Two:Introduction - From Pol
Page 20 and 21: Chapter Three:Women and Justice - M
Page 23: [A woman] had admitted to an offenc
Page 27 and 28: writing the Government had undertak
Page 29 and 30: equirement could be used to refer w
Page 31 and 32: given current funding allocations a
Page 33 and 34: I feel that women with severe menta
Page 35 and 36: Good Practice Example: Birth Compan
Page 37 and 38: Female offenders serving indetermin
Page 39 and 40: The Commission recommends that if p
Page 41 and 42: Moving TowardsCommunity ProvisionTh
Page 43 and 44: which can be developed in conjuncti
Page 45 and 46: Chapter Four:Women Need Justice - W
Page 47 and 48: that VAW is a relevant issue for ev
Page 49 and 50: Women also need to have clear infor
Page 51 and 52: Victims reported telling their stor
Page 53 and 54: However, Rights of Women told the C
Page 55 and 56: in the decision-making process is l
Page 57 and 58: continued commitment to joint worki
Page 59 and 60: It is also important for the CPS to
Page 61 and 62: He pleaded innocent, so I prepared
Page 63 and 64: isk assessments are not uniform. In
Page 65 and 66: espect and sexual violence is a com
Page 67 and 68: different needs and experiences of
Page 69 and 70: managers. “Sometimes childcare is
Page 71 and 72: local area, with women who have rea
Page 73 and 74: her career, as these women may find
Page 75 and 76:
The key issue in my view is that th
Page 77 and 78:
Some magistrates noted that they fe
Page 79 and 80:
for women to access development opp
Page 81 and 82:
Organisations sharing their views w
Page 83 and 84:
Institutional change needed:➤ A c
Page 85 and 86:
International example of good pract
Page 87 and 88:
➤ The Criminal JusticeSystem will
Page 89 and 90:
Key targets / indicators of success
Page 91 and 92:
➤ Women working inthe criminal ju
Page 93 and 94:
Key targets / indicators of success
Page 95 and 96:
➤ Policy and practiceof all crimi
Page 97 and 98:
➤The Judiciary and thesenior leve
Page 99 and 100:
Appendix ACOMMISSIONERS:Baroness Je
Page 101 and 102:
Annexure BSummary of Recommendation
Page 103 and 104:
not be means tested.• First night
Page 105 and 106:
in circumstances where the Prosecut
Page 107 and 108:
• Allocation to a particular cour
Page 109 and 110:
EndnotesMarch 200985Questionnaire R
Page 111:
About FawcettThe Fawcett Society is
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Engendering Justice - from Policy to Practice - The Fawcett Society

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