Engendering Justice - from Policy to Practice - The Fawcett Society

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