Engendering Justice - from Policy to Practice - The Fawcett Society

Chapter Three: Continued.Women and Justice – Meeting the Needs of Female OffendersTable One: Remands into Custody for Untried FemalePrisoners 2002-2006 44Period Number PercentageChange on 20022002 4,954 -2003 5,238 +62004 4,716 -52005 5,173 +4Source: Statistics on Women and the Criminal JusticeSystem, Ministry of Justice, January 2009, p.29The time spent on remand can have a devastating effect onwomen and their families, resulting in the loss of housing,children and income. Simultaneously, the short time spentin prison prevents women from accessing the benefits oftreatment programmes or training.Women are often not given bail and some wait six monthson remand, often with children in care and other socialproblems. The time between arrest and sentencing is oftentoo lengthy to be humane, especially when someone isinnocent!Gerald Bishop, The Sozo Project, 45 QuestionnaireResponse, January 2009When women are placed on remand, time should be usedto properly inform the sentencing process through anassessment of the needs of individual women. For example,the Together Women Programme (TWP) worker based atNew Hall prison prioritises referrals of women on remandand after conducting a needs assessment with the woman,she feeds into the PSR and liaises with legal representativesin an endeavour to ensure the woman is not given acustodial sentence. The Commission recommends that aneeds assessment by organisations such as the TWP or byProbation should be a compulsory requirement if womenare placed in custody on remand. All prisons holdingwomen on remand should also have a fully functioning bailinformation scheme.The Implementationof the CorstonRecommendationsImplementing Corston requires not just commissioningservices but, above all, consistent leadership, directionand resourcing of those people who have to work withand for women prisoners. 46(Lord Ramsbotham, Women in Prison Question for ShortDebate, January 2009)The Corston Report published in March 2007, providedclear guidance on how to address the needs of womenoffenders and it was hoped that it would provide a catalystfor extensive change. However, more than two years later,while there have been some important steps forward inthe policy arena, the movement from policy to practicalimplementation remains disappointingly slow.The Commission is encouraged by the instrumental shift inthinking of politicians and policy makers about the need forwomen-specific community provision for female offendersand the allocation of funding for this specific purpose. Mostrecently, in February of this year, the Ministry of Justiceannounced £15.6 million of new funding towards theprovision of additional services in the community for womenoffenders including specialist community provision and thedevelopment of bail support services.This commitment is encouraging. However, the diversion ofwomen from custody on a large scale is unlikely to becomea reality until a network of community provision is availablenation-wide and until these services have developedto such an extent that sentencers have confidence inalternative provision. This will require long term investmentand a significant increase in funding. Statistics suggest thatthe number of women being sentenced to custody is slowlydecreasing. However, given the number of non-violentfemale offenders still receiving custodial sentences thereremains a long way to go.In the meantime, it is likely that the female prisonpopulation will continue at a relatively high level, particularlyPage 30