Women who challenge - Nacro

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CHAPTER 3the frustrations of female prisoners not beingable to deal with family problems. The issue ofproperty, highlighted above, is anotherunderstandable cause of frustration. Also,according to commentators, it is easier forwomen prisoners to breach prison rules because‘discipline in women’s prisons is more exactingand petty than in men’s’ (Carlen, 1998) 40 . Devlin(1998) 41 quotes examples which support this,such as punishments being given for eating tooslowly, swearing, smoking in non-smoking areasand breaching prison dress code (even thoughwomen prisoners are allowed to wear their ownclothes). She also indicates that most of thewomen she interviewed did not attempt toappeal against alleged unfairness because theyhad no faith in the statutory appeal proceduresand felt that prison staff would simply closeranks against them.There may be a link between mental healthproblems and disciplinary problems, althoughthe nature of that link remains unclear. O’Brienet al (2001) 42 looked, in relation to sentencedwomen prisoners, at the use of cellularconfinement and ‘stripped conditions’ (whereprisoners are held in an unfurnished room fromwhich all items which could potentially be usedfor self-harm have been removed) and at theimposition of additional days. The analysis wasrestricted to sentenced women because thesanction of adding additional days is notavailable for use with remand prisoners.In total, 32% of sentenced women prisonerswere found to have received punishment for adisciplinary offence in the form of one of thespecified sanctions. (Of the remainder who hadnot received either of these sanctions, somemight have been subject to one or more of thelesser forms of punishment but the research didnot identify this.) An association was foundbetween receipt of one of these punishmentsand mental disorder and also between mentaldisorder and the frequency with which thesepunishments were received. For example, 73% ofthose who had received additional days hadsignificant levels of neurotic symptoms, as did74% of those who had been subject to cellularconfinement, compared to 56% of those who hadnot received either punishment. Neuroticsymptoms, however, did not seem to beassociated with an increase in frequency ofpunishment.Of those who had been subject to cellularconfinement, 17% were thought to be psychotic,compared to 8% of those who had not receivedthis form of punishment. In this case, there wasan associated increase in frequency ofpunishment so that, of those who had beenpunished on three or more occasions, 19% werejudged to be psychotic, whereas only 9% ofthose who had been punished once or twicewere so judged.A higher incidence also applied to personalitydisorder, with 84% of those who had receivedeither of the sanctions showing evidence ofpersonality disorder, compared with 68% ofthose who had not. In the case of anti-socialpersonality disorder, the incidence was 63% ofthose who had received cellular confinementand 64% of those who had received added days,compared to 28% of those who had receivedneither. Given the nature of the condition, weshould not be surprised that the rate is high,nor that the incidence of anti-social personalitydisorder was also high (67%) in those whoreceived punishment three times or more and inthose punished once or twice (53%).It is also not unexpected to see an associationbetween receipt of disciplinary sanctions andprisoners dependent on drugs, since use and/orpossession of drugs in prison would clearly bebreaches of prison rules. Of those who weredependent on drugs in the year before enteringprison, only 17% had not received eitherpunishment. The survey does not indicatewhether their breaches of discipline weredirectly associated with drugs but 41% of theseprisoners had received added days and 35% hadbeen subject to cellular confinement. Frequencyof punishment was also linked to drugdependency with 64% of those punished threetimes or more being addicted, as well as 49% ofthose punished once or twice.Alcohol misuse prior to imprisonment was alsoconsidered as a factor and found in 27% ofwomen who had received additional days and23% subjected to cellular confinement. Only 15%of those who had received neither punishmentwere found to have been alcohol misusers.40 Carlen P (1998) op cit (page 86)41 Devlin A (1998) op cit42 O’Brien M et al (2001) op citpage 22
Women who challenge: women offenders and mental health issuesHowever, no link was identified betweenprevious alcohol misuse and frequency ofpunishment.The profile, in terms of social characteristics, ofthose women who received punishment was alsorevealed by the research and can be distilled toidentify those who were more likely to havereceived added days or to have been subject tocellular confinement and those less likely tohave received one of these punishments.Characteristics of women likely to receivedisciplinary punishmentMore likelyAged 21 to 29Single or cohabitingLow educationalattainmentLikely to have beenliving off crime beforeimprisonmentLess likelyAged 40 or overMarriedHigher educationalattainmentUnsurprisingly, given that ‘stripped conditions’are used as a means of avoiding the possibilityof self-harm, there did appear to be anassociation between being held in ‘strippedconditions’ and the presence of mental disorder,as the following figures show.Table 5 Percentage of women prisoners heldin ‘stripped conditions’ exhibitingsigns of mental disorderType of mental disorder % of those % of thoseheld in not held in‘stripped’ ‘stripped’conditions conditionsSignificant neuroticsymptoms 27 13Psychotic illness 31 7Probable personalitydisorder 49 28Attempted suicide inprevious 12 months 26 13Source: Office for National Statistics (2001) Psychiatric MorbidityAmong Women Prisoners in England and Wales London: Office forNational StatisticsLooking at the two punishments separately, theresearch also identified the key factors whichincreased the likelihood of receivingpunishment when other factors had been takeninto account. In the case of receipt of additionaldays, the three key factors were:• probable personality disorder• drug dependence• marital status (being single or cohabiting).In the case of cellular confinement, the keyfactors were:• probable personality disorder• marital status (being single or cohabiting)• having attempted suicide in the past year.As indicated above, the research also looked atthe use of holding prisoners in ‘strippedconditions’. This might be, but was notnecessarily, associated with breaches ofdiscipline. It was found that 12% of women hadbeen held in ‘stripped conditions’, of whom 46%had been held in the hospital wing and 54% hadbeen held elsewhere in the prison.As a postscript to this, it is worth noting that inMarch 2000, the Prison Service issued aninstruction directing the elimination of the useof strip cells in the management of prisonersidentified as at risk of suicide or self-harm 43 .Social characteristics were also considered inrelation to this group, but did not appear tohave any particular significance. After analysis,the key factors found likely to increase theprobability of being held in ‘strippedconditions’ were having a psychotic disorderand having attempted suicide in the previous12 months.What is particularly interesting in the contextof the apparent association betweendisciplinary offences and mental disorder isthat, as Devlin 44 points out, it is contrary toprison rules for prisoners to be sent foradjudication (a disciplinary hearing) if they arenot capable of fully understanding the rules.Given the proportion of mentally disturbed43 HM Prison Service (2000) Caring for the Suicidal in Custody:Eliminating Strip Cells Prison Service Instruction 27/2000 London:HM Prison Service44 Devlin A (1998) op citpage 23
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Page 42 and 43: CHAPTER 5Where do we go from here?I
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Page 46 and 47: CHAPTER 5Evidence from the CARAT pr
Page 48 and 49: BibliographyAllen H (1987) Justice
Page 50 and 51: APPENDIX 2Service modelsForensic me
Page 52 and 53: APPENDIX 2Community-based servicesB
Page 54 and 55: APPENDIX 2The SamaritansThe Upper M

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