Nacro's response to Breaking the Cycle Green Paper

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Breaking the Cycle: Nacro’s response | 18can effectively specify services that meet local needs. However, local authority level dataabout women offenders is seriously deficient and inhibits effective commissioning.• While the number of women in prison remains small compared to men, the locations andconditions in which they are held are not conducive to rehabilitation.• In countries where drug trafficking occurs, not enough resources are being directed towardshelping to deter potential women ‘drug mules’ through education and awareness raising.Currently, many such women have no understanding of the risks they face in carryingdrugs to the UK, so long prison sentences do not act as a deterrent. Once in prison, theconsequences for them and their children are grave and little is done to support them.The solutionsLocal criminal justice boards should provide guidance to police, courts, probation and prisonservices with regard to their responsibilities under the Gender Equality Duty. Comprehensiveinformation about all women who are charged with and/or convicted of offences at regional andlocal level should be collected, analysed and shared as a basis for the planning of appropriateprovision and interventions. At present, where organisations collect data, it is not routinelyshared with others and available data is inadequate for effective service planning. This risksnon-compliance with the requirements of the Gender Equality Duty.Conditional cautioning for women should be rolled out nationally. The condition attached to acaution requires women to attend a women’s community project for assessment. This usuallyresults in the woman engaging with services, and in this way addresses needs and risks which,if left unaddressed, may lead to offending.Gender-specific enhanced bail support for women must be provided through the national BailAccommodation and Support Service (BASS). At a conference on 9 February 2011, it wasannounced that the current enhanced level of bail support for women was being withdrawnas a result of low take-up. This suggests that the offer was not sufficiently tailored to meetwomen’s specific needs. In 2009 Nacro was commissioned by NOMS to produce a genderspecificmodel of bail support for women. This was watered down and not properly reflectedin the specification for BASS. Nacro believes full implementation of this model could result in asignificant reduction in unnecessary custodial remands of women.The government should give further consideration to how a reduction in the use of custodyfor non-serious offenders can be achieved. For women it is essential that probation staffresponsible for report writing and making proposals in standard delivery reports are trained ingender issues and properly informed about the options available for gender specific support inthe local area.Other agencies, such as the police and the Crown Prosecution Service, should also be offeredtraining in gender issues and the Attorney General’s office should be required to promote thepositive role that prosecutors can play in identifying opportunities for women to be divertedwherever possible from the criminal justice process, or to be dealt with using communitysentences.
Breaking the Cycle: Nacro’s response | 19Where women are at serious risk of custody due to the nature of their offences, furtherimplementation of the intensive alternative to custody sentence for women should be encouraged.Rules governing breach procedures in relation to conditions attached to bail, community ordersand end of custody licences should be reviewed, and where equality impact assessmentsreveal the potential for a negative impact on women, the rules must be changed to allowfor more flexibility. Properly trained probation staff must be encouraged to use their ownjudgement and, equipped with knowledge about appropriate support services, must put inplace compliance plans that address women’s specific needs.Nacro supports the government’s intention to roll out a national network of criminal justiceliaison and diversion schemes with the aim of diverting people with mental health problems intoappropriate treatment. In developing this policy, special attention should be paid to ensuringschemes meet the gender-specific needs of women. Policy makers should refer to Nacro’sbriefing paper on the effectiveness of criminal justice liaison and diversion schemes for women and its contents should be taken into account to improve the availability and responsivenessof such schemes for women in custody suites, at courts and in prisons. In particular, schemesintended to divert women and girls from the criminal justice system and into health provision,where appropriate, should be linked to the women’s community projects previously referred to.For women in custody, resettlement programmes such as the ones at HMP Send and HMPAskham Grange should be sustained and more widely implemented. Programmes aimed atincreasing employability should operate alongside specialist services such as the independentdomestic and sexual violence adviser (IDSVA) at HMP New Hall. This is the only prison-basedIDSVA scheme and an evaluation by Nacro revealed the importance of having such specialistadvice and support available to women during custody to enable effective release planning. The Sex Workers in Prisons project (SWIP) provides training and awareness raising to prisonstaff to help them appropriately meet the needs of sex workers. This is a national initiativewhich developed from an initial research paper and a pilot project delivering training in fivewomen’s prisons between 2007 and 2009. The project aimed to ensure that if women prisonersdisclosed their involvement in sex work, an appropriate response and appropriate advicewould be available, enhanced by the project linking prisons with local sex worker supportservices. Women engaged in sex work are some of the most vulnerable, and the initial researchfor SWIP revealed the severe violence and intimidation – rape, assault, kidnap and stabbing– experienced by some women. It is vital that staff in prison are equipped to work effectivelywith these women and that access to specialist support is available. Nacro and King’s College (2008) Criminal Justice Liaison and Diversion Schemes: A focus on women offendersLondon: Nacro Nacro (2011) Evaluation of Athena Project: HMP New Hall London: Nacro Clark L (2006) Provision of Support for Imprisoned Adult Female Street-based Sex Workers, available atwww.thegriffinssociety.org/Research_Paper_2006_01.pdf.
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