Women in contact with the Criminal Justice System
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Women’s Centres cut reoffending
The official conclusion of the JDL analysis is that: “individuals who received support provided by Women’s Centres throughout England experienced a reduction in re‐ offending of between 1 and 9 percentage points.” This is a very positive finding and it is to be hoped that the JDL repeats this analysis in the near future with a much bigger cohort and more sophisticated matching method.
What next for justice?
Guest bloggers came from a wide range of viewpoints including several organisations with a particular criminal justice focus including prison reform, employment for women offenders, restorative justice etc. This, thankfully, made for very different priorities with limited repetition. Nevertheless, four key themes emerged from this spectrum of views.
If Jocelyn Hillman were Justice Secretary
My first priority as Justice Secretary would be to lead by example, hiring an ex-offender as my diary secretary. By employing women with convictions the government could reduce reoffending at no cost to the taxpayer, while also creating life-changing opportunities for some of the most marginalised people in our society.
I would ensure that ex-offenders were included in the Ministry’s diversity quotas and that my staff, from top to bottom, were engaged in understanding the importance of inclusive hiring practices. I would also ensure all government contractors were obliged to implement the same measures.
Health and care services for women offenders
The fact that women make up only 5% of the prison population and 15% of those on probation means their needs are often overlooked by a system which is focused on the profile and behaviour of male offenders.
Justice Committee questions government commitment to women offenders
This is a short and slightly disappointing report which seems intended merely to place a marker for the next government. Little substantive work has taken place since the Justice Committee’s initial enquiry into women offenders in March 2013. As a consequence, the report is reduced to expressing the hope
The Prison Reform Trust’s priorities for Justice
The UK has one of the largest prison populations in Western Europe and it comes at a significant economic and social cost – not least the high rates of reoffending. This is particularly true for women – with HMP Holloway and HMP Bronzefield being the largest women’s prisons in the EU.
Women’s imprisonment across the world
We know that a large proportion of women in prison in England and Wales are drug dependent – 54% female remand prisoners were addicted to drugs in the year prior to being in prison. There is a parallel situation in the USA. Women are more than 50% more likely to be imprisoned for a drug crime than men (25.7% vs 17.2%).
Latest reoffending rates best for a decade
The overall proven re-offending rate is 26.0%, the lowest level in over 10 years. This represents a small drop of 0.7 percentage points compared to the previous 12 months and a fall of 2.9 percentage points since 2002. Since 2002, the overall proven re-offending rate for adult and juvenile offenders has remained fairly stable, fluctuating between around 26% and 29%.
Who cares about women offenders?
One of the best aspects of this important Clinks report is that it does not merely report the difficulties faced by organisations working with women offenders but highlights innovative practice and makes recommendations for ensuring that the needs of women offenders are not neglected under TR.
12 things TOM2 taught me about TR
On 7 February, the MoJ issued an updated version of the Target Operating Model (TOM) for the new probation system. TOM2 is 74 pages long and gives a very detailed description of the current MoJ vision of how reducing reoffending will work from 2015 onwards.
The key words emphasised in the introduction are: Quality; Efficiency; Flexibility; Public Protection; Partnership and Standards.
Vicky Pryce’s cost benefit analysis of women’s imprisonment
On reflection, I probably had unrealistic expectations for what is a mainstream book. Vicky Pryce has been a positive voice for reform of women’s prisons since her release and is donating the royalties from Prisonomics to Working Chance, an excellent organisation which helps women with criminal convictions find work.
10 things I learnt from reading Prisonomics
I was given Prisonomics, Vicky Pryce’s account of her short prison sentence served in Holloway and East Sutton Park prisons last year, as a Christmas present from my ever-loving. I’m only half way through, so will reserve my comments on her cost benefit analysis of women’s imprisonment until I’ve finished the book.
