On the 26th of March 2013 City
Gateway apprentices attended the justice committee in Portcullis House in the
House of Commons where The Right Honourable Helen Grant MP, The justice
minister with a special responsibility for women in prison was giving evidence
with 2 of her officials, Ian Poree who is in charge of commissioning and
Michaels Spurr, the head of NOMS. Members of Parliament including Alan Beith,
Steve Brine and Jeremy Corbyn discussed the sentences and treatment of women in
prison. Debates in the House of
Lords by Lord McNally
during the parliamentary passage of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of
Offenders Act 2012, and by the Minister
for Policing and Criminal
Justice, Damian Green
in the House of
Commons had all promised changes in the way women are treated in prison.
Helen Grant admitted female prisoners have
different needs from male prisoners as they are much more vulnerable. Also, how community sentences in England and Wales are to be
made more female friendly in an effort to keep women out of prison and so that
they do not re-offend.
Justice minister Helen Grant
wants to cut re-offending rates and offer judges reliable alternatives to
custody. She says that vulnerable women offenders need help to break the cycle
of crime, abuse and many other difficulties that are facing.
One of the aims that the ministry of justice
officials insisted was not to lock up fewer women offenders, but to reduce the
number of re-offenders and to offer credible alternatives to custody to
judges and magistrates.
Helen Grant is setting up a new board
of specialists, stakeholders within government across ministries and
departments and partners outside government who provide services for women
offenders, to address community orders for women and look at other issues such
as locating female prisoners near to their families. She also said that mothers should receive good health
care and support while they are in prison so that when they are out of prison
they can build a relationship with their children. Some of the support that was
discussed was that their should be family days out , working with families and children of offenders, home work clubs so that
they mothers/ fathers get time with their children and can be part of their
life’s while being in prison. However they will not be getting paid for work or
curfew as a punishment.
Another idea Helen Grant and the other MP’s proposed
was that the women prisoners should be placed in secure hostels. The minister
quoted “It costs £45,000 to keep a woman in prison for one year, while almost
45% of all women released from custody in 2010 re-offended within 12 months,
committing more than 10,000 further offences.”
What they said the system does well:
Women in Holloway prison are being prepared for
work for example they are writing CVs and learning how to dress appropriately
for work , so that after they released they will have something to do, this will
reduces the chances of re-offending with help from eth charity Working Chance.
She said she had visited the women’s diversion
centre, Isis in Stroud in Gloucester
Things that need more improvement:
They need to identify women and men (segmentation)
so that they can be put in specific groups of re-offending as they have specific
needs and issues (they have been looking at this area) and these can be
addressed. Cathy Robinson a former prison governor is undertaking a review of
the entire prison system.
They said that a considerate amount has been
done and improved in the last 6 years after the report by Baroness Corston and
more to be done.
Our feelings are Mrs. Grant wants
to give women opportunities and better support, besides placing them in prison.
She says society should help women understand alternatives to crime and allow
them to get help dealing with problems that cause them to commit crimes.
( too many prisoners not enough justice )
By Parvin Nehar & Shahida Akther
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