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I should spell out in what ways women offenders’ characteristics and needs differ from those of male offenders. First, a much higher proportion of women prisoners have mental health problems than male prisoners. Surveys show that more women prisoners have a psychiatric history before entering prison. Many more have histories of self-harm than male prisoners. More have personality disorders, neurotic disorders, learning disabilities and problems of substance abuse—and more have more than one diagnosis. Many more women prisoners have suffered past physical or sexual abuse at the hands of adults or partners.
Secondly, a much higher proportion of women prisoners are sole carers of young children. In most cases where male prisoners are parents of young children, the child’s mother is looking after them on the outside, but in only a quarter of cases of mothers in prison are the children looked after by their current or former partner. Thirdly, because there are far fewer prisons holding female prisoners, women are much more likely to be in prison a long way from their home areas. This makes visits from their children and other relatives more difficult and reduces the practicality of visits by probation officers from their home areas. With the mounting pressure of numbers, this problem has increased as women are increasingly transferred to whichever prison anywhere in the country has a vacancy.
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Over the last 15 years the courts have responded to the growing mood of toughness in penal policy by adopting a more punitive stance towards women offenders. During that time the number of women prisoners has risen more than twice as fast as the male prison population. Yet most women sent to prison are neither violent nor dangerous and the majority have few previous convictions. Against this background we should look seriously at the case for establishing a women’s justice board.
There is no doubt that the Youth Justice Board has significantly improved the arrangements for dealing with juvenile offenders. It has done this by setting standards for provision for young offenders. There is an equally strong case for the establishment of a women’s justice board. The needs of women offenders are sufficiently distinct to justify establishing a board with the task of ensuring that provision for them meets their special needs. Because women offenders are a minority of those coming before the courts—and a smaller minority of those in prison—their special needs are much more likely to be overlooked if they remain an afterthought, tacked on to a system which is largely geared to the needs of men.
In short, the establishment of a women’s justice board could be the single most important step we could take towards improving the treatment of women offenders. We are faced with confused thinking on the part of policy-makers. Today’s announcement seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to a serious crisis emerging in our prisons. The noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, identified a way forward. My advice to the Minister is to take up the challenge and advise his policy-makers to come up with a rational approach to women offenders.
3.29 pm
Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone: My Lords, we are debating a subject of profound importance in which the need for action, not options, is critical. The noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, whom I warmly congratulate on his tenacity on this subject, talked about the need to maintain momentum.
There have been many champions but none has yet been effective. I also endorse the work of Dorothy Wedderburn—I was pleased to see my noble friend Lord Hurd in his place earlier in the debate—that of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Woolf, on women in prison, and that of the Fawcett Society and many others.
We are in an extremely dispiriting situation. There is a growing understanding of the problem. It is widely accepted that women who have committed crimes are doubly punished. They have broken not only the law, but the accepted societal norms of feminine behaviour. This experience of punishment is then multiplied within the female prison estate, which is an adapted male model. The one-size-fits-all approach is inappropriate for women and operates in a system where the male prison population predominates. The family and social backgrounds of women who are sent to prison display significant problems with relation to mental health, drug use and a history of violence and sexual abuse. There is a broad consensus that women in prisons
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Up to 50 per cent of women report having experienced violence at home compared with a quarter of men. One in three women in prison has suffered sexual abuse. Some of the most deprived women in society end up in prison. If their needs had been identified earlier, incarceration should and could have been avoided. Most worryingly, the incarceration of women compounds the problems for their children. If ever the sins of the parent were being visited on the child, it is the case for women in custody. Many of the women are relatively young—only 16 per cent are over 40. Two-thirds are mothers and 45 per cent had children living with them when they were imprisoned. According to the Prison Reform Trust, 17,700 children are separated from their mother by imprisonment each year. Only 5 per cent of children—one in 20—remain in their own home when their mother receives a sentence. They are losing not only their mother, but their surroundings—the context in which they live. Is it surprising that those children, according to the evidence from Action for Prisoners’ Families and the Howard League, face disruption to their education and have difficulties coping at school? They end up being cared for outside their immediate families. The noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, made the point about the difficulty in visiting. Recent evidence suggested that at HMP Cookham Wood 33 per cent of mothers were not receiving visits from their children. That is appalling. A quarter of mothers are held more than 100 miles away. The children lose their mother and their home, and it is almost impossible for them to visit the mother.
On the issue of emotional distress, the Minister in another place yesterday corrected the questioner who asked whether it was true that 70 per cent of women in prisons suffered from mental health problems. The Minister’s evidence was that it was 80 per cent. This is not an acceptable state of affairs. Women face appalling problems on their release from prison. A third of women lose their home when they go into prison, so are we surprised about the difficulties they have resettling in the community? I pay tribute to the Surrey Community Development Trust. It organises an excellent post-release scheme but it is minute. It is a beacon—a centre of excellence—but it is inadequately funded and not available to the vast number of women. It is time for us to act. I am encouraged by the activities of the shadow justice team which, as is right in opposition, is having a programme of re-evaluation and thought. I shall ensure that Nick Herbert, the Member for Arundel and South Downs, sees our deliberations today and I shall speak to him about what we believe now needs to happen—and needs to happen fast.
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Yesterday’s report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, was a wake-up call if ever there were one. Suicide and self-harm in women’s prisons remain a significant problem. It is troubling that the number of self-inflicted deaths among women more than doubled from three to seven last year, reversing the trend of previous years. Women make up only 5 per cent of the prison population but account for 11 per cent of self-inflicted deaths. Women are 16 times more likely to self-harm than men and account for nearly half of all self-harm incidents. Some 31 per cent of women in custody had self-harmed, compared with 6 per cent of men. The statistics for young women are particularly shocking—89 per cent of girls and 69 per cent of young adult women had harmed themselves. As we all know, in the wider population, the suicide rate for men is twice that for women. That shows the way that the prison environment exacerbates the difficulties that these women face.
It was of course the high number of suicides at Styal prison in 2003 that at last forced the Government to act and set up the Corston inquiry. We are really disappointed that the noble Baroness, Lady Corston, is not with us today. We have just seen the evidence on another female inmate—Lisa Marley, aged 32, took her own life at Styal. I would be interested to know whether the Minister could confirm that she had been recommended for parole.
The figures go up and up. They have almost doubled in the past 10 years, and can now be seen in the context of a prison crisis that Anne Owers said was predicted, predictable and fuelled by legislation and policies that ignored consequences, cost or effectiveness, together with an absence of coherent strategic direction.
We have to act. We want clarification about the Titan prisons—great warehouses for prisoners—that go in totally the opposite direction to small, accessible prisons. Furthermore, women’s prisons are being reroled for men because the crisis in men’s prisons will always take precedence, as we all know.
I share the noble Lord’s problems regarding the machinery of government. Ministerial groups, interdepartmental groups and official-led groups come and go. If I were told that an official group would be led by Helen Edwards, I might have some confidence. She worked with me many years ago when she was at Nacro and I was chairing a committee for the Children’s Society on alternatives to justice for 14 year-olds. I have been involved in these matters for more than 30 years, led by the speaker who will follow me, the noble Baroness, Lady Howe of Idlicote.
As the noble Lord said, we knew then that alternatives to prison would be the ideal way of avoiding incarceration. I speak rarely in this place and only when I have a profound conviction. We need a champion, such as my late aunt, the former mother-in-law of the noble Baroness, Lady Jay. On Monday, we went to the funeral of Peggy Jay on what would have been her 95th birthday.
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, I am afraid that this is a time-restricted debate.
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Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone: My Lords, we want a searcher after truth and a seeker after change. We want action.
3.37 pm
Baroness Howe of Idlicote: My Lords, it is a great pleasure to speak after the noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley. As she said, we have spent a lot of time in this area of juvenile courts, among other things. I thank my noble friend Lord Ramsbotham for bringing this important issue before us. He is an inspiration in the whole of this area, The excellent Corston report is the latest document to stress the need for a radical change of approach in this area. As we know, it is not the first. The case for change was crystal clear well over 10 years ago and we have heard about my noble friend Lord Ramsbotham’s two thematic reports—one published under one Government and another under the following Government. Both Governments who have been in charge of this system have failed to do what needs to be done.
There have been many reports since then, including the Wedderburn report of the Prison Reform Trust which made a major call for a women’s justice board. In 2004, the Fawcett Society examined the problems faced by women throughout the criminal justice system. I must say that I have become tired of seeing this matter brought to debate again and again, but taken no further. Despite all this, the Government have failed to begin making the changes that are desperately needed. Continual delay has certainly reinforced my noble friend’s case for the establishment of a thoroughly independent—I stress, independent—board to ensure action. I have no objection to any ministerial team doing its stuff, too, but we need an outside board to ensure action.
A prison system designed on military lines by men and for men is, as we all know, inappropriate for women. The crimes committed by women are largely non-violent—30 per cent of female inmates are being held for drug offences—and their sentences are correspondingly shorter. Sixty-three per cent are serving sentences of six months or less. What meaningful, rehabilitative work can be done in such a time, even without the catastrophic overcrowding referred to in Anne Owers’s annual report, published yesterday?
Secondly, as we heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley, women are far more likely to be the primary carers of children. More than half of women in prison have a child under 16, more than a third have a child under five and 20 per cent are lone parents. The social cost of imprisoning women in terms of family breakdown is incalculable. I am glad that a number of organisations are trying to work out what some of the more preventive measures would save the nation.
Women in prison are disproportionately vulnerable. Many are victims themselves. I suspect that the true percentage is much higher than is recorded. I have mentioned drug offences. Among the foreign women imprisoned in this country, a high percentage are serving very long sentences for acting as mules—bringing in drugs, no doubt under the auspices of organisers who are paying no penalty at all. Seventy per cent
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The increasing severity of sentencing under this Government has caused the number of women in prison to rise. On 20 November 2007, the number of women in prison was 4,510. In the past decade, that figure has more than doubled. It is in this light that the noble Baroness, Lady Corston, has argued for a radical restructuring of the way that women are treated in the penal system. It is good news that the Government are committed to implementing the gender equality duty and that there is more enthusiasm among Ministers for community sentencing. But, as other noble Lords have said, it is hugely disappointing that the Government have so far failed to commit themselves to the central proposal of the noble Baroness, Lady Corston. It took the Government nine months to respond to the noble Baroness’s report.
In contrast, the review by the noble Lord, Lord Carter of Coles, published in December 2007, was met with immediate endorsement and the promise of a huge sum of money for the construction of three Titan prisons, each designed to hold up to 2,500 inmates. Surely this is quite the wrong direction—not just for women, but for all members of the prison estate. Men today are increasingly playing a role in their children’s upbringing. This should be encouraged in the penal system as well. There are good examples of where this is beginning to happen—Wandsworth is one of them. Placing prisoners, whether male or female, in enormous prisons far from home can be only detrimental to the maintenance of family ties and to the possibility of reintegration into the community. More resources for projects to prevent offending and early help for vulnerable families are crucial. Where that fails, more help is required to prevent reoffending.
The recommendations of the noble Baroness must, for all our sakes, be given the attention and funding they deserve. I hope that the Minister will at last be able to reassure us on this point.
3.44 pm
Lord Hylton: My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Ramsbotham for this Motion and I agree entirely with previous speakers that we urgently need to study the state of women in our prisons. The noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley of Nettlestone, has run through the whole gamut of the facts and figures and I need not repeat them.
The facts about women, who constitute only 5.5 per cent of the total prison population, are extremely alarming and they underline the need for rapid reform. That is why the report of the noble Baroness, Lady Corston, is so important. It made three radical—one might say almost visionary—recommendations. It proposed multi-purpose women’s day centres in our main cities. Through voluntary attendance at such centres, much would be done to prevent crime among women. The centres would provide for early diagnosis of addictions and mental ill-health, and they would provide help with debt and housing problems. Attendance
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The second proposal was for residential women’s centres. These would provide for “conditions of residence”, curfews and tagging during non-custodial sentences. In addition, they would accommodate women remanded in custody or given short prison sentences. Once again, they would connect their residents directly to much needed services and training. Such residential centres would probably need to be semi-secure but should also have provision for small children to remain with their mothers.
Women’s centres of the kind I have mentioned would allow for professional assessments of women in trouble. They would also allow women to do their own self-assessment in a place of safety with a modicum of support. Such self-assessment can be crucial when life seems to be going wrong. It is a first step to finding meaning and purpose and to discovering a person’s hidden talents. In the centres, there would be much scope for reformed ex-offenders, whether as volunteers or staff members.
Finally, for really serious violent or dangerous convicted women, there should be small local custodial units holding perhaps 30 people each. These would be staffed by people experienced in working with women and should come under the commission for women offenders, or whatever it is to be called.
I regret that the proposals of the noble Baroness, Lady Corston, are far too little known by the public and I trust that this debate will publicise them, among both men and women. Of course, there will be implications for resources. These, however, should be seen in the context of the huge cost of conventional prisons, the current 64 per cent reoffending rate among women and in the light of the costs of childcare for mothers in prison, not to speak of the risk of prisoners’ children themselves taking to crime.
I regret that the Government’s response to the report of the noble Baroness, Lady Corston, although quite detailed, has been worthy but not sufficiently strategic. I trust that the Minister, if he is not completely overwhelmed by his duties today, will be able to be far more positive when he replies. I would love to see justice for women leading the way to reforms for young offenders and then for all offenders.
All parts of the prison system are, I suggest, in varying degrees of mess and muddle. We should start by reforming the smaller and more manageable sections as a step on the way to improving the whole system.
3.50 pm
Baroness Stern: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, for initiating this debate on the need for changes in the way we deal with women in trouble. I said much the same to him when I spoke in his debate on this subject in June 2006 and I said much the same to the noble Baroness, Lady Gale,
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First, it is a model because of its starting point. It starts by finding out what is the purpose of the service being analysed. Who is it for? The noble Baroness started her work by finding out about the women who are imprisoned. She also sought the views of those who are doing the imprisoning and she builds up her conclusions from them.
Secondly, she consulted widely and looked at all the research that has been done over many years. I am sure we are all very grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley, for speaking in the debate and for so ably summarising the research for us. Thirdly, the noble Baroness’s report is imbued with a strong sense of justice and a very strong dislike of injustice. She accepts that efficiency and good administration are important, but in the Corston report justice is the bedrock. Would that others who produce reports for the Government bore in mind these three essential points. First, what is this service being provided for? Who are its recipients and does it serve them and society well? Secondly, what is already known about it? Thirdly, what are the ethical values that should underpin it?
It was through that process that the noble Baroness, Lady Corston, reached the conclusions that are common knowledge and widely accepted by all those who have studied this subject. These conclusions are, first, that imprisonment as an intervention in women’s lives is often highly damaging; secondly, that the separation from their children that this often entails is, to use the noble Baroness’s own word, “catastrophic”; thirdly, that most of these women are highly vulnerable and they should be getting the help they need, particularly for mental health and substance abuse in the places where they live; and, fourthly, that there should be more of the centres whose work is already proven that can help them. The noble Lord, Lord Hylton, described very clearly a model of such a centre. Finally, when they have to go to prison, they should be held in small units near their homes.
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