The House of Commons Select Committee on Justice is today
launching an inquiry, Women
in Prison. Women make up just 5% of the overall
prison population but there are a number of factors which make
this group of considerable interest and concern:
- a significantly higher proportion of women than men report
mental or physical problems, drug or alcohol issues, money
worries and housing concerns;
- women self-harm in prison more than men;
- sending a mother to jail can have serious, long-term
detrimental effects on her children – and yet a recent report by
the Joint Committee on Human Rights found there is a complete
lack of reliable data on the number of children whose mothers are
in prison;
- women on average commit less serious offences and often pose
a lower risk to the public than men; and
- the government’s official 2016 Female Offender Strategy is to
have fewer women in custody - yet the government is planning to
build 500 new cells in the female estate.
The above issues will be among the areas to be studied in the
Committee inquiry, with the overall Terms of Reference being: how
to reduce the number of women in prison, how to improve their
conditions and resettlement after detention, and how to reduce
re-offending.
The inquiry is expected to take in written evidence as well as
testimony at one or more public evidence sessions. The Committee
is likely to welcome the following to give oral evidence: the
Prisons Minister and senior government officials; representatives
of the Prison Service and its Inspectorate; and other experts and
stakeholders.
Terms of reference:
Please send submissions of no more than 3,000 words
through the online
portal by 7
June:
Reducing the number of women in custody
1. What progress has been made on commitments to reduce the
number of women in custody since the publication of the Female
Offender Strategy?
• What more can be done?
2. What has been done to reduce the number of women serving short
prison sentences?
• Do community sentences currently offer a credible alternative
to custody? (If no, why not?)
• What more could be done?
3. What progress has been made on the development of Residential
Women’s Centres?
• Do these offer a suitable alternative to custody?
4. What has been done to ensure that the welfare of dependent
children is taken into account when sentencing decisions are
made?
Women in Custody
5. Since the publication of the Female Offender Strategy, what
work has been done to improve conditions for those in custody?
6. Does the female prison estate take a Whole System Approach
(that considers all of the offenders needs)to those in their
care?
• What does this look like in practice?
• Are there any barriers in achieving a Whole System Approach to
female offending?
7. How are women supported to maintain family ties in prison?
What progress has been made on improving family ties since the
Farmer Review? What effect has Covid-19 had on maintaining family
ties for women in custody?
• What support is available for mothers to maintain contact with
dependent children?
8. What factors contribute to the high levels of self-harm in the
female estate?
• What is being done to address the high levels of self-harm in
the female estate?
• What more could be done?
9. Does the custodial estate offer a trauma-informed environment
for females? (a trauma informed environment, being that which is
about putting experience, behaviours and needs first, and
creating a safer, healing environment that aims to reduce and
prevent trauma and retraumatising an individual)
• Could more be done? If so, what?
10. What support is available to ensure that women are
successfully resettled into the community upon release and reduce
reoffending?
• Are there any barriers to effective resettlement, and reduced
reoffending?
11. What support does the female adult estate offer to girls
transitioning from the youth custodial estate?
