Asked by Baroness Fall To ask Her Majesty’s Government what
percentage of women in prison have dependants under 16 years old;
and what is the average length of stay in prison for such women.
Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con) My Lords, we recognise the
significant impact that the imprisonment of a parent has on their
children. Approximately 60% of...Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government what percentage of women in
prison have dependants under 16 years old; and what is the
average length of stay in prison for such women.
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(Con)
My Lords, we recognise the significant impact that the
imprisonment of a parent has on their children.
Approximately 60% of women in custody have children but we
do not collect data on the age of the child or whether they
were dependants at the time of the mother being taken into
custody. The average length of stay for women in prison
recorded as having children is 1.5 years, versus 2.6 years
for women not recorded as having children.
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(Con)
I thank the Minister for her reply but is it not the case
that we have more women going to prison, the vast majority
of them for non-violent offences and many of whom have
dependants? These children are being sent out of their
homes to stay with relatives or into the care system. The
cost of these broken homes to the children and to society
as a whole should surely be of concern to us all. I urge
the Minister to reflect on more family-friendly policies in
future.
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My Lords, as at 8 June there were 3,886 women in custody.
That is approximately 5% of the total prison population,
and that figure has remained relatively stable over recent
years. So it is not the case that there are more women in
prison, but it is true that most—73%—are there for
non-violent crimes. When an offender gets to the court they
are asked whether they have dependent children and, if they
do, that is taken into account in sentencing.
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(CB)
My Lords, when can we expect the strategy on women in
prison, which we have been expecting since last year?
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I thank the noble Lord for his question. It is of course
our aim to provide the best rehabilitative regimes,
specifically tailored to women’s needs. To that end, the
noble Lord is quite right that we have a female offenders
strategy in progress at the moment. The department is
working very hard on it and it will be published as soon as
we are able.
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(Con)
My Lords, is it not the case that there are a number of
women who have been sent to prison for very modest
offences—for example, not paying their TV licence—and their
three or four children have then been taken into care?
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My noble friend raises a number of complex issues. I shall
address the issue of TV licences because this is very
important: 109,000 women are given a fine for not paying
their TV licence, versus 42,000 men. It is not the case
that they are then put in prison for not paying the TV
licence; that happens occasionally if they do not pay the
fine, and many poor decisions have to be taken in order for
them to go to prison. I agree, though, that it is wrong
that more women than men are being given fines for this
offence, and we know that the BBC will be updating the
Public Accounts Committee on this issue very soon.
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The Lord
My Lords, the Ministry of Justice has produced clear
evidence that women’s centres are effective at reducing
reoffending, provide joined-up community services to
support physical and mental health needs and give more
opportunities to women to have access to their children.
What assessment does the Minister make of the need for
increased funding to sustain and open more women’s centres?
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My Lords, women’s centres and women’s services in general
play an incredibly important role in supporting female
offenders, many of whom have hugely complex needs. Over 50%
of female offenders were abused as children and 60%
experience domestic abuse in their lifetime. I think noble
Lords will all agree that female offenders are on average
potentially more complex than male offenders and need a
wide variety of well-funded support.
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(Lab)
My Lords, 17,000 children are affected by their mother
going into prison and only 50% of them stay in the home
where their mother was. Moreover, one in four women
sentenced to imprisonment serves only 30 days. Is it not
time that the Government and the judiciary looked at the
effectiveness of imprisonment for these women, taking into
account the fact that there are only 12 women’s custodial
establishments? This puts a further geographical distance
between the child and the mother. Can the Minister assure
us that the Government will act to rectify these
difficulties?
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The noble Lord will have seen recently that the Lord
Chancellor is focusing on short custodial sentences for
both women and men. It is important that we increase the
confidence of judges and magistrates in community
sentences. We are working hard to improve this. The noble
Lord is right to say that there are 12 female prisons
across the country. The average distance from home for
female prisoners is currently 54 miles—down from 68 miles
in 2016. We are making progress and some of those numbers
will be boosted by certain offenders needing to be far away
from home to access specific services, such as
psychological services.
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(LD)
My Lords, the Howard League for Penal Reform recently found
that only 5% of children whose mothers are sent to prison
remain in their home. I wonder who is being punished here.
Will the Minister take back to this long overdue strategy for
female offenders a presumption against prison for short-term
sentencing of women?
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My Lords, there is already a presumption against short-term
sentencing. Custody is imposed only when an offence is so
serious that only custody is merited. We are looking at how
we can strengthen this particular guideline. Families as a
whole play a very important part in a child’s upbringing so
of course we must look at getting rid of short sentences for
women, but we must also look at getting rid of them for men
too.
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(Lab)
My Lords, 94—or maybe 96—women have died in prison since my
noble friend Lady Corston’s report was published. This
recommends precisely what the Minister has just talked
about—that custodial short sentences for women should be
stopped and phased out. Has the Minister read the recent
report from Inquest on the deaths of those women? How often
in the last year have Ministry of Justice Ministers met the
families of those who have died in prison?
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If the noble Lord is happy for me to do so‘, I will write to
him with the information he requested. Unfortunately, I have
not had the opportunity to read the report he mentioned, but
I certainly will do. Female suicide is a very serious and
tragic issue. Thankfully, we have had just one death in
custody in the last 12 months; in the previous year it was
10. However, we are talking about a smaller number of female
prisoners as a whole. There is also the issue of self-harm.
Women are five times more likely than men to self-harm in
prison. We are well aware of this and are doing whatever we
can to make sure that they are protected.
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