UK: Jail unnecessary for 70% of women
01 November 1997
70% of women prisoners, currently numbering 2,700 in England and Wales, represent no security risk and could be held in open conditions or given community penalties, according to the Chief Inspector of Prisons, David Ramsbotham. The female prison population has leapt by 76% in the four years as increasing numbers of women are jailed for debts run-up on catalogues, store cards or for money owed for Council Tax or to the DSS. The number of women jailed for serious offences has dropped by 16%.
In a highly critical report, Women in Prison, Ramsbotham also expressed concern at the number of women prisoners held on remand awaiting trial and the facilities made available for women with children. It noted that 61% of women in prison were the primary carers of children and with their imprisonment the burden of child care fell on their mothers or family.
Among the 160 recommendations in the Ramsbotham review is a call for the Prison Service to appoint a director with responsibility for managing the fifteen women's prisons in England and Wales. This was supported by Paul Cavadino, of the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, who commented that: "For decades women's prisons have been treated as an afterthought tacked on to the needs of men."
The primitive conditions in women's prisons was emphasised in August when a 16-year old won a High Court ruling that the Home Office policy of jailing young women, aged between 15 and 21, in adult jails should be stopped. The young woman, who claimed that she had been locked up 24 hours a day, has now been found a place at Styal women's prison which is one of only 7 jails with units for juveniles. The others are Brockhill, Low Norton, Drake Hall, Eastwood Park, Bullwood Hall and East Sutton Park.
The barbaric practice of using chains and handcuffs on pregnant women prisoners, on the unlikely pretext of preventing them from escaping from hospital while in labour, was relaxed at the beginning of 1996 after a storm of protest. A recent Prison Reform Trust review of the practice makes it clear that shackling will continue where women have been released to attend funerals or custody hearings. The Trust has called for a review of security procedures for women to reflect the low security risk that they represent.
Chief Inspector of Prisons "Women in Prison" (HMSO) July, 1997; The Law July-September 1997; Times 18.7.97; Independent 18.7.97; Guardian 20.8.97.