At the Lib Dem conference in Brighton this Monday (11.25 am), Women Liberal Democrats will be proposing a motion focusing on Women in Prison. The full text of the motion is reproduced below. Debbie Enever, Vice-Chair of WLD, explains why the issue needs to be addressed:

Sometimes people need to be treated differently to be treated equally. Women make up a tiny percentage (about 5%) of the total prison population and consequently tend to be treated as an add-on to the male system.

While changes are needed across the prison system if we are to reduce reoffending and address overcrowding, women have particular needs which have so far been overlooked.

There are three main differences between male and female prisoners.

1) Men and women are very different types of criminals. Overall, women have very little involvement in violent or organised crime. Our motion recognises that prison is not the right place for women who do not pose a risk to the public and that it will be more effective to prevent women from falling into crime in the first place by supporting women at risk of offending.

2) Women (and their families) are disproportionately affected by their being imprisoned. As there are fewer women prisoners there are consequently fewer women’s prisons. This means that women have to be sent further away from their homes and families and visiting is made more difficult. This is especially traumatic for the two-thirds of women prisoners who have dependant children under the age of 18 – half of whom have under-5s! 95% of these children have to leave their homes in order to be cared for – penalising the child for the mother’s crime. 30% of women loose their accommodation (and sometimes all their possessions) while they are in jail. Our motion would stop children being punished for their mother’s transgressions – making sure that women are only sent to prison for serious offences. When women are detained this would be in smaller local custodial units where they are better able to retain links with their families and particularly their children.

3) Women prisoners are often victims themselves and require special attention. 50% of women prisoners have experienced violence and abuse at home (twice as many as male prisoners). One in three women prisoners have experienced sexual violence (compared to 10% of their male counterparts). A different approach is needed to reform such vulnerable women and rehabilitate them. Our motion calls for more support for women to overcome addiction and mental health problems to help keep them away from crime in the first place.

The Corston Report, by looking at the specific circumstances of women prisoners and seeking to introduce a proportionate, holistic, woman-centred approach to criminal justice makes a real attempt to address the injustices in the current system and WLD (which has been campaigning on this issue for many years) calls on the federal party to adopt its recommendations. You can read the full Corston report here, and you can download information from the WLD campaign here.

Women in Prison
Mover: Debbie Enever
Summation: Anne-Marie Bunting

Conference notes with concern that:
a) The number of women in prison has more than doubled during the past decade, although there has been no corresponding rise in the number of women committing more serious crime.
b) Nine out of ten are convicted of non-violent offences.
c) 66 per cent of women prisoners are mothers and each year it is estimated that nearly 18,000 children are separated from their mothers by imprisonment.
d) The fact that as women are a small minority of the overall prison population, their particular circumstances and needs are often overlooked.
e) Alternatives to prison are both more economical and proven to be more effective at cutting the reoffending rate.

Conference welcomes Baroness Corston’s report of her review of women with particular vulnerabilities in the criminal justice system, published in March 2007.
Conference calls on the government urgently to implement Baroness Corston’s findings, specifically:
1. That repeat crime can be cut substantially by supporting women to overcome addictions and mental health problems and also encouraging support mechanisms that help to keep women away from crime.
2. Ensuring there is a strong, consistent message from the top of government, with full reasons in support of its stated policy that prison is not the right place for women offenders who pose no risk to the public.
3. Providing a high-level champion for women to ensure that the needs of women offenders and those at risk of offending are met.
4. Setting up an inter-departmental ministerial group to steer change for women who offend or are at risk of offending.
5. Accelerating preparations by all criminal justice agencies to implement the new gender equality duty and radically transform the way they deliver services for women.
6. Extending the Together Women Programme to establish a much larger network of women’s community centres, some with residential provision and committing within six months to a 10-year programme to replace existing women’s prisons with small local custodial units.
7. Ending routine strip searching in women’s prisons.
8. Improving sanitation conditions in women’s prisons, as called for by the Chief Inspector of Prisons, as a matter of urgency.
9. Urgently to review the cross-agency support currently provided for recently released women prisoners.

Applicability: England.