Prisonomics

by Pryce, Vicky

  The literature on women’s vulnerability and the prevalence of victims among women offenders has been well documented in many reports, most notably in the Corston Report of 2007, which resulted in the funding of the first centre for women offenders and, in many cases, potential offenders. Women’s Breakout, a representative body of forty-seven women-centred services across the country, which offer specific community alternatives to custody specifically designed for women, argues that in order to prevent and reduce crime committed by women what works best is gender-specific approaches, which understand women’s specific needs and are delivered by women-only community-based organisations. Despite progress, funding for these centres in the future remains uncertain.

  Indeed campaigners fear that the government’s proposals to transform rehabilitation services – dubbed ‘the Rehabilitation Revolution’ – may mean that the centres could come under threat as changes to probation and rehabilitation services are made. This is a very urgent concern, since the centres are in a stage of relative infancy in demonstrating their effectiveness, and could in fact be rolled out further in future if they survive. One problem in evidencing their importance is that each is locally specific in its impact, and indeed many areas have no women’s centre at all. As such, the problem is not so much with sentencing law, but with the lack of alternative facilities and communication to those who pass the sentences about the benefits of gender-specific alternatives.

  The recent report by the justice select committee on what has been done since the Corston Report argued that ‘whilst reducing reoffending is one important goal, upstream diversion from offending and reduced frequency and seriousness of reoffending are also socially desirable outcomes which need to be valued by the criminal justice system’.175 But they also argued that getting proper evidence of the impact of the centres is difficult because they are still so new. In addition to this, the committee concluded that ‘the Ministry of Justice has failed systematically to collect information required to determine effectiveness. Data from individual projects indicates a strong impact, but because they are not comparable results there is no ability to determine and disseminate best practice.’176

  But the evidence, such as it is, is nevertheless encouraging. As Roma Hooper of Make Justice Work stressed in her submission to the justice select committee’s inquiry on women in the justice system: ‘There should be a greater use of robust and demanding community sentences as an alternative to short-term prison sentences for lower level offences committed by women offenders.’ In her view the government urgently needed to produce a strategy with the aim of reducing the number of women in custody, to ensure proper coordination across all government departments – not just the Ministry of Justice – with clear ministerial responsibility, accountability and a timetable for action.

  So, coordination is an issue. No one any longer seems to care about the overall impact of policy outside their tight departmental budgets. However difficult they were, I long for the return of a system of cross-departmental policy targets that force departments to work together – and for the targets to be better enforced than before so they aren’t ignored. During the last parliament under Labour the government introduced a series of thirty public service agreements (PSAs) in their manifesto, which were meant to define the overall targets of the government during a single parliament, though some were meant to be achieved over the longer term – such as child poverty and energy – but with intermediate targets set along the way. When it came to power, however, the coalition government did away with this process.

  In my view the removal of these PSAs accounts for some of the lack of coordination between departments, which has an effect upon the policies geared towards offenders. PSAs required close cooperation across departments, each one having to deliver part of the PSA target so that it could be achieved. It brought in some collective responsibility, in theory at least and in many cases also in practice. And the cooperation and achievements were in fact monitored by a division within the Treasury run by an ex-private sector senior official.

  Each PSA was given to a director general who had to put together a board with similarly highly graded DGs from other contributory departments which had a stake in that target. This has now been lost and one of the problems when making the overall case for prison reform more generally and for women in particular, which is indisputable in terms of the wider benefits it might bring, is that there is no longer any real incentive for, say, the Department of Health to think about the impact of their actions on crime rates as this does not form part of their direct responsibility.

  PSA 24 was to ‘deliver a more effective, transparent and responsive criminal justice system for victims and the public’.177 I wonder how many people knew this and what difference it actually made in the end. But whatever the PSA framework achieved, it must be better than no coordination at all, which is the impression one gets at times now. And it shows. The July 2013 justice select committee report on the progress on women issues since the Corston Report confirmed the need for coordination when it said:

  We were particularly struck by Baroness Corston’s evidence that under the previous government it was not until a group of women ministers worked together to take issues forward that significant progress was made in this area. We welcome the fact that, after we announced our inquiry, the Secretary of State for Justice assigned particular ministerial responsibility for women offenders. Clear leadership and a high level of support from other Ministers will be essential in restoring lost momentum.178

  I am completely in agreement with this. Everything I have seen and heard tells me that women are regarded as a minority that has to be dealt with but that the decision makers have little understanding of how to address the issues that affect women to ensure less cost to society in the wider sense. It isn’t just a question of empathy or moral prerogative – although these things matter. What we need is a thorough look at the facts and, as it emerges, ensure that wherever possible any good practice also applies to men too where the gains might be even greater in terms of overall numbers. But unless there is a drive from the top the current structure of responsibilities for our prison system will fail to address women’s needs properly. Lord Ramsbotham spoke to me of the need to create a Women’s Justice Board along the lines of what he perceives as a very effective Youth Justice Board for young offenders to drive change. In his view, ‘much misery for women would have been avoided’ if such a board had been set up. He is encouraged, however, by the fact that after twelve to fourteen wasted years, during which little progress has been made, Sadiq Khan, the shadow justice minister, has finally called for such a board to be set up. I must admit I was never a great believer that just getting the right structure to deal with an issue is the answer as often bodies are formed to placate campaigners. They tend to create bureaucracy but no real intelligent action. But better to have tried and failed than not tried at all. And the issue is too big and the cost to society too large for things to be left as they are.

  My journey into the world of women in prison was never intended. But what happened happened. I have learned far more about how the state apparatus works than I knew from my time in government. Sadly the higher up the hierarchy you go the more uncaring powerful people can be. I found those at the bottom, the prisoners, the prison staff, the marvellous people who campaign for reform and help with reintegration, to have warmth, humanity and sheer British decency that reminds me why I love my adopted country. This book is a modest contribution to a bigger debate. If it helps persuade one person in power to understand why sending so many women to prison is a counterproductive waste it will have served its purpose. If the book encourages one employer to hire a woman who has left prison, I will be delighted. The book places on record my admiration for those who work in the world of prison reform and who help women enjoy fulfilled lives after prison. The criminal justice and prison system is devised by men, run by men and does a great disservice to British women. One day the other half of the population
will have prosecutors, judges and a sentencing and prison regime that moves beyond retribution and contributes to rather than subtracts from society.

  THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  In the process of writing this I have been particularly lucky to have spoken to Jenny Earle at the Prison Reform Trust; Deborah Coles from Inquest; Rachel Halford from Women in Prison; Yvonne Roberts, trustee of Women in Prison; Roma Hooper at Make Justice Work; Jackie Russell at Women’s Breakout; Debbie Cowley and Clare Dean at Action for Prisoners’ Families; Rod Clark and Nina Champion at the Prison Education Trust; Frances Crook at the Howard League for Penal Reform; Sir Gerry Acher, previously with the KPMG Foundation; Matthew Taylor and Rachel O’Brien at the RSA; Liz Padmore of the Hampshire Hospital NHS Trust; David Elliott and Gill Arupke at Penrose; ex-Holloway probation officer Liz Hogarth; ex-Chief Inspector of Prisons Lord Ramsbotham; the current Chief Inspector of Prisons, Nick Hardwick; Baroness Corston, who produced the seminal Corston Report on Women in the Judicial System; Baroness Whitaker of the Design Commission, who introduced us and sent me the Corston Report to whet my appetite for all this while I was in prison; Tony Hassall, ex-governor of Holloway; Clive Chatterton, ex-governor of Styal prison; ex-offenders Mark Leech and Erwin James, both now celebrated writers and commentators who were extremely kind to me and encouraging on release.

  From the academic side, Nicola Padfield at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge; Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe at the Institute of Criminology in Cambridge; and Lord Stern at the London School of Economics, in many ways an inspiration to me, who helped me in my search for arguments against prison as a deterrent. I am grateful to Sir Brian Bender, Mark Gibson, Ian Jones, Claire Durkin, Richard Price, Carole Willis, Mark Conaty, Jonathan Portes, Andy Ross, Bill Jeffrey and Joan McNaughton, all ex-civil servants who gave me some wonderful insights and also great support. Also, Tory Rothschild at Give a Book; Edwina Grosvenor at Clink; and Antony Oering, now chaplain at Ford Open. And then, of course, James Timpson, who enthused me with his very generous and positive attitude towards employing ex-offenders and who furnished me with a huge number of contacts; and Jocelyn Hillman, Ondine Upton and the entire team at Working Chance, the charity that specialises in finding quality employment for women offenders and ex-offenders, who have not only helped me with the research but also invited me, while I was still in prison, to become their patron – which of course I have accepted.

  I am also grateful to the prison staff and the chaplains, in both Holloway and ESP, who made ‘an unbearable situation almost bearable’; my fellow residents for their kindness and friendship; and those friends on the outside who have since helped me return to some sort of ‘normality’ while giving me their unconditional support. George and Ann Courmouzis, and Lydia and Takis Argyropoulos have been a great source of strength for me, as have Stephanie and Philip Maltman; David and Lisa Buchan; Boni Sones; Christos Pitelis; Jenny and Arthur Beesley; Chris Pryce and Janet Payne; Jane and Mike Cooke; David and Jessica Fletcher; Sarah Webb; Ed Beesley; Rob Toogood; Joyce Acher; Kate Barker; Luisa Affuso; Mike Bottomley; Alexandra Shulman; Jane Atkinson; Michael Littlechild; Geik Chew; Martin Deutz; Guy Warrington; Alexis Konstas; Monica Clancy; Elisabeth Kelly; Rupert Dove-Meadows; Merelina Dipack-White; Gil Duff; Catherine Roche; Nick Butler and Rosaleen Hughes; John Gieve; Mike Jeans; Jamie Stevenson; Roger and Belinda Hood; Kitty Ussher; Geoff and Melanie Llewellyn; Peter Bottomley; Gill King; Leslie Johnson; Alan Johnson; Tony Halmos; Alex Kedros; Alex Jan; Nikos Sideris; Kate Winn; Mandy Hutley; Gordon Stoker; Sue Owen; Andrew Hilton; David Marsh; Bronwen Maddox; Patricia Hewitt; Serena Simmons; Yasmin Alibhai-Brown; Satjit Singh; Ian Bonny; Noorzaman Rashid; Alan Broomhead; Patrick Chapman; Liz Walker; David Peregrine-Jones; Barbara Linder; Betty and Chris Sanders; Neil Williamson; Brian Parry; Gordon Dickerson; Phil and Gill Sutcliffe; Nick Talbot; Julia King; Leo Martin; Tay Cheng-Jim; Karen Dunnell; Suzie Funell; Sarah Green; Anthony Elliott; Janet Paraskeva; Jon Duke-Evans; Dan Corry; Rebecca Harding; Stefan Stern; Kathy Newman; Becky Milligan; Neil Sherlock; Romilly Weeks; Tim Leunig; Robert Chote; Richard Portes; Abhinay Muthoo; Flavia Lambert; Natalie Pham; Eleni Meleagrou; Don Stillman; Paul Lejot; Catherine Donelly; Rosamund Urwin; Guy de Jonquieres; Diane Fortescue; Hamish McRae; Richard Davies; David Campbell; Neil Lerner; Colin MacCabe; Kate Aan de Weil; Martin Donnelly; Alan Budd; Joanna Donaldson; Heather Stewart; Lucy Thomas; Graham Haache; Andy Haldane; David Penfold; Marjan and Robert Johnson; Andrew Smith; Marcus Miller; Costas Meghir; Katerina, Louis, Peter, Melina and Elisabeth Georgantas; Rachel Cable; Pippa Oakeshott; Patty Hemingway; George Houpis; Lina Talka; Simon Walker; Mary Strang; Phil Stephens; Fiona Woolf; Polly Toynbee; Stephen and Celia Glover; David Walker; Steve Jones and Norma Percy; Denise Kingsmill; Dave Ramsden; Debbie Stedman-Scott; Louka Katseli; Tony Burke; Neil Acheson; Marian Bell; Isabel Hilton; Geoff Reid; Ed Mayo; Bridget Rosewell; Daisy Fletcher; Mark Boleat; Alison Sprague; Mike and Jill Toogood; Ava Alleyne; Kristiina Reed and Ed Sankey; and the Biteback team, among many others.

  Most importantly my children and their own families, whose love and support were the only thing that kept me (semi) sane throughout. I can only hope that this book gives something back by contributing positively to the debate and helping to ease the condition of so many women – and many men – who should at this moment not be in jail but either at home with their families or being properly looked after by social and health services in their communities.

  Last and certainly not least, a big thank-you to Chris Osborne, who trusted me throughout this process, and to Robert Brown, my solicitor.

  NOTES

  1 Berman, G., Prison Population Statistics SN/SG/4334, 28 June 2013.

  2 Social Exclusion Unit report, ‘Reducing Reoffending by Ex-prisoners’, July 2002.

  3 Prison Reform Trust, ‘Justice for Women: the Need for Reform’, 2000.

  4 HM Inspectorate of Prisons, ‘Women in Prison’, Home Office, Research Study 208, 2005.

  5 Corston, J., ‘The Corston Report’, Home Office, 2007.

  6 Ibid.

  7 O’Brien, M. et al., ‘Psychiatric Morbidity among Women Prisoners’, Office for National Statistics, 1997.

  8 Ibid.

  9 Corston, J., ‘The Corston Report’, Home Office, 2007.

  10 Hughes, M., ‘Quarter of UK population will be on new police database’, Telegraph online, 17 June 2011.

  11 ‘Clegg “not proud” of conviction’, BBC News online, 19 September 2007.

  12 Ministry of Justice, ‘Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly Update to December 2012’, 30 May 2013.

  13 Farrington, D. P. et al., ‘Criminal Careers and Life Success: New Findings from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development’, Findings 281, Home Office, 2006.

  14 Wallerstein, J. S. and Wyle, C. J., ‘Our Law-abiding Law-breakers’, Probation, 1947, 25: 107–112.

  15 Short, J. F. and Nye, F. I., ‘Extent of Unrecorded Juvenile Delinquency: Tentative Conclusions’, Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science, 1958, 49: 296–302.

  16 Office for National Statistics, ‘Crime in England and Wales, Year Ending December 2012’, 18 July 2013.

  17 Ministry of Justice, ‘Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly Update to December 2012’, 30 May 2013.

  18 Ministry of Justice, ‘Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2009’, 22 July 2010.

  19 Howard League for Penal Reform, ‘Revealed: the magistrates’ courts most likely to send women to prison’, press statement, 9 July 2013.

  20 Jewkes, Y., Media and Crime, London: Sage, 2004, p. 109.

  21 Liebling, A., assisted by Arnold, H., Prisons and their Moral Performance: A Study of Values, Quality and Prison Life, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

  22 Ministry of Justice, ‘Safety in Custody Statistics 2008–09’, 11 February 2010.

  23 Ministry of Justice, ‘Safety in Custody Statistics: Update to December 2012’, 25 April 2013.

  24 Ramsbotham, D., Prisongate: The Shocking State of Britain’s Prisons and the N
eed for Visionary Change, London: Free Press, 2003.

  25 Gesch, C. B. et al., ‘Influence of Supplementary Vitamins, Minerals and Essential Fatty Acids on the Anti-social Behaviour of Young Adult Prisoners’, British Journal of Psychiatry, 2002, 181: 22–28.

  26 Crisci, A., ‘The Prison Restaurant: More than just bread, water and porridge’, BBC Food Blog, 25 April 2011.

  27 Ministry of Justice, ‘Costs per place and costs per prisoner by individual prison’, NOMS Annual Report and Accounts 2011–2012, Management Information Addendum, 25 October 2012.

  28 Hales, L. and Gelsthorpe. L., The Criminalisation of Migrant Women, Cambridge: Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, 2012.

  29 Ministry of Justice, ‘Prison Population Tables Q1 – January to March 2013’, 2013.

  30 O’Brien, M. et al., ‘Psychiatric Morbidity among Women Prisoners’, Office for National Statistics, 1997.

  31 Edgar, K. et al., Out for Good: Taking Responsibility for Resettlement, Prison Reform Trust, 2012. See also Crewe, B., ‘Prisoner Society in the Era of Hard Drugs’, Punishment and Society, 2005, 7(4): 457–481.

  32 O’Brien, M. et al., ‘Psychiatric Morbidity among Women Prisoners’, Office for National Statistics, 1997.

  33 Ministry of Justice, ‘Reoffending of adults: results from the 2008 cohort’, 18 March 2010.

  34 Ministry of Justice, ‘Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2011’, cited in Bromley Briefings, Prison Reform Trust, November 2012.