An article examined the communications approaches and strategies (the 'messaging structures' or 'frames') used by campaigners to influence politicians, the media, and the public on the issue of penal reform for women.
Source: Gemma Birkett, 'Penal reform discourse for women offenders: campaigners, policy strategies and "issue reframing"', Crime, Media, Culture, Volume 10 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2014-Aug
A paper examined women prisoners' post-custody resettlement experience in Northern Ireland, to consider the correlation between gender-responsive measures and the increasing criminalization and imprisonment of severely disadvantaged and marginalized women.
Source: Jacqueline Kerr, The (Re)Settlement of Women Prisoners in Northern Ireland: From rhetoric to reality, Working Paper 8/2014, Howard League for Penal Reform
Links: Paper
Date: 2014-Aug
A paper examined the development of Women's Community Services and its part in the 're-imagination' of penal policy for women offenders in the community.
Source: Polly Radcliffe and Gillian Hunter, Imagining Penal Policy for Women: The case for Women's Community Services, Working Paper 4/2014, Howard League for Penal Reform
Links: Paper
Date: 2014-Aug
A paper examined to what extent the rights of the children of convicted women offenders were being considered in the English criminal courts when proposing custodial sentences, drawing on research with 75 cases. It said that, in general, the rights of the child were not considered when their mothers were imprisoned, and argued for this to be rectified on social, legal, and moral grounds.
Source: Rona Epstein, Mothers in Prison: The sentencing of mothers and the rights of the child, Working Paper 3/2014, Howard League for Penal Reform
Links: Paper
Date: 2014-Aug
An article examined why the government strategy for women offenders had failed to achieve its key objectives despite extensive agreement about change and the momentum generated by an independent review of vulnerable women within the criminal justice system (the Corston Report). It argued that, although the women's policy agenda was supported by equality and human rights legislation, the operational context (based on notions such as just deserts and the management of criminal risk) inhibited its realization.
Source: Elaine Player, 'Women in the criminal justice system: the triumph of inertia', Criminology and Criminal Justice, Volume 14 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2014-Jul
An article examined why government strategy for women offenders had failed to achieve its key objectives, despite extensive agreement about the need and direction of change and the momentum generated by the Corston report. Although the women's policy agenda was supported by equality and human rights legislation, the operational context of the criminal justice system inhibited its realization. The agreed policy of equal justice for women required a culture of rights that undermined the existing concepts of desert and 'less eligibility', and replaced risk management with rehabilitative opportunities that provided a reparative approach to social harm.
Source: Elaine Player, 'Women in the criminal justice system: the triumph of inertia', Criminology and Criminal Justice, Volume 14 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2014-Jun
A report examined innovative approaches to reducing offending by women, and called for the development of better co-ordinated services. It said that providing support at an early stage could help women to address the causes of their offending, but existing interventions were not meeting their needs. The report called for a range of changes, including: funding for a national network of women's centres, projects, and services; for better assessment of individual needs; for pooled budgets, partnership working, and local needs mapping; and for women-specific liaison and diversion services.
Source: Jenny Earle, Rebecca Nadin, and Jessica Jacobson, Brighter Futures: Working together to reduce women's offending, Prison Reform Trust
Links: Report | PRT press release | Guardian report
Date: 2014-Apr
A report examined the provision of mental health services at women's centres (community based services that delivered individually tailored services to women offenders, or those at risk of offending). Drawing on a bespoke survey conducted at centres across England and Wales, it said that women's community services provided a variety of mental health and other psychosocial interventions to a diverse client group, and that they appeared to have developed good working partnerships with other organizations, including probation and the NHS trusts. The report said that the evaluation of services could be improved, and suggested areas for further research.
Source: Victoria Hatchett, Ursula Tebbet-Duffin, Joanne Pybis, and Nancy Rowland, Mental Health Provision in Women's Community Services: Findings from a survey conducted in England and Wales, British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
Links: Report | Centre for Mental Health press release
Date: 2014-Apr