A think-tank report said that female offenders in England and Wales often experienced a criminal justice system that was primarily set up to deal with the needs of men. Women's community services could significantly improve the well-being of vulnerable women, help them achieve long-term changes in their lives, and reduce demands on state services including police, courts and offender management, prisons and social services, primary and emergency healthcare, and housing.
Source: Natalie Nicholles and Stephen Whitehead, Women s Community Services: A Wise Commission, New Economics Foundation
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Dec
A new book examined issues affecting women in the criminal justice system, such as mental health, age, and ethnicity. It challenged the contention that improved regimes and provisions within the criminal justice system were capable of addressing human rights concerns and the needs of the criminalized woman.
Source: Margaret Malloch and Gill McIvor (eds), Women, Punishment and Social Justice: Human rights and penal practices, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Nov
A report proposed a fundamental transformation in the way that criminal justice services were designed, commissioned, and delivered for girls and women at risk of offending, underpinned by a gender-responsive approach. It called for the closure of existing custodial provision for women and its replacement with small and local custodial units. The released resources should be diverted into the network of community support.
Source: Breaking the Cycle of Women's Offending: A system re-design, Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group
Links: Report | Clinks press release
Date: 2012-Oct
A report said that procedures for assessing and dealing with girls' and women's mental health issues in police custody needed to be improved.
Source: Matina Marougka and Rachel Cass, Listening to Young Women in Police Custody: Mental health needs and the police response, Independent Academic Research Studies
Links: Report | IARS press release | Justice Gap press release
Date: 2012-Sep
A report by an all-party group of MPs said that there was a lack of awareness among magistrates of the specific needs of girls, that courts confused welfare needs with high risk of reoffending and as a result increased the severity of the sentence, and that there was a lack of gender-specific services for girls once sentenced.
Source: Inquiry on Girls: From courts to custody, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Women in the Penal System
Links: Report | HLPR press release
Date: 2012-Jul
The Scottish Government said that it had accepted 33 of the 37 recommendations made by an independent commission on women offenders. The remaining four recommendations would be examined in more detail, in consultation with the sector.
Source: The Scottish Government Response to the Commission on Women Offenders, Scottish Government
Links: Response | Scottish Government press release | Sacro press release
Notes: Commission report (April 2012)
Date: 2012-Jun
A study mapped the health needs and healthcare of childbearing women in prison. Childbearing women in prison and their babies were more likely than the general population to experience perinatal and maternal mortality and morbidity, and might also suffer separation and distress that could be alleviated.
Source: Katherine Albertson, Caroline O'Keeffe, Georgina Lessing- Turner, Catherine Burke, and Mary Renfrew, Tackling Health Inequalities Through Developing Evidence-Based Policy and Practice with Childbearing Women in Prison: A consultation, Hallam Centre for Community Justice (Sheffield Hallam University)/Mother and Infant Research Unit, Department of Health Sciences, University of York
Date: 2012-Jun
A new book examined (in four volumes) the relationship between gender, crime, and criminal victimization.
Source: Sandra Walklate (ed.), Gender and Crime, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-May
A report highlighted the 'corrosive impact' of overcrowding in women's prisons on the work of charities and organizations that provided rehabilitation in custody and through-the-gate services on release.
Source: Carol Hedderman, Empty Cells or Empty Words? Government policy on reducing the number of women going to prison, Criminal Justice Alliance
Links: Report
Date: 2012-May
An article examined youth justice practice in relation to girls who were engaged in youth justice processes or 'at risk' of criminal involvement. Girls were drawn into the system for welfare rather than crime-related matters; and youth justice policy and practice seemed to negate girls' gender-specific needs. Youth justice policy and practice needed to be redeveloped in favour of incorporating gender-specific practices centred on children and young people.
Source: Sean Creaney, 'Risk, prevention and early intervention: youth justice responses to girls', Safer Communities, Volume 11 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
A taskgroup report proposed a 'fundamental transformation' in the way that criminal justice services were designed, commissioned, and delivered for girls and women at risk of offending, underpinned by a gender-responsive approach.
Source: RR3 Task and Finish Group, Breaking the Cycle of Women's Offending: A System Re-Design, Clinks
Links: Report | Platform51 press release
Date: 2012-May
The final report of an independent commission examined how female offenders were dealt with by the criminal justice system in Scotland, and set out a series of measures to help reverse the continued rise in the female prison population (which had doubled in the previous decade).
Source: Commission on Women Offenders, Scottish Government
Links: Report | Scottish Government press release | Sacro press release
Date: 2012-Apr
A report examined the situation of foreign national women in prison in England and Wales. It criticized legal representatives who failed to identify evidence of exploitation or persecution, or of women acting under duress.
Source: No Way Out, Prison Reform Trust
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Jan