Women's prisons should be 'dismantled'
Updated on 13 March 2007
Women's prisons should be dismantled and replaced by smaller secure units - and a high level "Champion for Women" should be appointed to ensure that the needs of women offenders are met.
Those are just two of the recommendations in a report on how the criminal justice system treats women, following a spate of deaths at Styal prison between 2002 and 2003.
So far this year there have been two suicides in women's prisons. One of them was Caroline Powell - and her parents have spoken exclusively to Channel 4 News.
Caroline Powell died while on remand in Eastwood Park prison in Gloucestershire. A mother who'd had her first child when she was only 16, she'd already had four children taken away by social services and had suffered domestic violence - in January she hanged herself in her cell. The first her father knew of it was when a member of the prison staff came to his home.
Vulnerable women like the Powell's daughter are the focus of Baroness Corston's review. It was triggered by the self-inflicted deaths of six women in one year at Styal Prison in Cheshire in 2003.
The feeling - that a criminal justice system set up for men doesn't work for the 4,000 or so women in jail - women who Baroness Corston says are treated disproportionately and inappropriately and imprisoned on the whole for minor, non-violent offences.
Corston Report: Key recommendations
- A women's champion
- A new commission to ensure cooperation
- Replace prisons with custodial centres
- Strip searches reduced to a minimum
Baroness Corston's main proposals include:
A champion for women so that more consideration is given to their needs. A new commission to represent women and ensure closer cooperation between government departments. Within 10 years, women's prisons to be replaced by small custodial centres and strip searching to be reduced to the absolute minimum.
Holloway women's prison would eventually be shut down. A third of the women in jail have been sexually abused, many have been in care, many self-harm - and of course their children suffer. The Government accepts that prison should only be used if it's the only effective means available.
Caroline Powell's alleged offence was burglary - her family says they found out after her death she'd already attempted suicide at Eastwood Park. It's too late for Caroline Powell. Baroness Corston would like to ensure other women don't die as she did.
Key facts and figures
Source: Home Office:
- There are 17 women's prisons in England - their population was 4,378 in January 2007
- Between 1993 and 2006 the numbers of women in prison rose from an average of 1560 around 4248
- 1,177 of these are serving sentences of four years or more - 268 have indeterminate sentences
- 1,241 of women in prison are there for drugs offences - 824 are in prison for offences of violence against the person
Source: Women in Prison (campaign group):
- 70% of women prisoners have mental health problems and 37% have attempted suicide
- 20% have been in the care system as children (2% in the general population) and at least 50% report being victims of childhood abuse or domestic violence
- Nearly 40% of women prisoners lose their homes as a result of imprisonment
- 65% re-offend on release
