WOMEN
IN PRISON
STRUCTURAL CAUSES OF CRIME IN WOMEN
1
VICTIMS OF ABUSE
Up to 50% of women in prison report experiencing violence at home and one third of these women have suffered sexual abuse.This statistic dwarfs the equivalent percentage for men. In a comprehensive study of prisoners generally, it was established that those who reported experiencing abuse and violence as a child were more likely to be reconvicted within a year than those who did not.
Women are also more likely to enter the criminal justice system via toxic relationships with partners, family and friends, which additionally increases their chances of reoffending. The failure of the current prison system to acknowledge that so many women who end up committing crimes are themselves victims of abuse perpetuates the damaging victim-offender dichotomy.
These women are removed from any existing support network and stripped of their coping mechanisms in prison.What is thus created is a double punishment: the punishment of incarceration as an undamaged individual would experience it coupled with the ‘personal prison of previous traumas and abuse’. It is for this reason that even short prison sentences can be exponentially damaging for women offenders who are victims of abuse.
2
SUBSTANCE MISUSE
The relationship women prisoners have with substances also has a significant impact on offending and reoffending rates.
A higher percentage of women require clinical detoxification when entering prison than men (70% compared with 50%) and women are also more likely to engage in complex poly-substance misuse than men. Of the women reporting an alcohol problem, nearly three quarters also have a drug problem compared to less than half of men reporting an alcohol problem. In a study undertaken by the Department of Public Health at the University of Oxford in 2006, in the six months preceding prison 75 percent of women had taken an illicit drug and 42 percent drank alcohol in excess of government guidelines.
For those who do receive help in prison for their substance issues, this support is often abruptly cut off upon release with dire consequences. In a study by the Home Office, it was found that in the week following release, former prisoners are 40 times more likely than the general population to die, with 90 percent of deaths being drug related. Due to the insufficiencies of available support services for women in prison with substance misuse issues, prison can be exponentially damaging. Such women would be much better served in the community where they can receive ongoing support in a realistic environment.
3
MENTAL HEALTH
The Corston Report (UK) noted that ‘significant and substantial mental health morbidity is unlikely to be addressed during a prison sentence and is likely to have been a factor in the pattern of offending behaviour prior to sentence’.
Women with mental health issues are significantly over-represented in the prison population with 78 percent of women exhibiting some level of psychological disturbance on reception to prison, compared with 15 percent for the general female adult population. While men are more likely to commit suicide in the community, this statistic reverses in prison.
Likewise, despite only comprising 5% of the overall prison population, 56% of all recorded incidents of self harm in 2010 occurred in the women’s estate. The self-harming behaviour in question stems from complex life experiences not easily understood by insufficiently trained staff members.
In the words of Baroness Corston, ‘These are problems created within the community, which is where they should be addressed’.
WOMEN AND THEIR FAMILIES
WOMEN AND THEIR FAMILIES
“When Ali first left the prison at the age of four, I would think about her all day, every day from the moment she would be getting up in the morning to the moment she’d be going to bed. I used to imagine her getting dressed for school without me. I used to see her laughing little face at the school ground... I used to imagine someone else reading her a story in bed at night before she went to sleep. I used to imagine someone else getting “Ted” and “blanket” for her. I nearly went mad thinking about her and what she was doing. I had to find another way to cope. I had to find a way of not thinking about her all the time, of not being consumed by her
absence. I had to find a way to fill that black, emotional hole...”
- An ex-prisoner
1
PREGNANCY / NURSING
Pregnant women can apply to have their child reside with them in prison for a set number of years (State dependant) but these applications are not always successful. This is likely due to a number of children being taken into care by social services immediately after birth and other expectant mothers failing the mandatory drug testing. In contrast to the purpose-designed Mother and Baby Units in the English Correctional system, Australia allows children to reside with their mothers in ordinary prisons.
While overall the childcare facilities in prison are satisfactory, there are a few key areas that need improvement. Firstly, the childcare staff often employed by women's prisons work alongside uniformed prison staff contradicting attempts to create an environment as similar as possible to that outside prison. Secondly, few women's prisons have the facilities to allow mothers to cook for their children, denying the opportunity to ‘learn about nutrition, build confidence and cook on a budget.’ This also fails to mirror the environment outside of prison.
2
CHILDREN
Women prisoners are significantly more likely to be the primary carers of young children than male prisoners. Thus the impact of their imprisonment is often much broader. Two thirds of women in prison were mothers living with their children before they were convicted and one third have a child under five years old. When their mothers go to prison only five percent of children remain in their own home and only nine percent are cared for by their fathers.Removing a child from his or her mother at a young age can have disastrous destabilising effects on that child’s life. This can lead to the development of some or all of the structural causes of crime discussed above, creating a cycle of incarceration.
Another key difference between the experiences of men and women in prison is that men’s home lives are typically maintained in their absence. The females in their lives are expected to (and largely do) ‘keep the home fires burning’. Women typically have stronger ties to the household and their removal often leads to the swift descension into chaos.
ISSUES ON RELEASE
"I remember back to how I felt when I was first locked up four years ago, how isolated and scared I was not knowing what was ahead of me. Dreading getting unlocked of a morning, having to pull on a brave face as if nothing affected me just to get through the day. I had great difficulties trying to get my head around that I would have to do this for the next four years. Well today I have just under ten days to go and those same feelings of isolation and being scared have resurfaced, but this time its not about being locked up, it’s about getting out...”
- An ex-prisoner
1
RATES OF REOFFENCE
Despite 25 percent of all women in prison having no prior conviction, over half will be reconvicted within a year of release.
This statistic rises to two thirds when only women serving sentences of under 12 months are considered.This clearly demonstrates that today’s prisons are not addressing the structural causes of crime in women.
2
ACCOMMODATION
Women are often released from prison without a home to go to and without custody of their children. This is particularly the case for those suffering mental health issues – 96% of these prisoners are released without supported housing.
A large number of female prisoners lose their public housing tenancy before the end of their remand period or sentence. This is due to the housing service not being notifed or the period a property can be maintained is being too short. If a woman’s housing is repossessed during this period she is likely to also lose all her possessions.
Of particular concern is the so called “Catch 22” situation noted by the Social Exclusion Unit report that many women find themselves in – priority status by housing authorities depends on having children in their care, but without suitable housing children will not be returned to their care.
3
SOCIAL
REINTEGRATION
The offender management, support and guidance on release offered by probation services is not available to those sentenced to less than 12 months in prison. Of women entering prison under sentence in 2011, 70 percent were serving sentences of less than 12 months. The fact that women serving shorter sentences receive no ongoing support goes some way to explaining the 62 percent rate of reconviction within one year for those serving less than 12 months compared to the 51 percent rate of the general released prison population.
Only 8 percent of women prisoners have positive employment outcomes on release, compared to 27 percent of men. Given women are twice as likely to be serving short sentences than men, this is another way in which prison has a disproportionate impact on their lives after release.
The ongoing impact a criminal conviction has on employment prospects depends significantly on whether a custodial or non-custodial sentence was awarded. A prison sentence of four years or more has to be disclosed to employers for the rest of that person’s life. If the sentence is less than six months the disclosure period is still two years plus the sentence itself. By contrast, the mandatory disclosure period for a community service order is one year from the end of the order. Thus, the awarding of a custodial sentence over a community service order or other non-custodial option can have a resounding broader impact on a woman’s life.