- Conference
- 2008 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 22 October 2007
- Decision
- Carried
Over the past twelve months the rising prison population has been an ever present news item. Although Conference accepts that there will always be a necessity to imprison women for serious criminal offences, the female prison population has risen by 173% over the past decade. However, the overwhelmingly majority of female prisoners are sentenced for relatively low level offences. Two thirds of women are in prison for relatively minor offences such as handling stolen goods or shop lifting. Women are more likely to be imprisoned on their first court appearance than their male counterparts. This shameful and discriminatory sentencing approach needs to be urgently addressed.
The silent victims of this sentencing approach are the children of these women. Due to the small number of women’s prisons, women are often sent to prison a large distance away from their homes. It is estimated that 19,000 children a year are separated from their mothers due to imprisonment. Unless a family member or friend is able to care for these children, they will be taken into care.
Due to the lack of mother and baby facilities, many babies either spend their first few months of life in a prison mother and baby unit or are taken into care as soon as they are born.
It is an established statistic that 70% of women held on remand will eventually receive a non-custodial sentence from the courts. For many women, being in prison means that not only do they lose their children, they can also lose their homes. This makes it difficult to regain custody of their families upon their release.
In the Corston report, Baroness Corston suggests that women’s prisons are replaced with smaller, geographically dispersed, multi-functional custodial centres where women can receive educational and/or vocational training. An example is the Asha Centre in Worcester. Asha is an independent charity providing a ‘women only’ environment. Their mission statement says: ‘The Asha Centre aims to benefit women who are isolated by disadvantage from resources that will help them achieve their potential. Through the provision of information, advice, and opportunities it will strengthen their social and economic proficiency and reduce the risk of offending and exclusion’.
Asha’s work is based on a model of change, which seeks to simultaneously deal with the person (lack of self esteem, low confidence, mental illness, substance abuse, eating disorder), her situation (an abusive partner, demands of parenting, single parent and poverty) and her environment (limited access to and knowledge of community resources, fear of children being taken away by social services, fear of men or institutions).
Chris Cawthorne, the director of the Asha Centre, believes that there is no justification for 90% of female prisoners to be imprisoned and separated from their children. Most women want to be good mothers and sometimes this is the only positive thing in their lives. To take it away when it is all that matters to them can cause huge damage.
In order to prevent further damage being needlessly caused to women and their children, Conference calls on the National Women’s Committee to seek to work with the National Executive Council and Labour Link to campaign on the issues which are highlighted in this motion facing mothers in prison by:
1)Supporting the Howard League in their work with women in prison
2)Publicising the impact of prison on women and their families and campaigning for alternatives such as the Asha Centre
3)Urging women members to write to their MPs and ask for urgent action to address this issue