Additionally, under the current release policy, those sentenced to less than 12 months are not included in the arrangements for Automatic Conditional Release (ACR) or Discretionary Conditional Release (DCR) (Criminal Justice Act 1991) and therefore leave prison free of licences or conditions (Burnett & Roberts 2004, p218). Therefore, there is currently no statutory duty on the Probation Service to provide assistance with resettlement (Gelsthorpe 2004, p34). This means that women will not benefit from sentence planning and may be disadvantaged in terms lack of support to deal with issues such as housing, education, employment and financial management (Morgan 2004). It is argued that women are able to seek help in the form of ‘voluntary aftercare’ from the Probation Service (Maguire, Raynor, Vanstone & Kynch 2000, p234), however few know of this and may not view probation as “their first choice for help or as a helping agency” (Gelsthorpe, 2004). The Government plans to accommodate for this gap in the provision of aftercare with the introduction of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, stipulating that all offenders in custody will be released on licence. Whilst this may mean that women benefit from resettlement interventions, it is important to remember that there remain many women serving sentences under the current provision and therefore they will not benefit.
Resettlement may also be affected by the stigma attached to female offending (Nagel & Hagan 1983, cited Cavadino & Dignan 2002, p321). Unlike males, whose criminality appears to be more socially accepted, women are considered ‘doubly deviant’ (Ward, Scott & Lacy 2002, p136), accused of breaking gender norms as well as criminal law. Therefore re-integration into the family may be difficult if their actions have shamed or disgraced the family. This is particularly true of Foreign National women offenders, whose cultural backgrounds often conflict with such behaviours and hence means they are often too afraid to admit the truth, or to return home (Singh, 2004). Whilst men’s offending is often attributed to factors considered beyond their control, women are subjected to the idea of ‘responsibilisation’, whereby they are responsible for their actions, thus their needs may be disregarded.
Furthermore, women are currently under-represented in criminal statistics, constituting only 6.1% of the total prison population (Cavadino & Dignan 2002, p320). As a result of this they appear to be forgotten and resources are not being invested into this ‘minority group‘. There are currently only 17 establishments out of 103 dedicated to women (Cavadino & Dignan 2002, p325), therefore, many women are forced to be located in remote locations far from home. This makes maintaining contact with their children, family and friends difficult, which may potentially damage relationships. For example it is reported that only 17% of men stand by their women compared to 80% of women who remain loyal to their men (The Guardian, 2001).
Also the majority of women in prison are mothers and single parents, therefore they fear for their children’s safety and well being (Gelsthorpe 2004, p34). It is reported that men go into prison expecting “the woman will maintain the house and family and look after everything”. However, it would appear that women cannot rely on their partners, with only 24% expecting them to be there for the children, in comparison to 90% of fathers, who trust the woman will fulfill such duties (House of Commons Home Affairs Committee 2004, p88). Consequently women experience a high level of anxiety over who will be able to care and provide for their children and may be forced to rely upon the goodwill of grandmothers, female relatives and friends (Gelsthorpe, 2004). This however, may be inconsistent and unreliable, as they may have their own family responsibilities and hence there is the risk that they may be taken away (Home Office 2003, p38). Women may as a result find it hard to resettle into the community, firstly if confronted with a battle to regain custody or their children, but also if the child is resistant or shows signs of resentment as this will make it difficult to re-establish the relationship (O’Dwyer, Wilson & Carlen, cited Carlen & Worrall 1992, p187).
My research has also identified that some women experience resettlement problems related to lack of education and training. For example, a 2001 resettlement survey found that only 18% of women had employment or training courses arranged on release, compared with 30% of males (Home Office, 2003). Also, when interviewed five to nine months after discharge only 25% were in employment. This may be in part due to an “absence of an overall assessment of the educational and vocational needs of the [female] prison population” (HM Chief Inspector of Prisons 1997, p120) It appears that women do not have access to the same range of opportunities for work and education. This may be due to the fact that there is the expectation that the majority of women offenders are mums, therefore they wont be seeing work on release (House of Commons Home Affairs Committee 2004, p89).
Furthermore programmes inside prison such as ‘Enhanced Thinking Skills’ and ‘Cognitive Skills Booster’ (House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, 2004 p88) Programme tend to focus on the rehabilitation of women offenders using Cognitive Behavioural techniques. However not only have these programmes been designed for men, but also it is known that interventions based on developing cognitive skills are of little use for women, who have little deficiencies in this area and who are more in touch with their feelings than their male counterparts (Carlen 2002). They also fail to accommodate the needs of women Foreign National offenders' who do not speak English and hence will neither understand nor benefit from such interventions (Singh, 2004). Lacking the relevant skills and experience and often having resumed childcare responsibilities many women face unemployment on release and hence consequently are forced to become reliant on benefits. This can be problematic as there is often a delay in receiving these and “confusions about entitlements and discharge grants” and how these are distributed (Gelsthorpe 2004, p34). Hence opportunities to improve their literacy and numeracy skills should be offered to help increase their employment potential in an attempt to relieve the likelihood of poverty.
Homelessness is also a particular problem for female prisoners, as approximately one in ten will have experienced homelessness (Gelsthorpe 2004, p34) and many go straight from care to custody (Carlen 1988, cited Walklate 2001, p171). Consequently, women are less likely to have accommodation arranged on release (59%), compared to 66% of adult males (Prison Reform Trust, 2002). Furthermore, only 36% of those women who reported living with a partner before custody, are likely to return, compared to 63% of men (Homeless Organisation, 2001). Women in rented accommodation also risk losing this or will have accrued huge rent arrears, as housing benefit only remains available for those serving sentences of less than 13 weeks (Home Office, 2003). Their possessions might also lost if the property is surrendered and storage arrangements have not been made (Homeless Organisation, 2001). Furthermore, Foreign National offenders face accommodation difficulties as many are not deported on release and hence are left to find their way single-handedly in an unfamiliar country (Singh, 2004).
The situation is further exacerbated by the fact that there are a limited number of female hostels some of which do not cater for children (Chapman, 2002). Hence, these factors combined have resulted in approximately 43% of women being homeless on release (Homeless Organisation, 2001). According to the Resettlement Working Group set up by The Women’s Policy Group (WPG), women require support and someone to liaise with regarding housing benefit applications, housing application forms and contacting housing departments in their home areas (Carlen 2002 p165). Those women not eligible for statutory probation intervention they are often forced to rely on family and friends to arrange this for them. This may be an unreliable strategy as many lose contact whilst inside, being located in remote areas and because of fear of contacting those who may disprove of their behaviour. Also, Foreign National female offenders arrested and sentenced on entrance into the United Kingdom, may not have any friends or relatives who they can rely upon for help.
Finally drugs appear to be a significant factor in women’s offending, as many women get caught up in petty crime to feed their drug habit or that of their male partner (Taylor 1993, cited Malloch 2000, p355). It is reported that ¼ of women are dependent on drugs prior to arrest, which is twice the rate of adult male prisoners and approximately 1/3 of women are detained for drug offences (White, Park & Butler 1999, cited Malloch 2000, p355). This may mean that women drug users may have more need for resettlement intervention, as there are increasing numbers of drug overdose fatalities on release (Fraser & Grimshaw 2004, p18). Whilst there exist a variety of intensive drug treatment programmes, for example ’Action on Drugs’ rehabilitative programme which is currently running in women’s prisons, these have been devised and accredited for male offenders and no efforts have been made to reconstruct equivalent programmes for females offenders (House of Commons Home Affairs Committee 2004, p88). Also the effectiveness of such interventions will rely upon after-care and the ‘seamless’ running of programmes from prison into the community. This however may not be possible especially if women are homeless as they may not know where they will be living and consequently may not be able to register with service providers. Also if they are chaotic drug users, non-statutory interventions which are not enforced may not be abided by.
There have however been a number of recent developments, both within and outside prisons which hope to address the resettlement needs of women offenders. It is recognised that problems in prisoners’ lives are often “complicated and inter-related” and therefore need a carefully coordinated response. This it is hoped will be achieved via the replacement of the Probation Service with NOMS, which aims to bring together “prison and probation for more effective management of offenders” (Narey 2004, p1). The objective is to provide ‘seamless sentencing’ (Burnett & Roberts 2004, p217) with the re-introduction of end-to-end case work, whereby one officer is responsible for a particular case from start to finish so that support is provided during their prison sentence and in the transition phase between leaving custody and returning to the community. The coordination of “work across departments and agencies” is also the aim of the ‘Women’s Offending Reduction Programme’ (WORP) so that women’s needs remain at the forefront of policy-making (Carlen 2002 p165). These interventions however will be reliant upon professional multi-agency working, and hence could only work if the different agencies can overcome cultural differences and can establish equal partnership arrangements.
The Government also launched its ‘Strategy for Women Offenders’ in 2000, outlining that prison and probation must work more effectively with women to reduce re-offending and to identify the factors which make women more likely to offend. This report also indicates that new prison establishments and prison expansion will be undertaken to make them more women friendly and to enable women to be held nearer to their homes. My findings however, clearly indicate that women commit less serious offences than men and that prison has more damaging and long lasting affects. Therefore, rather than investing money into building more prison establishments, money and resources should be invested into developing better community punishment options for women to reduce the use of prison and the subsequent problems this causes.
The new Criminal Justice Act 2003 is also expected to improve resettlement provisions by making all offenders subject to a statutory period of supervision on licence. This means that women sentenced to short custodial sentences will still be eligible. However, it is feared that little attention has been paid to the additional resources which will be required to help the Probation Service cope with the extended number of cases requiring supervision under this new arrangement. Also, there are elements of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 which are feared may have more damaging affects on the resettlement of women including the introduction of intermittent custody. This allows the individual to serve their sentence on the weekend or specific days of the week and hence has been described by policy makers as “useful for women” as it will accommodate for childcare responsibilities (Gelsthorpe 2004 p35). The nature of this however, goes against attempts to root the offender in a network of community resources due to the dispersed nature, it having neither a continuous custodial or community period. It is acknowledged that a number of voluntary organisations including SOVA, helping women into employment, NACRO and The Howard League all aim to aid resettlement into the community, however, these interventions need to be coordinated with prison and probation for the strategies to be effective.
The purpose of this essay was to support or disprove the statement “Women in prison face greater resettlement problems than men on release”. Having undertaken research I have formed the opinion that women at present do face greater resettlement problems than men. This is primarily based on the premise that women are more likely to receive short custodial sentences deeming them ineligible for statutory probation supervision. Also due to the fact that they currently constitute such a small percentage of the overall prison population, their needs seem to have been forgotten or overlooked. Whilst it has been acknowledged that men and women have different needs which warrant a distinct response, at present they are still part of a system that was designed to cater for men.
Furthermore having analysed the particular areas set out in the introduction of this paper, it would appear that they face particular strains related family responsibilities and childcare as many women offenders are single parents. In addition, on release many women find themselves homeless, unemployed and some even suffering from drug addictions, therefore one or a combination of these factors will render women vulnerable and insecure and more in need of resettlement help and advice.
It has been accepted that the Government and Criminal Justice System as a whole are working to improve resettlement services for women. Not only by the introduction of NOMS, but also with new policies and legislative changes. However, these are still in their infancy and do not come without complications such as need for additional resources and co-operation and communication between the various agencies involved.
Finally, it must be remembered that women offenders are not a homogenous group of individuals and hence some may encounter little difficulties resettling. Also individual choice and decision making are integral to avoid re-offending and allow effective re-integration. Furthermore, I am not of the opinion that men do not face resettlement problems, however I would argue that the Criminal Justice System currently exhorts and essentially male ethos and whilst efforts are being made to modify this, more resources need to be injected into putting some of these well documented policies into action.
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