on: Women Need Preferential Treatment in the Criminal Justice System
Hi friend,
The headline of this piece might seem controversial, but it probably isn’t what you think. I have been in touch with two experts to find out about the vulnerabilities that land many women in prison. Have a read and let me know what conclusion you come to.
As always, thanks for reading. Please do subscribe. And share. And comment.
Lauren
‘Women’s pipeline to prison is tragic’. This was the leading sentence from Vicki Prais, lawyer and independent human rights consultant on prisoners' rights and dignity behind bars, in a conversation we recently had on women in prisons in the UK. Prais has a varied track record that includes advising Governments on policy, campaigning for human rights issues, and working alongside the United Nations.
‘Since 2000, there has been an exponential growth of female incarceration’, Prais stated. Findings from the Prison Reform Trust found that the number of women in prison jumped from 2,000 to 4,000 from 1995 and 2010. The numbers dipped slightly with 2019 seeing a little over 3,700 women incarcerated in the UK. This increase in numbers in the last decade could be due to ‘more expansive law enforcement efforts, stiffer drug sentencing laws, and post-conviction barriers to reentry that uniquely affect women’, reported The Sentencing Project.
The numbers of women in UK prisons aren’t nearly as high as men, but women are uniquely affected by their route to prison, their treatment within it, and their reintegration into society after leaving.
In an age of equality, we dislike the thought that men and women are different. But in the case of the criminal justice system, we have to recognise the vast differences between the two. A quick search revealed that 48% of women have committed an offence in order to support the drug use of someone else. 53% of women in prison have survived emotional, physical, or sexual abuse during childhood. 70% of women in prison are survivors of domestic abuse. 80% of women have been sentenced to prison for a non-violent offence. All these statistics, found by Women In Prison, show that the path that leads to female incarceration is often peppered with trauma.
In 2004, at 16 years old, Cytonia Brown killed Johnny Mitchell Allen and was sentenced to life in prison. Her murderous actions were sparked by Allen soliciting her and taking her back to his house for sex. A 42-year-old man taking a 16-year-old child back to his house to have sex. Prosecution argued that Brown committed the offence with the motivation of robbery (she stole money, guns, and his truck after shooting him in the head). 15 years later, she was released and granted clemency after many advocates and celebrities raised awareness of the injustice of her sentencing. She was child that had been sexually exploited. A woman that was trying to protect herself. Her offence wasn’t as black and white as was thought.
Brown’s case is unusually complicated as it involved sex-trafficking, a minor, and murder. There are many cases that may not receive the same attention, but include stories of women that have experienced abuse which has contributed to reasons for their offences. Women who shoplift. Women who sell drugs. Women who prostitute themselves on street corners. Women who assault a partner. All put in prison for illegal activity without recognising the potential abuse that put them there. That is not to say that men aren’t victims of abuse, but statistically, it is women who experience greater vulnerabilities which lead to their offences.
The problem with sending traumatised women to prison is that the root issue isn’t being dealt with. By no fault of the prisons, there aren’t enough services, due to funding, available to deal with the trauma and offending behaviour that landed the women behind bars in the first place.
When I spoke to Dr. Ruth J. Tully, Forensic Psychologist based in Leeds, she agreed that there is a high percentage of traumatised women that go to prison in the UK. The ideal preventative measure she could imagine implementing would be services within communities which women could either self-refer into or be referred into by relevant agencies. These services would include trained professionals offering trauma counselling or offending behaviour treatment for women that might be at risk of offending. All with the eventual aim of teaching women how to recognise and talk about their trauma and manage their emotion. ‘Prisons have to be reactive,’ Tully stated, ‘but long-term therapy might stop emergency assessments’, which would leave resources available for long-lasting change that might keep women out of prison for good.
Non-custodial measures are an alternative way that women charged with low-level offences could serve their sentences. Instead of being pulled away from their children, secure housing, and steady employment, they could perform community service, be tagged, report to probation, and stick to a curfew. Studies have shown that shorter sentences in prison link to higher rates of re-offending. As many of the offences that put women in prison are low-level and only require a short stay behind bars, it would make sense to encourage non-custodial sentencing for minor crimes by women.
‘Prisons were created by men and for men,’ Prais commented when asked about what reform was needed within prisons to accommodate for women. She mentioned women need breast and cervical screenings, prenatal care, more familial visits, and better reintegration strategies. All things that are currently lacking in women’s prisons.
Reintegration of women into a community following a prison stay is a major factor to consider in sending women to prison. With only 12 prisons for women in the UK, women have less capacity to maintain relationships and family contact while in prison. Many women are primary child carers, and when they leave for prison, 90% of children have to leave their family home. Women have less work available that meets their skill sets after leaving prison and find it difficult to secure a job. They might be going back to an abusive relationship. Or finding that they no longer have accommodation. These are all problems that could lead to re-offending and/or self-harm. One mother reflected, ‘The real battle started when I got out. Everything - home, re-establishing relationships, job. Imprisonment just exploded a bomb into every aspect of my life’.
Women in the criminal justice system are nearly always perpetrators of crime, but they are often simultaneously victims of abusers, culture, and societal expectations. Prais explained, ‘Women have different needs than men and we need to adapt to those needs.’ This starts in the community, filters into prisons, and follows through with reintegration.