We welcome news from the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, that he is looking at ways to free up space in the prison estate. This includes “using the female estate for male offenders”, alongside increasing the rate at which foreign nationals are sent to their country of origin, and looking at Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences.
Here’s a bit of context:
There are currently 3,350 women in prison, that’s just under 4% of the total prison population. 3 in 20 (548) of them haven’t been tried in court yet. That means they could be released as soon as they are. Either because of time served, or because they’re found not guilty.
More than 200 women have been found guilty but not yet sentenced. Again, they may be released as soon as they are, either because they’re not sentenced to time in prison, or because they have already served their time. On top of this 16% of women in prison (535) are there because they’ve been recalled. This doesn’t mean they’ve committed another offence. It could be that they missed an appointment. Often women have more appointments to attend than men – for example, those regarding children. We have worked with women who’ve been recalled to give the authorities more time to prepare for their release.
135 women are serving sentences of six months or less, more often than not for non-violent crime.
Together this is 1,425 of the 3,350 women in prison. 43% or 2 in 5. These women could have served their sentence safely in the community supported by women’s centres such as Anawim.
There are 12 women’s prisons in the UK, this is enough to fill the six smallest. If Andy Burnham wants to use the female estate for male prisoners, the capacity is there. He has also said he will look at those on IPP orders, indeterminate sentences which were stopped in 2012. Six women are currently in prison on these orders.
The idea is to reduce the number of people being released early, and to make sure that it’s not an option for those who have been found guilty of the most serious offences.
We have long argued that many women are in prison unnecessarily and are pleased to see some movement on this – even if the driver is containing violent men. However, if more women and non-violent men are to be released into the community this will have a significant impact on Probation, Anawim and other organisations. If we are to be working with more women serving their sentences in the community, then some of the money that would have been spent on their imprisonment needs to be diverted.
In addition, there are some safeguards in place to prevent early release of those found guilty of rape, and other heinous crimes, but no exclusion for those convicted of domestic violence. This pernicious crime can continue over years, and decades, and we would urge the Prime Minister, and his Government to think carefully when deciding who to release.
We believe risk assessing each prisoner due to be released is the answer. Releasing those who can be sentenced within the community, will save not just prison spaces but a huge amount of money.