This essay will examine the ideal that women` s prisons should be abolished in England in line with the recommendation of the Corston Report. 2007 and will provide critical arguments for this closure.
There are fourteen women` s prisons in England and none in Wales; some prisons for men also accept women (CIVITAS Factsheet 2010). Immediately one can envisage that if all the women prisons were to be closed in line with the wishes of Baroness Corston ( The Corston Report 2007) and The Howard League for Penal Reform, women may end up inside men` s prisons in a law of unintended consequences. Therefore although the principle of abolishing such prisons is undoubtedly based upon sound humanitarian ideals, one has to be wary of embracing the idea with evangelical zeal. Let us now examine some of the many arguments for women` s prisons to be abolished in England .These are numerous , multi dimensional and include feminist theories of ” malestream “ gendered justice.
Currently there are 4,341 female prisoners in England (H. M. Prison Service 2010) many of whom are vulnerable foreign nationals (Ministry of Justice 2010a), drug dependant and fragile. This number can be compared to the 64 thousand women in Russian prisons many for minor offences (Pallot 2007).There are proportionately more women on remand than men (Liebling & Morgan 2007).Many are later freed after trial supporting our argument for prison closure.
There is a greater risk of self harm and suicide among women prisoners (Prison Reform Trust 2010). They are more adversely affected by the intimidating prison architectural environment as most prisons were designed with men in mind (Carlen 2006; Jewkes & Johnstone 2007).There is evidence that these women have been treated unfairly by the inherently patriarchal criminal justice system (Dobash & Dobash, 1992; 147) as over one third of these women have had no previous convictions (Prison Reform Trust 2010). Furthermore an equal proportion of one third, have suffered domestic violence and in effect were already victims prior to incarceration. Two thirds of these women also enter prison with a mental health and substance problem (Corston Report 2007) indicating that they had become prey of exploitative drug dealers. Many of these women come from a background of a deprived childhood having been brought up in care homes (Prison Reform Trust 2010). In short, these women appear to come from a disadvantaged and lower echelon of society and in need of support rather than further punishment.
Women are sentenced while pregnant and a woman was shackled to the delivery bed in Styal Prison in 1993 (Carlen, & Tchaikovsky1996).Many women have dependant children (Ministry of Justice statistics 2010 b) and the pernicious effect of child separation needs to be considered. Although there are eight Mother and baby units, none of the units cater for infants older than eighteen months. One can imagine the extreme trauma that ensues when separation occurs at this age. Mothers and babies may have bonded and deep emotional attachments formed. To deprive an infant of his or her Mother at this age is deeply damaging according to psychological research (Harlow 1958; Harlow & Zimmerman 1959; Bowlby 1969; Bowlby 1973; Rutter and Giller 1983).These researchers and many others have demonstrated that such separations may cause a child to become withdrawn and lose trust in adults completely. The child may even become delinquent in the future as a result of such perceived abandonment. In short this enforced separation may result in irrevocable damage to the child who may become an offender as an adult, thus perpetuating a long term vicious cycle, through the generations.
Even if the child becomes a law abiding member of society, the hurt and pain will remain deeply embedded in the psyche causing long term depression, apathy or even a state known as “learned helplessness” (Seligman , 1975; 1977).This phenomenon was discovered by experiments where caged animals were subjected to unrelenting stress with no escape. They simply gave up trying to escape after a while. Later when an escape route was in fact possible they did not attempt to escape. They had in other words learned to be helpless and behaved in an apathetic manner. Much the same depressive behaviour has been seen in people who have become resigned to their situation and simply give up .This is typical of doleful reactions resulting from prison, as well as infant mother separations.
This suffering of children and women is a cogent argument for the closure of women`s prisons .Nearly a third of such children are taken into care and so may be permanently separated from their Mothers (Corston 2007). One third of women prisoners lose their homes, and even their precious possessions while in prison, so are greatly disadvantaged upon release. This financial disadvantage may even lead to a revolving door of reoffending in the form of shoplifting to replace such possessions.
A homeless woman may return to prostitution to regain a roof over her head and thus the vicious cycle of recidivism is perpetuated. Certainly there is not much evidence that “prison works” to quote Michael Howard, for women. Women who are already drawn from the financially disadvantaged sector of society cannot possibly be helped to become upwardly mobile by a spell in prison (Codd, 2007). Furthermore Every Child Matters (Green Paper 2003) so why should the children also be indirectly punished ?
Statistics show that severe child poverty is often a consequence of parental imprisonment (Prison Reform Trust 2010). Children suffer in other ways too, such as enduring playground taunts and bullying (Woodrow, 1991) if their peers discover the truth behind a Mother` s absence from school events such as sports day and school plays. Home Office research has shown that 66% of women in prison have dependent children aged under eighteen. There are currently about forty infants in Mother and Baby Units in England. That is forty little lives that will potentially become ruined by the patriarchal sentencing culture that sanctioned such cruelty.
Clearly one can understand why Baroness Corston wishes to see that all women`s prisons are closed. Holloway Prison had damning reports of mice and pigeon droppings in an unannounced visit by Her Majesty`s Chief Inspectorate of Prisons (HMCIP 2000). A Report commissioned by the Home Office after the suicide of six women in Styal prison, the Corston Report, (Morris 2007) found similar degradation. Such unsavoury living conditions with open lavatories next to food areas, self harm and frequent suicides (Dooley 1990: Bosworth 2006)) provide a compelling argument for the closure of prisons housing all women. Many women are sent to prison for non payment of fines (Black, 1992) some incurred for transgressions such as not having a T. V. licence (Pantazis & Gordon 1996), making poverty a crime in a disturbing echo of the Dickensian days of Debtors Prison..
The population of women in prison is over-represented by duped drug- mule foreign BME groups,(CLINKS 2010), and their non violent offences differ from that of male offending (Carlen 1983).Women tend to commit fewer crimes than men in every area except for prostitution ; the latter offense often driven by financial necessity (Carlen 2002).Such need-driven offending is in stark contrast to the thrill seeking, testosterone fuelled, “doing gender” that often characterises male offending (Messerschmidt, 1993;2000; Winlow, 2001; 2004).
The fact that more women are being sent to prison than ever before is also indicative of the prevailing punitive sentencing culture towards women (Chesney-Lind, 2006). Reforming, humanitarian organisations such as the Corston Independent Funders Coalition and the Howard League for Penal Reform would both like to see far fewer women sent to prison for such reasons (The Howard 2010) with the exception of deranged, dangerous women such as Rose West.
Let us now briefly look at two high profile cases of rough justice meted out to women in Courts of Law in support of our argument. Firstly let us examine the high profile case of solicitor Sally Clark who was sent to prison for allegedly killing her two baby sons. Her two children tragically died from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) otherwise known as cot death. An Expert Witness was called to give evidence at her trial. She was subsequently convicted of murder in 1999 and sentenced to prison thereby compounding her suffering. Expert Witness, Professor Roy Meadows asserted that the odds of two cot deaths occurring were in the region of 73 million to one. Faced with such an impressive figure the jury had no hesitation in finding her guilty.
The Royal society of Statistics (Webster 2007 report) realised that Meadow`s use of statistics was completely erroneous and the probabilities cited were fallacious.
Meadow`s cavalier, and reckless use of statistics (Freeman 2006) cost him his reputation . Sally Clark was released but never recovered from her ordeal and tragically died a few years later from alcoholism, leaving her husband bereft. Even if Sally Clark was in fact guilty she may have been suffering from a serious medical condition known as post partum psychosis and therefore should not have been sentenced to prison. Here we have a compelling argument for the closure of prisons for women since many may have arrived there due to “rough justice” and an androcentric stereotyping of flawed mothers (Carlen, & Tchaikovsky1996) and “doubly deviant” women (Bottoms, 1995). This “judicial logic that sentences them as flawed women rather than lawbreaking citizens” (Carlen, 1996 p.203) provides another compelling case for the closure of prisons for women.
Another high profile recent case to support our argument, involves a woman in Wales who was sentenced to eight months in prison this year for allegedly perverting the course of justice. This mother of four young children made a complaint of rape against her husband and appears to have been a victim of domestic violence. She retracted her statement after coercion from her husband who persuaded her that he would receive a seven year sentence if he were to be convicted while she would likely be let off with a caution. This element of male coercion has often resulted in women becoming unwilling partners in crime so to speak and has been analysed by criminologists (Jones 2008).In this case Dyfed –Powys Police decided to go ahead with the prosecution resulting in Judge John Rogers, Q.C. passing a prison sentence on this unfortunate rape victim. Here we have a classic example of the punitive and patriarchal excesses of the criminal justice system towards women. The husband then gained full custody of the children and now this victim, having been released on appeal, is fighting to regain her children (BBC News Mid Wales, 2010). There are no prisons in Wales for women and therefore visits will be extremely difficult where young children are involved. Children will be distressed after a long journey when they see their Mother behind bars and suffer nightmares consequent to such visits. This case has put the sanctity of court proceedings above the welfare of the children and their Mother.
The End Violence Against Women Coalition, said the case sent out a chilling message to rape victims. The woman in question stated that her husband had completely controlled her in every way (see Dobash & Dobash 1979). This domestic rape victim`s family life and future employment prospects may now be ruined by a prison record (NACRO Change the Record Campaign 2010) while her husband appears to have got off scot free..
Another high profile female case outside U.K. Jurisdiction is that of Amanda Knox sentenced to twenty six years in an Italian prison, despite a complete lack of forensic evidence in the crime scene to implicate her. She received the longest sentence of the three suspects; the male offender, drug dealer Rudy Guede was sentenced to sixteen years despite forensic evidence of his semen found in murder victim Meredith. Knox has been sexualised by a media keen to sell newspapers in a “babes behind bars” fashion (Cecil 2007; Katz 1987) and received such huge media coverage that her trial was inevitably prejudiced. The Prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, is facing charges of corruption (Sunday Times report by Richard Owen). He allegedly consulted a fortune teller prior to the notorious ”Foxy Knoxy” trial. The crystal ball told him that the murder was a sex game gone wrong. Such flimsy supernatural evidence should not have influenced due process in a Court of Law. It is reminiscent of the sixteenth century days of the Witch Finder General , the Malleus Maleficarum (Summers 1948). One has to question also the calibre of prison activities provided for Knox as she was encouraged to write a short story about a party rape for a prison story competition. Complaints about prison activities generally, extend to gendered domestic cookery classes that stereotype women.
These cases provide pressing support for closure of women`s prisons. A wealth of feminist criminology theory describes this “judicial victimisation of women and gendered justice “(Bohn, 1997, p.133). This sentencing severity towards women may be examined in an historical context when women were disenfranchised and considered demure second class, subservient citizens. In the last century there were no women in Parliament and men only made the Laws. Women such as Labour politician Harriett Harman and the Fawcett Society (Fawcett Society 2010) have striven to redress the inequality. The Equality Act of this year (Government Equalities Office) is the latest endeavour of Harriet Harman to ensure fairness. Yet it seems that latent discrimination towards women and their social standing still runs deep within our Courts (Ministry of Justice 2010 b). This gendered criminal justice argument provides compelling support for women`s prison closure (Hedderman & Hough, 1994) since many women do not appear to receive a fair or even chivalrous trial (Allen1987). Frances Crook, Director of the Howard League of Penal Reform would like to see a swift programme of women`s prison closure (Guardian Report, August 2006) and Lord Leveson, of the Sentencing Council has been ordered to promote this leniency in a time of drastic budget cuts (BBC News 13 October 2010).
Finally, the infamous Stanford Prison experiment shows how those in a position of authority, be they magistrates, judges or students masquerading as “prison guards” are easily tempted to abuse their power (Zimbardo, 1972).A similar humiliation occurs in women`s prisons with strip searches and mandatory urine tests for drugs (MDT) that are intrusive and highly embarrassing (Carlen 2006).Prison guards are not trained as counsellors either and so may be unable to offer emotional support..
To conclude, there is no evidence that prison ”works” for women and each prison place costs forty five thousand pounds. A growing consensus suggests that instead of prison most women should be allowed to attend friendly community centres such as the Time-Out Centre 218., a multi-agency collaberation in Glasgow (Loucks et al .2006) funded by the Scottish Executive Justice Department. To further this aim the Justice Minister Ken Clark, would like to see a” rehabilitation revolution” in a pragmatic, target-driven, private sector investment approach (eg Diamond Project 2010) utilising dividends to reduce recidivism. More investment is essential in community projects like Evolve that empower women (Shaw, 1996) for successful prison closure. Words-2500
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