Following the tragic deaths of six women at Styal Prison in the 12 months ending August 2003, the government ordered a review of vulnerable women in the criminal justice system. The report, published on 13 March 2007, calls for women’s prisons to be closed, and replaced with a local network of small custodial units, reserved only for those who are a danger to the public. Labour Baroness Jean Corston, who led the nine-month review, wants fewer women to be gaoled, with a much greater use of community punishment.
The majority of sentenced female prisoners are held for non-violent offences, and two-thirds of women inmates are mothers who are often held a long way from their families due to the small number of women’s prisons. There are some very worrying figures – although women make up only 6% of the prison population, they account for more than half of all incidents of self-harm. Around 80% have diagnosable mental health problems. It is a bleak picture, made worse by the fact that most women prisoners have experienced domestic violence or been the victims of childhood abuse.
The unacceptable practice of sending mentally ill people to prison, whether female or male, belongs in the history books. Once the Corston Review recommendations are implemented, ministers must then turn their attention to the problems in men’s prisons. Labour chose not to implement much needed penal reform when it took office in 1997. The consequences are now all too apparent, with gaols filled to overflowing, and the Prison Service lurching from one crisis to another. And the ongoing abuse of human rights in our gaols, shameful in the 21st century, must be addressed, otherwise Labour has no right to call itself a ‘modern’ government.
My only child Sarah, 18, was the youngest of the six women who died in the so-called care of Styal Prison. I am angry that a further 34 women have died from self-inflicted injuries in women’s prisons in England since my daughter’s death in January 2003. Many of the women were mothers who have left behind motherless children. Home Secretary John Reid likes to think he is ‘tough’ on crime. But I wonder if he understands how tough it is for the children whose mums have died in the ‘care’ of his prisons.
No-one is saying people who do wrong mustn’t be held to account. But we know that prison doesn’t work, in view of the high reoffending rate, so it’s time for some common sense – and, hopefully, some humanity – to enter the debate.
Pauline Campbell
Bereaved mother of Sarah Elizabeth Campbell, 18,
who died in the ‘care’ of Styal Prison, 2003
FRFI 196 April / May 2007
