The Scottish Government

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

The Development of a Time Out Centre

1.1 One of the most striking penal phenomena in Scotland during the last decade has been the steady increase in both the numbers of women given sentences of imprisonment and in the daily average population of sentenced female offenders. In this respect Scotland is similar to other parts of the United Kingdom (Home Office, 2004a; National Offender Management Service, 2005; Scottish Executive, 2005a) and, indeed, to most other Western jurisdictions (Cook and Davies, 1999; Taylor, 2004).

1.2 Towards the end of the 1980s, women who offend began to attract increasing attention from policy makers and practitioners for a number of reasons. First, there was an increase in the number of young women appearing before the courts, largely attributable to an increased incidence of drug misuse (primarily heroin) among young women. Second, as the number of women charged with offences increased, academics, practitioners and policy makers began to question the appropriateness of existing sentences and associated interventions for women who offended (Dobash and Gutteridge, 1986; Carlen, 1990; Gelsthorpe and Morris, 1990).

1.3 Third, and perhaps most influentially, a series of 7 suicides in 30 months at HMP and YOI Cornton Vale, Scotland's only prison for women, resulted in a wide-ranging review of the use of imprisonment and non-custodial sentences for female offenders. The number and timing of the deaths was all the more shocking because only one suicide had ever taken place - some 9 years previously - since the opening of Cornton Vale. Although no single reason for the suicides emerged from the subsequent fatal accident enquiries, it appeared that a history of drug misuse and withdrawal problems shortly after being incarcerated was a common experience among the women who died ¹.

1.4 The resultant review, Women Offenders: A Safer Way, undertaken by the Social Work Services and Prisons Inspectorate for Scotland, concluded that 'the backgrounds of women in prison are characterised by experiences of abuse, drug misuse, poor educational attainment, poverty, psychological distress and self harm' (1998: 13). It also produced a number of recommendations aimed at keeping women out of prison where possible and at improving the conditions for those who were, by necessity, detained. These included the development of bail provision for women; the development of a unitary fine system; the increased use of supervised attendance orders for women who default on payment of their fines; and the development of an inter-agency project aimed at developing services for women offenders in Glasgow (since the majority of women in Cornton Vale at that time were from Glasgow and the West of Scotland).

1.5 A primary objective of A Safer Way was a reduction in the imprisonment of women - at the remand stage, at the sentencing stage and following default on the payment of a fine. However, the published statistics showed that, far from there being a reduction in the custodial sentencing of women following the publication of A Safer Way, the number of prison sentences imposed on female offenders actually increased from 950 in 1998 to 1,048 in 1999. The daily female prison population likewise increased over the same 12 month period from 193 in 1998 to 212 in 1999, at that time the highest figure ever recorded. By contrast, the daily male prison population decreased slightly in 1999, to 5,817 compared with 5,825 the previous year. Over the 10 year period, 1990-1999 the average daily female prison population increased by 55%, which was more than double the growth experienced in the male prison population (which increased by 27%) over the same period (Scottish Executive, 2000a).

1.6 While the overall number of custodial sentences imposed in Scotland increased by 1% in 1999, this trend was not replicated across all groups. There was a 21% increase in the number of convictions resulting in a custodial sentence for women aged under 21, and a 12% increase in the use of custody for women aged 21-30. There was, at the same time, a 5% rise in the use of imprisonment among men in the 21-30 year old age group, a 1% decrease among men under 21 years of age and a 5% decrease among men over 30 years of age (Scottish Executive, 2000a .).

1.7 The prison statistics for 1999 revealed that the number of young women under 21 received into custody under direct sentence increased by 17% over the previous year's figure. Female adult direct sentenced receptions rose by 1% in the same period. This was in contrast to decreases of 5% and 7% respectively in the numbers of male direct sentenced receptions. The number of male young offenders received into custody under direct sentenced receptions in 1999 was the lowest level experienced since 1991. However, direct sentenced receptions of female young offenders in 1999 were at their highest level of the decade (Scottish Executive, 2000b).

1.8 One of the recommendations of A Safer Way was the establishment of an Inter-Agency Forum to develop services for female offenders in Glasgow. The forum was set up in August 1998, with its membership consisting of all the key agencies dealing with women who offend. This included criminal justice agencies as well as organisations employed in areas of health, housing, employment and addiction. The second annual report of the Forum was published in February 2001 (Inter-Agency Forum on Women's Offending, 2001). It contained a total of 13 recommendations aimed at providing women with access to a range of services and support to address the social and personal problems that contribute to their offending. These included exploring the possibility of establishing a daily court for women, providing additional resources to enable women to address their drug use, building upon and expanding existing diversion strategies at all stages in the system and the creation of 'Time Out' Centres, to provide a wide range of residentially or non-residentially based support services for women. The theory behind this latter recommendation was that female offenders should be able to get 'time out' of their normal (chaotic) environment without resorting to 'time in' custody, where many of them were being placed.

1.9 The work of the Inter-Agency Forum was subsequently taken forward by a ministerial group charged with turning the Forum's proposals into practical measures. The Ministerial Working Group on Women's Offending was established in December 2000 and reported in 2002, by which time a further 2 women had committed suicide in Cornton Vale (Scottish Executive, 2002a). The number of female sentenced receptions into prison in Scotland had also continued to rise as had the average daily female prison population, which showed an increase of more than 17% over the previous year (Scottish Executive, 2002b).

1.10 The Ministerial Group's report, entitled A Better Way, concluded that the existing system for dealing with women who offend was not working effectively. Instead, it recommended that greater emphasis should be placed upon alleviating the social circumstances that lead some women to offend, intervening early to ensure that women's needs could be met without recourse to imprisonment, promoting the use of the full range of community disposals (including the 'Time Out' Centre advocated by the Inter-Agency Forum) and shifting the penal culture away from punishment and towards rehabilitation and 'treatment':

"We believe that the broader range of community penalties now available, supported by the Time Out centre and a specialist care management service for women in Glasgow, offers an integrated approach which, with the co-operation of the courts, can reduce significantly the number of women who receive custodial sentences. The message here is that we need to establish services which can give focus to and can energise the work with women offenders, and which can establish a service with which women clients can identify, and whose relevance they can recognise . These should focus on women's needs to create relationships as an influential aspect of programmes which work with women. The process can reduce stigma and isolation and increase confidence and self esteem, improve social skills, alter criminal attitudes and behaviour and so engage with these women." (Scottish Executive, 2002a: 38)

1.11 A Better Way recognised the importance of avoiding the simplistic assumption that the 'what works' principles and the programmes derived from them could appropriately be applied to women. The 'what works' principles which drive social work practice with offenders throughout the UK and beyond are based upon research into the effectiveness of interventions with young men and their applicability to women remains largely unexplored. Increasingly, however, practitioners acknowledge that different approaches to those adopted with men may be necessary if women on supervision are to be engaged effectively in the process of change. Both practitioners and policy-makers are paying growing interest to the development of gender specific programmes. These programmes should be better able than existing male-oriented programmes to address women's needs in a safe and non-threatening environment that is conducive to the development of the reciprocal relationships which appear to be central to women's growth and change (Bloom and Covington, 1998; Covington and Bloom, 1999).

1.12 Responding to female offending, as distinct from male offending behaviour, has led to an increasing recognition of the importance of addressing the needs of the women who are involved with the criminal justice system. Ongoing research has identified the high levels of physical and sexual abuse, poverty, problematic substance use, bereavement and family breakdown that characterise the experiences of many women who appear in courts and prisons ( HM Inspectorate of Prison, 1997 and 2001; Malloch, 2000; Prison Reform Trust, 2000; Scottish Executive, 2002a; Fawcett Society, 2004; Home Office, 2004a; Loucks, 2004; McIvor, 2004). A growing understanding of the extent of these issues has resulted in recognition of the need for a multi-dimensional, inter-agency response to tackle the 'root causes' of women's offending behaviour (Bloom, Owen and Covington, 2003).

From 'Time Out' to 218

1.13 218 ² was established in Glasgow in August 2003 with the aim of providing a range of services for women in the criminal justice system primarily within the boundaries of Glasgow City Council. Based on a single site, the Centre provides a day service and supported accommodation. In addition to prescribing facilities, it offers support - residential or daily - for detoxification. The model for the service was developed by the Inter-Agency Forum which comprised representatives of the Scottish Executive Justice Department, Glasgow City Social Work Department, Glasgow City Council Housing Department, Greater Glasgow Health Board and a range of other agencies (Inter-agency Forum on Women's Offending, 2001). It provides residential and community based resources in a safe environment to women aged 18 years of age or over who have involvement in the criminal justice system, who are assessed as particularly vulnerable to custody or re-offending and who may have a substance misuse problem. The Centre is run by Turning Point, an organisation in the voluntary sector which provides support for those with complex social needs, particularly in relation to drug and alcohol issues ³.

1.14 218 ⁴ is a service for women involved with the criminal justice system which is designed to address the root causes of women's offending. It offers programmes of care, support, and development designed to stop women's offending by tackling substance misuse and the trauma and poverty that drive it. 218 is regulated by Care Commission ⁵ guidelines for day services for adults, and for residential services to people with drug or alcohol problems.

1.15 The objectives of 218 are to:

• provide a specialist facility for women who are subject to the criminal justice system;
• provide a safe environment for women in which to address offending behaviour;
• tackle the underlying causes of offending behaviour;
• help women to avert crises in their lives; and
• enable women to move on and reintegrate into society.

1.16 Women from Glasgow can access 218 from the courts, from prison, or as part of a criminal justice order. They can be referred or can refer themselves as long as they have been in custody - even police custody - at some time in the previous 12 months. Any agency can refer women to the service. 218 does not provide an arrest referral scheme; however, the Glasgow Drugs Crisis Centre, also run by Turning Point, provides this service which women can access for emergency support. The purpose of 218 is to provide both diversion from prosecution and an alternative to custody.

Evaluating 218

1.17 From the outset, it was agreed that the development and operation of 218 would be evaluated. The evaluation, which was commissioned and managed by the Scottish Executive Justice Department, was conducted by a research team from the Universities of Stirling and Cambridge and an Independent Criminologist.

1.18 The aims and objectives of the research were as follows:

• Evaluate the operation and effectiveness of 218 as a realistic and workable alternative to custody for women;
• Seek to identify 'what works' in the context of 218 by highlighting examples of good practice and identifying areas for possible improvement;
• Determine the extent to which addiction issues are able to be addressed successfully in conjunction with offending behaviour;
• Analyse the views of service users, staff and other relevant service providers and key stakeholders;
• Assess the success of 218 in linking women into mainstream services; and
• Assess and determine the effectiveness of 218 in achieving its stated objectives with respect to costs, outcomes and overall effectiveness.

1.19 In addition to these objectives which are specific to particular elements of the evaluation, the study also sought to:

• Assess how innovative the Centre is by outlining the advantages and disadvantages of the model, its level of implementation in practice and its usefulness in achieving its stated aims and objectives;

• Identify and explore women's diverse needs by focusing on the views and experiences of women with addiction problems, homeless women, those involved in prostitution, women with and without children, women with mental health issues and women from ethnic groups where relevant;
• Assess the effectiveness of the Centre's overall response to complex needs such as physical, psychological and mental health needs;
• Identify the levels of self-referral, whether there are long waiting periods and the extent to which access to 218 needs to be prioritised; and
• Explore the views and experiences of the Centre in relation to its processes and outcomes from the perspectives of key stakeholders.

Structure of the report

1.20 This report details the findings of the research conducted into 218. This chapter has outlined the background to 218 and to the evaluation. Chapter Two sets out the methodology, while Chapter Three examines issues related to the implementation of the service. Chapter Four describes the referral process and examines the profile of those who have made use of services there to date. Chapter Five outlines the service provision in the day and residential programmes at 218. Chapter Six goes on to discuss 218's links with other services and how these provide support to women both during their time at 218 and after they leave. Chapter Seven considers current outcomes of the work at 218 where these are available, and in terms of the qualitative information gathered from the interviews with clients, staff, and key stakeholders. Finally, the concluding chapter summarises the key issues from the research and the guidance other services can take from the experience at 218 in its work with women.

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