The Scottish Executive is committed to improving the way the criminal justice system deals with women who offend. Many women in prison have committed only minor offences and pose very little risk to their communities. Imprisoning a woman can have a disastrous effect on her family as well as herself. Additionally, the large number of women being sentenced to short term prison sentences for minor offences has led to a general over-crowding problem in Scotland's only women only prison at Cornton Vale.
Who are Female Offenders?
A number of studies have reported on the background of women offenders. They found that most women offenders:
- Are mothers
- Have no work outside the home
- Have had problems at school and few qualifications
- Were on state benefits and in debt
- Have accommodation problems
- Have experienced some form of abuse
- Have suffered psychological distress and
- Have serious problems with alcohol and drug misuse
- A good proportion had been in local authority care as children and some have lost the care of their own children
It is apparent then that female offenders often come from chaotic and unsupportive circumstances. One of the Executive's key aims is to help women offenders address the problems that make them offend in the first place. This will help prevent the offending/punishment cycle before it even begins.
A Safer Way
Between June 1995 and December 1997 seven women committed suicide in Cornton Vale. Following the suicides the then Chief Inspector of Prisons and the Chief Inspector of Social Work carried out a major review of community disposals and the use of custody for women offenders in Scotland in 1998.
Their report 'A Safer Way ' highlighted the special circumstances of women in prison and led directly to the setting up of an Inter-agency Forum (IAF) on Women Offenders which met from 1998 to 2000. The Forum recommended that a Ministerial Group should take forward the issues that had arisen and thus the Ministerial Group on Women Offenders (MGWO) was set up in December 2000.
The MGWO was set up with a remit to: "build on the work done by the Inter-Agency Forum to take forward and implement a package of measures designed to reduce significantly the number of women held in custody in Scotland." Its report 'A Better Way' was published on February 28th 2002.
A Better Way
'A Better Way' identified three problem areas which have contributed to the increasing number of women offenders:
- The number of short sentences
- The numbers in prison for fine default
- The numbers on remand.
The Executive is taking forward a number of initiatives to address these problem areas. Some - for example the 218 Time Out Centre in Glasgow - have been specifically set up to cater for the needs of female offenders. Others are designed to reduce custodial sentences across all offender groups but are expected to most significantly impact on female custody figures. The current piloting of mandatory SAOs for fine default in Glasgow and Ayr is a prime example of this thinking. More information on these can be found in the following 'Executive Initiatives' page.
In addition to this ongoing work the Executive has also set up a short life working group comprising representatives of the voluntary sector, faith groups, academia, the prison service and criminal justice social work to look at what lessons can be learnt from initiatives such as 218 and whether or not anything else can be done for female offenders. The group has met twice in 2006 and is expected to produce a paper before the end of the year.