Earlier this week the parties launched their 2015 manifestos. Women’s Breakout, are pleased that some of the pledged policies will have a positive impact on issues surrounding women offenders. The key policies and why they are important are as follows;

Violence against women and girls

Labour

• Mandatory reporting of child abuse strengthen vetting and barring regime and establish a new child protection unit
• Publish Violence against Women and Girls Bill

Conservatives

• Prioritise tackling violence against women and girls

Many women offenders are victims of abuse. The abuse often starts at home and serves to be the impetus for offending behavior. 1 in 3 women in prison have suffered sexual abuse compared with just 1 in 10 men. 75% of women in prison have experienced violence at home compared with just 25% of men Helping the underlying causes of offending will help to break the vicious cycle of childhood abuse and a disposition for abused women to later commit crime.

Drug Treatment

Labour

• Ban legal highs and ensure drug treatment services focus on the root causes of addiction

Liberal Democrats

• Provide experts in court to determine whether mental health or drug problems is behind an offenders behaviour so they can be dealt with in a way that is appropriate
• No criminal record for drug possession but ensure individuals are diverted into treatment

Conservatives

• Ban legal highs
• Make sobriety orders available in all English courts

A shocking 48% of women in prison have drug or alcohol addictions. Instead of receiving adequate drug treatment, these women spend time in prison and meet their demons once again when they are released. The obvious solution to tackling the high rates of women in prison with an addiction is to provide drug treatment support. This would be an important policy for the entirety of the prison population where drug addiction is a prevalent problem.

Women’s justice

Labour

• Appoint a domestic and sexual violence commissioner
• Provide more stable central funding for women’s refuges and Rape Crisis, and widen access to legal aid for victims of domestic violence

Liberal Democrats

• Create a presumption against short-term custodial sentences
• Create a Women’s Justice Board to improve rehabilitation of female offenders

Countless numbers of vulnerable women are being pushed through the criminal justice system. These women have endured violence, abuse and neglect with an abysmal lack of support from public services. The key to reducing female offending is to prevent violence against women occurring and provide adequate support to women that are victims of violence.

Vulnerable women need to be put at the top of the political agenda and money needs to be set aside to provide the help and support that these women need. Prison does not provide adequate support to victims of abuse. 81% of women are in prison for non-violent offences and as such the majority of women in prison are serving short custodial sentences. The economic arguments against short custodial sentences are very persuasive.

The average cost of a 6-month prison place is £28,000. This price will have to be paid more than once as 64% of women, handed short custodial sentences, reoffend within the first 12 months of being released. Providing holistic support to vulnerable women, through a women’s support centre costs a mere £1,360 per women per year. Even more compelling is that just 3% of female offenders receiving treatment from women’s centres go on to reoffend.

In light of these statistics we support policies that would make provisions for the mandatory use of women’s support centres instead of short-term custodial sentences. A change needs to happen. The female prison population in the UK is –not yet decreasing at the rate that it needs to and the cuts to prison budgets are making prisons unsafe for staff and for offenders. Its time the government offers long-term solutions to female offending instead of leaving sentencers with the option of a short-term fix of custody that serves no-one well.

Leila Mezoughi