Meeting of the Parliament 28 January 2015
I congratulate the cabinet secretary on taking the decision not to go ahead with the proposed women’s prison in Inverclyde. We need a radical change in how we deal with women offenders, with more use of community intervention and rehabilitation and less of a focus on incarceration. Indeed, in previous justice debates, I have referenced the practices that are used by other countries such as our Scandinavian neighbours to tackle imprisonment.
That does not mean that we are soft on crime. If someone, male or female, is a danger to society, they must be dealt with by the rule of law, and society must be protected. However, many prisoners do not need custodial sentences; instead, they need help and their families need support. As the cabinet secretary knows, I am convener of the cross-party group in the Scottish Parliament on families affected by imprisonment. The cabinet secretary’s predecessor took a keen interest in the group, and I hope that the new cabinet secretary will do likewise.
The Labour motion refers to the report of the commission on women offenders as “a clear roadmap” for tackling women’s offending. It is disappointing that we have not made more progress since Dame Elish Angiolini presented the commission’s findings almost three years ago, but I look forward to seeing more of the renewed impetus that the new cabinet secretary has brought to this issue.
With the doubling of the female prison population over the past decade, the focus on women’s offending has increased. That greater attention on female offending is justified, but in the past week or two, I have read criticisms from people who believe that imprisonment should not be looked at through the spectrum of gender. However, as we know—and as the commission states—although many women come from similar backgrounds and experience similar health problems to men, there is a great disparity in the problems that lead to women finding themselves in prison and their experiences inside are vastly different.
For example, women are more likely than men to be imprisoned for dishonesty offences such as shoplifting and theft; more likely to be remanded in custody; more likely to have higher rates of mental health problems; more likely to have histories of physical and sexual abuse; more likely to be victims themselves; and, importantly, more likely to have dependent children. Given that research shows that children of imprisoned parents are more likely to end up in prison themselves, any work to reduce offending just now will be preventative for future generations. Each year, around 27,000 children are affected by parental imprisonment, and around two thirds of women in prison have children. That is only an estimate, because no extensive work has been undertaken to identify those children.
One solution to that would be to carry out family and child impact assessments at the point of sentencing.