Women in Prison (WIP) — written evidence (PRI0040) 

 About Women in Prison

1.1.                      Women in Prison (WIP) is a national charity which provides independent, holistic, gender-specialist support to women facing multiple disadvantage, including women involved in (or at risk of being involved in) the criminal justice system.

1.2.                      We work in prisons, the community and ‘through the gate’, supporting women leaving prison. We run Women’s Centres in Manchester and London and work in partnership with the Women’s Centre in Surrey. Our combined services provide women with support and advocacy, relating to domestic and sexual abuse, mental health, harmful substance use, debt, education, training and employment.

1.3.                      Our campaigning is informed by our frontline support services for women, delivered at every stage of a woman’s journey through the criminal justice system. The experience and knowledge of staff and women directly affected by the criminal justice system enable us to see first-hand the effects of policy in practice and strengthen our recommendations for change.

1.4.                      We welcome the opportunity to respond to this consultation and have focused on response on the perspective of people in prison, following consultation with the women we are working with.

2. The current situation for women in prison.

2.1.                      We welcome the government’s recent creation of the Women’s Justice Board and the Lord Chancellor’s commitment to reduce the number of women in prison.[1]  There is a great deal of concern about overcrowding in across the prison estate and the MOJ predicts that the women’s prison population could increase to 4,200 by November 2027.[2]   However, the focus on prison overcrowding and the early release scheme (referred to as SDS40) runs a risk of short-term thinking in government when in what is needed is long term strategies for change.

2.2.                      To meaningfully reduce the number of women in prisons more work is needed at an earlier stage in the justice process, focussing on prevention and diversion from a criminal justice response. Such a focus will help reduce overcrowding in prisons and improve culture.

2.3.                      Women are often imprisoned for offences related to the discrimination and disadvantage they experience in society, for example poverty, substance misuse, domestic abuse and mental ill health. Ultimately, the way to improve the situation is to avoid the imprisonment of women and to instead support them and address the root causes of their offending through work in the community.

3. Do prisoners understand the role of the governor? How often do they see the governor and what impact does governor visibility have?

3.1.                      In our focus group, women felt concerned that their governor felt distant and not engaged with them. They were also very clear that the governor was pivotal in setting the tone and culture of a prison:

3.2.                      “She should lead by example. If she is behaving right and getting out and about and talking to us like we are human, then the officers will know that’s what they should be doing too”.

3.3.                      “You can tell the difference from one prison to another, and this prison is the worst one I’ve been in. No one cares. You can see that from the top down and if the Governor doesn’t care then the staff don’t either – stands to reason.”

4. What makes a “good” prison officer from the perspective of prisoners? How do relations between prisoners and staff affect the experience of those in the prison system (staff and prisoners)

4.1.                      “We want someone who puts in a bit of time and effort, someone who is approachable and has a bit of compassion. At the moment, it feels like they are recruiting anyone.”

4.2.                      In our focus groups with staff and women in prison, all raised concerns about prison officers lacking the training needed to be trauma informed. Staff emphasised that there was little training time allocated to trauma and that things like a booklet were used, but were not adequate.

4.3.                      Women also told us they felt there was a lack of training for staff about women’s experience of domestic violence and abuse, how to respond to women who were mentally unwell or were neurodiverse. This is particularly concerning given the needs and experiences of women who are sent to prison. Women in prison said to us:

4.4.                      “None of them [Prison Officers] know about addiction or trauma. If they did, they wouldn’t be giving out negatives all the time. I got one when I first came in when an Officer was shouting from downstairs for women to come down. Now at home, when you heard a man shouting downstairs, you stayed where you were because if you went down, you’d get battered. I was scared so I didn’t get down fast enough and I got a negative. I was shaking but he didn’t want to hear what I was saying.”

4.5.                      “They need more training in stuff like mental health and trauma and addiction. They have no idea why people take drugs, and they tell you this. They think you just want to get off your head when it’s really about escaping and blocking off your feelings.”

4.6.                      “They need training on mental health. I was padded up [sharing a cell] with a woman who is autistic and has ADHD or something and they were always shouting at her when she wasn’t doing things fast, but she just didn’t understand half the time. They had no patience with her and so she was always down the Seg, it’s not fair on her.”

4.7.                      “More training on mental health and trauma. It's not helpful when they’re putting me on an ACCT [Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork - a process in prisons to help people who are at risk of suicide or self-harm] and the Officer is telling me that she feels like killing herself every day when she has to come into work. It’s like she’s taking the piss out of me and how I’m feeling and then I just want to shut down and not tell anyone how I really feel.”

5. What factors contribute to the “culture” of a prison? How are prisoners affected when a prison is badly run?

5.1.                      Culture in prisons varies from prison to prison and there are pockets of good practice in some. In our focus group women talked about caring prison officers who took the time to action their requests, helped them with reading and writing and were fair in their decisions as being key positive attributes.

5.2.                      However, women and staff also raised concerns about the high rates of inexperienced staff in post as well describing them as ‘inexperienced’ and ‘scared’ which then led to the women feeling scared. One woman described a situation where a fellow prisoner had a fit and the inexperienced member of staff froze, and the woman prisoner raised the alarm and put the unwell woman into the recovery position.

5.3.                      Such concerns have been acknowledged by government, for example when Sir Nic Daykin said “The loss of staff post-Covid has meant that we have significant numbers of prison officers who have recently been recruited. Due to this large intake of new staff, many colleagues lack experience – with over 40% of Band 3-5 prison officers having less than 3 years of experience.”[3]

5.4.                      Unfortunately, there are long list of challenges currently taking place in women’s prisons, including lack of access to medication and the basic necessities. Overall, the problems in the system are fundamentally rooted in staffing and governance, but also in a wider system that was never designed for women and continually fails to meet their needs.

5.5.                      When asked this question women in our focus group said:

5.6.                      “When a prison is badly run, the impact is always on us, the prisoners, never on them. Your mental health gets worse, and you lose all hope. It’s a feeling of hopelessness.”

5.7.                      “They talk about the prison community but there isn’t one – not one made by them. We have had to create our own sense of community – we speak with each other, support each other, get our problems out at house meetings, like a family.”

5.8.                      “You just feel safer when a prion is run well.”

5.9.                      “If the staff don’t care, why should we? I see them bending all the rules. I see them vaping and then they turn around and nick you for vaping. It’s a joke.”

6. Mental health and wellbeing in women’s prison

6.1.                      Women facing serious health challenges are ending up in prison when what they truly need is medical or psychiatric care. This includes mentally unwell women who are being sent to prison as a ‘place of safety.’[4] This needs to end and we hope to see this change in legislation via the Mental Health Bill later this year.[5]

6.2.                      Over the last 18 months, rates of self-harm in women’s prisons have reached an all-time high and are currently eight times higher than in the male estate.

6.3.                      In recent interviews with women, more than one described having to mop up the blood of another woman due to prolific self-harm. One interviewee described the feeling of walking into a women’s prison ‘hearing screams and distress’ was ‘like walking into a Victorian asylum.’

6.4.                      Self-harm by women in prison hit a record high of 20,248 incidents in 2023. The number had already increased by two-thirds (66%) between June 2012 and 2022. Between June 2022 and 2023 alone, it increased by another two-thirds (65%). Ten years ago, the number of self-harm incidents per 1,000 women in prison was 1,566. In the year to June 2023, it had risen sharply to 6,213 incidents.[6]

6.5.                      We describe these distressing circumstances to illustrate three key points: The perfect storm of inadequate staffing[7], inexperienced staff, imprisoning mentally ill women and poor medical care create such a culture and environment in women’s prisons that is it impossible for the overall culture of the prison to be healthy and safe

6.6.                      Prison staff are trying to work in often very extreme conditions and this poses a challenge for their wellbeing and the wellbeing of prisoners, as well as harming the culture of prisons.

6.7.                      The circumstances of prison mean that it is a harmful experience for most women, it is not an environment where women rehabilitate and prepare for resettlement. As one woman in prison said:

6.8.                      “It feels like the primary focus [of the prison] is on punishment with no focus on rehabilitation or recovery. We are already being punished by being in prison, we don’t need to be punished more.”

7. Medical care

7.1.                      Women we work with in prison often describe being deprived of medication and significant delays in accessing medical appointments, particularly in those appointments that are in the community.

7.2.                      Examples include a woman who was denied access to her Type 1 diabetes medication.

7.3.                      Whilst in prison Jennifer (*not her real name) been feeling unwell and needed to go for investigative procedures to look for a risk of cancer. She said “Most recently, I had to go to the hospital to have a colonoscopy and a CT scan. In the end, I couldn't have the procedure done because Healthcare in the jail didn't give me the medication I was supposed to take before having the procedure, so it couldn't go ahead. I've been waiting so long for these tests.

7.4.                      It didn't happen another time because no one came to get me on the day the procedure was scheduled. I was ready and waiting and no one came. No one came to explain what was happening and why we weren't going. It turns out that they didn't have enough staff on duty on the day to take me out.”

7.5.                      Once she had her tests she had the news no one wants to hear: “The Doctor in jail told me all of the tests have come back and I've got bowel cancer...I feel very let down by the jail with the way they handled my diagnosis. I'm really angry to be honest but there's no way for me to express that in here...”

8. Pregnancy

8.1.                      We have been extremely concerned about reports of women not receiving adequate maternity care whilst in custody. All pregnancies within prison are now classed as high risk,[8] with almost twice the risk of premature labour than in the general population – this is concerning as babies born preterm have a higher mortality rate and an increased risk of disability.[9]  Pregnant women in prison are up to seven times more likely to experience stillbirth[10] and have higher rates of premature labour[11] than women in the community. They also miss out on equivalent levels of midwifery and obstetric care, which leads to missed opportunities to mitigate risks.

8.2.                      Research by the Nuffield Trust found pregnant women in prison miss over 30% of their obstetric appointments, with staffing levels and limited escort availability thought to be a key factor in this.[12]

8.3.                      Two babies have died in prison in recent years due to the circumstances around their mother’s imprisonment.  The inquest into the death of a baby at HMP Bronzefield highlighted poor information sharing between prisons and health agencies and several missed opportunities to increase observations that might have led to labour being discovered. Instead, the mothers alarm was not responded to when pressed it and she was left to give birth alone in a prison cell without any care or assistance. [13]

9. Sexually inappropriate behaviour

9.1.                      Last year a story appeared in the press about women being sexually harassed by prison guards in HMP Bronzefield.[14] This is an extremely concerning situation where Officer corruption and low standards have allowed such behaviour to happen. Women in our focus group also described staff displaying sexually inappropriate behaviour that they felt they couldn’t complain about.

9.2.                      The Commission on Sex in Prison concluded that good relationships between staff and prisoners were key to preventing sexual harassment in prison.[15]

9.3.                      “No one cares, there’s an Officer here who just got fired for battering his girlfriend who also works here. That’s messed up.”

10. Racism and discrimination

10.1.                 The Criminal Justice Alliance and IMB surveyed over 260 Black, Asian, minority ethnic and foreign women in prison, as well as equality staff working in prisons, and IMB chairs and members with a specialist interest in equality outcomes.

10.2.                 A third of women who responded said their treatment by staff was poor or very poor; with over 40% of respondents saying they had experienced discrimination which included getting less access to employment within the prison. Black women recorded particularly negative experiences. Many respondents had little confidence in the system for reporting discrimination, in procedural fairness, or in staff understanding of cultural needs.[16]

11. Accountability

11.1.                 When we are in the prisons and talking to women, we will always ask if the women would like us to advocate for them to the governor or senior staff. In several cases women have said “no”, because they fear reprisals and discriminatory behaviour if they raise the problem or “make a fuss”. This is very symbolic of women not feeling that they have rights, staff and governance accountability or a fair complaints system.

11.2.                 “I see the Officers all the time flirting with us and acting inappropriately. It’s not nice and it makes you feel scared. You can’t complain because it all comes back on you. You put a DIRF [A Discrimination Incident Reporting Form] or a COMP 1 [a form to file a complaint] in, but it takes so long, they never meet the time limits, no written response or anything. There’s no point and if you complain you just get a bad name for yourself.”

12. Time in cells

12.1.                 Frontline advocates at WIP report that women continue to spend more time in their cells than they did before the pandemic with many prisons often operating restricted regimes due to low staffing levels. 

12.2.                 One member of staff noted that last year a woman had lost a close relative and asked to go to the prison chapel to light a candle for them. It took two weeks for an officer to be available to accompany her. Our staff team member was very concerned that this showed a lack of capacity and willingness to support prisoner’s dignity, in this case to take part in religion and grieving.

12.3.                 The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) has concluded with similar concerns,  and in their inspection of HMP/YOI Peterborough found “The Board’s principal concern this year is that the impact of population pressures, staff shortages, management changes, and lack of good quality purposeful activity is adversely impacting on prisoners. As well as planned restrictions of regime, exercise and time out of cell is too often curtailed at short notice.”[17]

12.4.                 The report goes on to highlight there are frequent ‘lockdowns’ of cells, often at short notice which has a detrimental impact on women’s ability to access work, education, the library and association.’ 

12.5.                 The increased time that women are spending locked behind their cell doors continues to have a detrimental impact on women’s mental health, indicated in part by the high rates of self-harm.[18]

12.6.                 “We should have a say in what Governors spend money on. Ours has just bought a load of new equipment for the gym but none of us can get out to use it. There’s never any staff to take you up, so that’s a massive waste of money. She could have spent it on stuff to help us with the boredom and mental health”.

13. Recommendations

13.1.                 We support the recommendations made in the Review of Health and Social Care[19] in women’s prisons and urge the Ministry of Justice and HMPPS ensure their full implementation.

13.2.                 Improved training for Prison Officers in trauma and mental health.

13.3.                 Meaningful feedback processes for prisoners to express their experiences of prison culture and a clear ‘you said we did’ process in place

13.4.                 We urge the Justice and Home Affairs Committee to support the amendment to the Mental Health Bill that would end the use of prison as a place of safety.

January 2025