Written evidence submitted by Women in prison (MRS0349)

About Women in Prison (WIP)

Women in Prison (WIP) is a women’s specialist organisation that provides holistic, trauma-informed support to women affected by the criminal justice system. We work in prisons, in the community and “through the gate”, supporting women leaving prison. We run three women’s centres (in Manchester, Woking in Surrey and London) which include support for diversion schemes for women at early stages of involvement in the criminal justice system, as well as for women on community sentences and on release from prison. Our combined services provide women with support addressing multiple needs including advocacy, domestic and sexual violence, physical health, mental health, substance misuse, and parenting.

We advocate for a significant reduction in the numbers of women being sent to prison and for strengthened community support services, particularly women’s centres.

Our policy and campaigns work 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 working directly with women affected by the criminal justice system enable us to see first-hand how well policy is implemented in practice.

About this consultation response:

Our response to this consultation is concerned specifically with women involved in the criminal justice system. We support the consultation response of our partner charity Agenda.

The Inquiry by the Women & Equalities Committee Inquiry: 

The Committee has been concerned to hear that people with protected characteristics are disproportionately affected by Covid-19 and the Government’s response, including the emergency Coronavirus Bill.  We are particularly interested to hear about what impact these measures have had, and will continue to have, and whether the Government’s aim to support workers and people more widely have considered all relevant equality impacts.  The Committee is calling for written submissions about:

Your experiences. We want to know:

1. How people have been affected by the illness or the response to it
2. If there have been specific impacts on people due to them having a protected characteristic
3. Whether there may be unforeseen consequences to measures brought in to ease the burden on frontline staff, for example relaxing the measures under the Mental Health Act and Care Act)

Reviewing the measures

The Government has said current measures will be reviewed in three weeks’ time, and measures in the Coronavirus Bill be voted on again in 6 months’ time.

1. What needs to change or improve, which could be acted on in three weeks’ time;
2. What needs to change or improve, which could be acted on in 6 months’ time.

Summary

Women in the criminal justice system fall into several additional categories of protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, including race, disability, religion or faith, pregnancy or motherhood, age and gender reassignment. As a group, women in the criminal justice system face significant and often overlapping barriers around a range of issues including domestic abuse, homelessness, mental and physical ill health, problematic substance use, poverty, debt and unemployment. These barriers mean women in the criminal justice system have been disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 crisis, as well as the responses to it, including the government lock-down. We urge the government to take these factors into account and mitigate against them in order to ensure the safety and wellbeing of women facing multiple vulnerabilities during this crisis. We provide a range of recommendations for the government across the following areas:

• Prison releases and admissions; conditions in custody and a national strategy for reducing the women’s prison population coupled with community support services for women in the criminal justice system.
• Support from the government for the voluntary sector to enable women’s centres and other women’s support services to deliver services to women at risk so that women are supported around their mental health, can stay safe from domestic abuse, are financially secure and receive the range of support services they require during this crisis.
• Release of women in immigration detention and an end to no recourse for public funds for foreign national women.
• The guarantee of finance and benefits for women, including Universal Credit, housing benefits and child benefits in order to address poverty and destitution.
• Ensuring appropriate housing options are in place for women facing homelessness and insecure housing, including women on release from prison.
• A strategic plan for working with the voluntary sector and ensuring sufficient funding for the third sector to carry out its essential duties during this crisis and beyond.

1. Women in Prison (WIP) and service delivery during the Covid-19 crisis

Women in Prison (WIP) provides support services to women affected by the criminal justice system. Many women’s needs are increasing as a result of social distancing, self-isolation and diminished access to services at this time. Like other specialists providing services like women’s centres we are committed to doing all we can to meet these needs and deliver high quality, trauma responsive support to women using our services. However, like many other support services, due to the government’s social distancing guidelines we are currently unable to provide our regular services to women.

We have temporarily closed our premises and moved to a Virtual Women’s Centre delivery model for our community based services. Our community staff are working remotely and continue to provide support to existing and new service users by phone, video calling, text, email and post. In some cases, we have been able to deliver essential items, collect medication etc. and we have been establishing remote support groups including those addressing domestic abuse and problematic substance use. We have also supported partners in adapting their service delivery models and meeting new needs, including temporary housing for women who are homeless.

Although we are doing everything in our power to continue delivering support services to women, inevitably we face various practical barriers in doing so, especially in regards to prisons. All prisons are on lockdown which means that our staff who normally provide prison in-reach are unable to meet face-to-face with women in custody, and other forms of communication are difficult within prison settings (see below for more detail).

We completely understand the need for lock-down measures during this unprecedented health crisis and fully appreciate why, like us, a range of statutory, voluntary and private services are forced to reduce or amend their operations in order to protect staff and respect social distancing guidelines. Inevitably marginalised groups are more affected than others by this crisis due to their protected characteristics and the multiple barriers to addressing the needs that they face.

Charities are often key to supporting individuals in this position, yet the Government has been extremely slow to even recognise the role that charities play. Financial support measures suggested so far are completely inadequate.

2. Women in the criminal justice system, protected characteristics and Covid-19

For a range of reasons that are well known, women as a group are more severely affected by any recession, austerity and national crises. For a more in-depth discussion of the effects of the Coronavirus on women please see the briefing Crises Collide: Women and Covid-19 by the Women’s Budget Group[1].

Many women we work with fall into additional categories of protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010:

Race: Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and minoritised women are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. Minoritised women comprise 11.9% of the women’s general population in England and Wales, but 20% of the women’s prison population[2]. Minoritised women, particularly in the criminal justice system, face higher levels of poverty. One way in which poverty manifests itself is women and their families living in overcrowded living conditions, without access to gardens or other green spaces, meaning the effects of the government lockdown have been felt more severely. As has been reported extensively in the media over recent weeks, Covid-19 has disproportionately affected minoritised individuals, with men generally affected at higher rates than women.

Disability: A significant proportion of women in the criminal justice system face mental and physical ill health, whether or not a formal diagnosis of disability is in place. Women we work with are therefore disproportionately affected by any reduction in health care provision or closure of services such as mental health support.

Religion or faith: All prisons are on lockdown, meaning that all association and time out of cell such as education, employment or worship are cancelled or severely curtailed. Muslim women who we support in the community (and those supported by partners such as the Muslim Women in Prison Project) have told us they struggle with high levels of depression and isolation during Ramadan.

Age: Older women in prison will be particularly vulnerable to the spread of Covid-19 as long as they remain in custody where social distancing is often impossible. As a group, older women in prison face multiple vulnerabilities, including due to a combination of old age and the poorer overall health outcomes associated with women in prison.

Pregnancy: Pregnant women in prison face particular vulnerabilities due to the combination of being in an at-risk group and their inability to stay safe and well and appropriately self-isolate. This is in addition to the usual risks in prison by not being able to access appropriate healthcare and adjustments to diet and exercise (as highlighted by charities like Birth Companions).

Motherhood and caring responsibilities: Many women in prison are mothers, and are often sole or primary carers of children as well as other dependents. The lockdown of prisons and stop to all visits has a significant effect on the wellbeing of mothers and children. WIP is campaigning to ensure all women in prison have access to either cell or landing phones, and that the usual need to buy phone credit is waived so that women can make free phone calls to friends and family during this difficult time. Incoming calls should also be enabled to facilitate contact with children and families (including grandparents often taking on caring responsibilities during a mother’s imprisonment). This is an issue of paramount importance in order to ensure the rights of children and the right to family life are upheld.

For women affected by the criminal justice system who are in the community, closure of schools and nurseries has had a significant impact, including in terms of children’s access to free school meals. As a group, women in the criminal justice system face significant hardship and high levels of poverty. Those women who are in employment often work low paid jobs on insecure contracts, hence lacking financial security during this crisis when they are forced to stay at home to look after dependants. There will also be additional costs associated with children being at home, such as providing lunch for children who normally are entitled to free school meals.

Gender reassignment: Any transgender prisoners waiting to undergo gender reassignment treatment will have had their treatment put on hold and waiting times have increased. As a group, transgender individuals in prison are known to face disproportionate levels of mental ill health which is likely to be exacerbated by the current situation.

3. How women in the criminal justice system have been affected by the Covid-19 crisis

As a group, women in the criminal justice system face significant and often overlapping barriers around a range of issues including domestic abuse, homelessness, mental and physical ill health, substance misuse, poverty, debt and unemployment.

Trauma and mental health

Women in prison face significant levels of self-harm compared to men in prison, and compared to men and women in the community. Despite making up around 5% of the population women account for almost one fifth of all self-harm incidents in prisons[3]. Lack of purposeful activity and insufficient time out of cell have detrimental impact on wellbeing and are known factors linked to self-harm and suicide in prison, and this is intensified during this lock-down.

As mentioned above, non-operational staff have extremely limited access to prisons during this crisis. This includes support services that were previously based in prison full-time, working alongside prison staff. The level of support on offer to women in prison is therefore at a critically low level, at a time of heightened need. Although there are ways to get in touch with a woman in prison, this process is complex and drawn out due to women having limited access to phones and no access to the internet. Certain prisons provide in-cell phones which enable women to ring pre-approved numbers such as support lines. However, women in prison are not able to receive incoming calls, including from professionals working for support services. The most common way to communicate with an individual in prison is through post. However, naturally this does not lend itself to efficient two-way communication and is subject to the same (or worse) delays as post in the community. Moreover, with our offices closed and staff being forced to work from home, for risk management and confidentiality reasons support workers are not able to disclose their home addresses to service users so cannot exchange letters easily.  This makes provision of support and practical preparation for release extremely difficult.

Self-isolating at home can be particularly difficult for women who have been in prison as these are conditions not dissimilar to their prison experience and many women we work with have spoken of the lock-down being a re-traumatising experience.

Physical health

Many women in the criminal justice system face poor health outcomes and have underlying health conditions. On one of our community projects, all women have had their health appointments cancelled due to Covid-19. Many women we work with have complex health issues and are used to attending regular appointments which means they have found this experience very unsettling. Some of the women have struggled to process the scale of the pandemic and why it is safer for them to have these appointments cancelled – which is where the emotional support and guidance that services like ours and other charities provide is so important.

Domestic abuse

As a group, women in the criminal justice system face high levels of domestic abuse. For many women in the community, lock-down is therefore a period of heightened risk where women are forced to self-isolate with individuals who may pose a real risk to them and their children, and where the prospects of finding alternative secure accommodation are even more limited than usual. In tandem, domestic abuse support services are struggling even more than usual to meet demand due to a combination of lack of funding, staff shortages and increased pressure on services.

Consultation responses from organisations like Agenda provide more detail on this issue.

Housing, homelessness and insecure housing

Housing and homelessness are significant barriers facing women in the criminal justice system. During this crisis, this threat is even starker and it is therefore crucial that women are supported into safe and appropriate accommodation where they can self-isolate in line with government guidelines.  Any threat of eviction during this crisis has substantial consequences for women who are already at significant risk. Despite this fact, we have seen examples of eviction threats in our work, including one woman who has been told her tenancy at an Approved Premises is at risk due to her not complying fully with strict time restrictions set for being allowed outside during the lockdown. A number of homeless people have been housed in empty hotel rooms during this crisis. However, we are now seeing evictions of some of these individuals, highlighting the stark need for accompanying support services, such as those provided by women’s centres.

Many women in the criminal justice system live in insecure and unsettled accommodation, including sofa surfing and staying with friends and families under strained circumstances. The lockdown has a disproportionate effect on women in these situations. We know from women we support in the community that many are struggling with breakdowns in family relationships as the current crisis is putting additional strain on already difficult relationships.

Alcohol and substance use

Women in the criminal justice system are often dealing with problematic substance and alcohol use and many are smokers. Our frontline staff supporting women during this crisis have noticed an increase in alcohol, drug use and smoking among some women they support due to isolation, stress, anxiety and boredom. Although substance misuse support services are still open, focused on appointments for scripts and medication, there has been an inevitable reduction in vital face-to-face support services.

Poverty, including digital poverty

Often women we work with face severe levels of poverty and for many this is worsened in the current crisis. This includes digital poverty – lack of Wi-Fi, computers, tablets or smart phones. Many women who have mobile phones are not on a monthly contract but have sim-only phones and are therefore not able to take advantage of the free phone call allowances normally offered on mobile phone contracts. Instead they rely on ‘topping up’ their phone credit in order to make phone calls and struggle to afford this. Women who do not have Wi-Fi in their homes or internet enabled phones are unable to take advantage of internet call functions and are unable to access vital information and access to services, which is often now only found online. This is all particularly problematic during a lockdown where women face isolation from their support networks. It is also of relevance when they need to contact support services or helplines, order food online or access vital public health guidance.

Women with insecure immigration status and no recourse to public funds face particular challenges and we support the campaigns of Women for Refugee Women and other charities calling for urgent action for those affected.

4. Unforeseen consequences of the response to the Covid-19 crisis

The Coronavirus Act 2020 has temporarily removed the legal duty on councils to provide social care to all who are usually eligible. This will leave many thousands of people in England who are older or with disabilities without essential support, and without any right to request this. As mentioned, women in the criminal justice system face disproportionate levels of mental ill health. Community mental health teams were already under severe strain and are now providing a reduced level of support to clients, especially if this is not seen as essential. Exceptions are made where medication is part of the reason for the visit. We have had testimonies from women we work with about how detrimental this is to their mental health and wellbeing. It is important to recognise that although a large number of women in the criminal justice system face mental ill health such as anxiety, depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, only a small proportion are deemed ‘unwell enough’ to qualify for support from the community mental health teams. The level of need facing women under the community mental health caseloads is very high under normal circumstances, and is exacerbated during the lock-down due to isolation.

In regards to courts and sentencing, as an organisation we have come across a case of a woman who received a year-long prison sentence for assaulting an emergency worker (spitting at a police officer).  Although the woman was sentenced during the Coronavirus lockdown, the offence itself was committed before the Corona crisis began. This kind of disproportionate sentencing is an unacceptable unforeseen consequence of the response to the Covid-19 crisis and will inevitably have an impact on already severely overcrowded prisons.

We have concerns that relaxing the measures under the Mental Health Act will carry consequences for individual liberty as individuals can now more easily be detained (or ‘sectioned’).

Together with over 60 women’s organisations, we support this call for immediate action by the Fawcett Society from the UK Government to protect women and girls during the Coronavirus lockdown as existing inequalities mean women will be disproportionately impacted overall.

5. Opportunities presented by the crisis to address the prisons crisis and protect life

WIP have submitted evidence to the Justice Committee throughout the Coronavirus crisis, and there are more detailed explanations the support needs of women being released from prison in our briefing on Covid-19 and prisons and briefing for the Justice Select Committee.

Along with other charities like the Prison Reform Trust and Howard League for Penal Reform we have a deep concern and growing frustration about a lack of progress, sense of urgency or transparency in the response to Covid-19 in prisons.  Along with many other charities, those working in prisons and probation, academics, families and those living in prisons we see overwhelming evidence that the protection of life and public health is not being prioritised at Ministerial level, the catastrophic consequences of which flows through the whole system in prisons and in the wider community.

Protection of life, transparency & communication in prisons

We continue to be deeply concerned about the impact on protection of life, wellbeing and safety of restrictive regimes, stopping prison visits and limited ability to self-isolate (e.g. cell sharing, ‘revolving door’ in and out of prison, staff movement around prisons and the practice of ‘cohorting’).  All of this, including 22-3 hours a day in cells exacerbates mental ill health, risk of suicide and high levels of self-harm (a particular issue in women’s prisons). Anxiety levels across the prisons and by family members are extremely high with a palpable desperation for information and action.

We call again for a clear national position on free and accessible phone calls in and out of prison (and extension of the email reply system across the prison estate). The current position means family and support workers are unable to contact women to organise needs assessment/release preparation e.g. assessing risks, discussing self-isolation and providing emotional and practical support. This must be urgently addressed at a national level and publicly communicated so that these essential lifelines for support are enhanced, rather than further constrained.

Urgently reducing the prison population

We share the bewilderment of other charities and those working on the ground in prisons and the probation service as to why there has been so little action to reduce the flow of people into prisons (at court and through recall) and to facilitate compassionate and early release. 

Although the government announced on 31 March that they agreed to calls from experts in the sector to arrange early release of pregnant women and women on Mother and Baby Units, this process has been extremely slow with only a small number of women having been released to date. In fact, on 27 April, only 33 individuals had been released early from custody in England and Wales under anti-coronavirus measures[4]. This figure is for the entire prison population of around 81,124 people, not just the female population which stands at 3,424[5].

For more details about the government’s plans, please see this End of Custody Temporary release document published on 24 April by the Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service which provides an overview of the eligibility criteria and process of early release of people in prison. We urge the government to ensure this document is made available to all women in prison so that they are informed of the arrangements for early or compassionate release. The criteria for compassionate release also needs to be reviewed so that it includes those with caring responsibility for children and other dependants.

A prominent part of the government’s strategy in limiting the spread of Covid-19 has been to create extra capacity across the prison estate in order to enable self-isolation through single-cells. It has been announced that HMP Askham Grange, a female establishment, is one of the prisons which will have new cells installed[6]. While currently cell-sharing clearly poses a significant risk to life in prison, it is important to note that reducing the prison population and over-crowding would negate the need to expand prison capacity, including through effective early and compassionate release. In regards to unforeseen consequences of the crisis, it is paramount that this additional cell capacity across the prison estate remains temporary and that once the crisis is over the prison estate does not end up with a return to cell sharing combined with permanent additional cell space.

In regards to those released from prison as part of normal practice or due to early/compassionate release, there needs to be clear guidance for charities on ‘face-to- face’ meetings, availability of personal protection equipment (PPE), national information about transport from prison and access to mobile phones to enable individuals to stay in touch with services. It is positive that the discharge grant is to be increased from a pitiful £46 to £80 but when the discharge grant runs out it will fall to charities on the ground to support people resettling in the community in the new Covid-19 lockdown conditions. The increased discharge grant must be extended to all those being released from prison, not just those under early release.

Mobilising community support services on release

There is still no national plan for early or standard prison releases which routinely involves criminal justice and women’s charities and enables sufficient support for addressing issues such as homelessness, including securing emergency housing during Covid-19. Women in Prison provide women’s centre services in Surrey, Manchester and London and other specialist support to women leaving prison, along with other women’s sector charities including Birth Companions and Hibiscus and other women’s centres.

We know from our service delivery work that women are being released homeless into destitution and without the means to stay in touch with services. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis we have been working with other women’s centres and charities attempting to be involved in preparing women for release through in-reach into prisons and community-based support. We are still no further forward in having a clear plan in facilitating well planned releases from prison. The nature of the women’s prison estate and the distance women are held from home make national coordination vital, as a regional/local approach will never be adequate on its own. Such national coordination and information would enable us to negotiate more flexible referral criteria with local commissioners, especially where current services are only commissioned to work with women over limited time periods and/or in specific regional areas.

Since social isolation measures began earlier in March, women’s centres, and other support services have established systems for intense support via phone and online. Virtual Women’s Centres now enable women to have a dedicated member of staff to connect them with local services, access emergency supplies and participate in virtual group/peer support. Yet this valuable resource to help make resettlement successful risks going to waste as there is still no national system to enable charities to plan and use their resources effectively.  This may partly account for why the release of pregnant women and those on MBUs has been so minimal. Without Ministerial prioritisation of a coherent national plan for reducing the prison population, community support services have not had access to the information and processes needed to play a full role in preparing for women’s release.

As state support services have buckled in this crisis, women’s centres and other specialist women’s charities have been stepping up and into that gap, including in places like Manchester where the Greater Manchester Women’s Support Alliance has established effective systems for local multi-agency working including in response to the desperate housing needs for women created by Covid-19.  Due to lack of sustainable funding, charities working in this space are forced to secure resources from a range of sources in order to survive the crisis and provide the support that women and their families need. Yet even now these services stand waiting to support delivery of a strategy to reduce the women’s prison population, including responding to the immediate crisis.

We know that over many years the Justice Committee and other cross-party groups have identified the need for specific action in relation to the women’s prison population. In 2018 the Government published it’s ‘Female Offender Strategy’ which has strong cross party support and is founded on the well-established fact that the women’s prison population could be significantly reduced by an alternative focus on strong community support that addresses root causes of offending.  Women are often serving short sentences for low level offending (such as shop lifting) and in the vast majority of cases women in prison do not pose a risk to the public.  The Covid-19 crisis provides an additional public health driver to reduce the prison population that could take this longer-term Government strategy forward.

It is with the deepest sadness, bewilderment and horror that charities like our own have to stand by as this tiny window of opportunity slips through the fingers of the Government to preserve life, relieve pressure from the prison system, protect our NHS and ultimately even actually improve one tiny corner of the broken criminal justice system. 

6. What could be acted on in three weeks’ time to support women in the criminal justice system

In regards to issues relating specifically to women in the criminal justice system, below is a list of our recommendations for the government.

In regards to prison releases and entries, the government should:

      Act immediately to release pregnant women and women with babies residing on Mother and Baby Units in prisons. In doing so they must work with specialist support services to ensure women have safe and appropriate housing and support in place on release and beyond.

      End the flow of women coming in to prison by routinely ending recalls, the use of remand and short sentencing.

Act to ensure the safe release of women in prison. In addition to pregnant women, women on MBUs and women released on Home Detention Curfew (HDC), the plans should include those who are: Already resettling on Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL); Particularly vulnerable to the virus due to age or underlying health conditions; On remand; Serving a sentence with six months or less remaining; In prison having been recalled for administrative breaches.

In regards to women who continue to be held in custody, the government and prison governors should:

      Ensure that all prisons have in-cell phones or (where this is not possible) that women have adequate access to mobile handsets and landing phones so that they can stay in touch with children, families and friends as well as support lines such as the Samaritans during the lock-down as all visits have been stopped.

      Ensure that women receive free phone calls in order to keep in touch with friends and family, taking account of the fact that all visits have been cancelled.

      Facilitate meaningful and effective partnership work with voluntary sector support services so that these can support women by phone, especially with such limited access to prisons during the corona crisis. This should include adding support agencies to women’s approved list of phone numbers for outgoing calls. The prisons should also enable the receiving of incoming calls so that support services and women can communicate during the crisis, and be able to make practical preparations for any upcoming releases, as well as receiving calls from children and family.

      Arrange for pre-topped up and internet-enabled mobile phones to be given to women on release so that they can keep in touch with support services during this time where face-to-face support and access to services is so limited.

In regards to women in immigration detention, the government should:

      Release women from immigration detention; during the Covid-19 crisis borders are closing and flights are suspended, making removals impossible and continued detention therefore unlawful.[7]

      End no recourse to public funds for migrant women facing homelessness and destitution, recognising their high levels of vulnerability which is heightened during this crisis.

In regards to the voluntary sector, the government should:

      Act immediately to make available emergency funding for specialist frontline women’s organisations (including women’s centres) and refuges supporting women facing domestic abuse so that these can cope with the combination of increased demand for services and reduced internal capacity during the lockdown.

      Address digital poverty for women in need of support services and mothers in poverty who are struggling to home school their children by making available emergency funds for technology such as mobile phones and computers. This funding could be made available to charities who directly support those facing multiple barriers so that they can distribute technology as they see fit to their service users.

In regards to finance and benefits, the government and prison governors should:

      Ensure women released from prison have immediate access to Universal Credit. Applications for Universal Credit take on average 6 weeks to be process. In light of the current crisis, the government must implement a fast-tracking process so that anyone facing destitution can access support in a much shorter time. Before women are released from prison, their application should be started and processed so that they can access support. This is currently not the case and many women are forced into destitution when leaving prison. Women who are being released more urgently must be informed of their right to advance payments to cover their living costs until their Universal Credit payments are processed. Every person released from prison will need immediate access to these funds.

      Offer Universal Credit advances as non-repayable grants rather than loans during the lockdown in order to reflect the urgency of the financial hardship currently facing individuals and prevent them spiralling into debt.

      End the two-child limit on Universal Credit and the benefit cap. At a minimum this should happen temporarily during this crisis.

      Immediately increase child benefit to £50 per week per child to support mothers with the additional costs (such as the cost of meals for children who normally have free school meals) of children being at home. The poorest families in our society will be the hardest hit by this crisis and this is an immediate way to get financial support to struggling families who need it the most.

In regards to housing and homelessness, the government, local authorities and prison governors should:

      Act with urgency to provide emergency accommodation to homeless individuals. Successful examples of arranging temporary accommodation using disused hotels and other options should be rolled out across the country, accompanied by support services.

      Ensure as a matter of urgency the provision of suitable housing options for all women being released from custody. Depending on local availability and individual need this can include self-contained flats or hostel accommodation or rooms in specialist supported accommodation or refuges. Due to the current risk of virus spreading, all housing options must involve self-contained rooms with own use of a bathroom. The accommodation should be safe, warm and clean.

      Ensure every woman released from prison has clear housing options in place before release. Women must be provided with an address to their accommodation before they are released and told how long they will be able to live there. Where housing is provided by the Local Authority, phone assessments prior to release should have been undertaken to ensure no woman attends her Local Authority Homeless Person’s Unit without being confirmed eligible for housing support.

      Guarantee women they can stay in their new homes for at least 6-9 months. This will enable women to self-isolate, reducing the risk of spreading the virus and being able to gain an element of stability. The continued lock-down means many support services and council offices are closed and even when services eventually do return to normal, the process of finding move-on accommodation is time-consuming and difficult.

      Act now to lift the Local Housing Allowance rates to cover the average cost of renting in each local area during the crisis, recognising the mass loss of jobs and income and risks to women and families of becoming homeless.

7. What could be acted on in six months’ time to support women in the criminal justice system

The government should:

      Permanently end the two-child limit on Universal Credit and the benefit cap; these are unfair and harmful measures which have hit poor families hardest and have pushed many further into poverty. They also disproportionately affect minoritised women and their families.

      Permanently lift the Local Housing Allowance rates to ensure stable and appropriate housing for individuals in poverty.

      Address digital poverty in a more strategic and structural way in order to increase digital inclusion for the most marginalised.

      Ensure ring-fenced funding is made available to third sector organisations so that they are able to carry out their vital work supporting marginalised individuals and families during this crisis and beyond. 

      Fully implement its 2018 ‘Female Offender’s Strategy’ and significantly reduce the women’s prison population by investing in community support services like women’s centres that address the root causes of offending. Please see our #OPENUP Women’s Futures Manifesto for the full list of recommendations.

April 2020