Still Dying On The Inside: The Case For Ending Imprisonment Of Women

Huffington Post ^ | Mat 22, 2018 | Deborah Coles

[EdnaMode]

This month marks ten years since the death of Pauline Campbell. Pauline became a formidable campaigner exposing the harm inflicted on women within the prison system. This followed the death of her 18-year-old daughter in Styal prison in 2003.

It was campaigning by Pauline Campbell, bereaved families and Inquest around the sharp rise in deaths across the women’s estate, and in particular deaths at Styal in the early 2000s, that persuaded the then Labour government to commission Baroness Jean Corston to conduct an independent review of women in the criminal justice system.

Corston’s ground-breaking report, published in March 2007, offered a blueprint for change. The review recommended the dismantling of the women’s prison estate, the introduction of small custodial units and an expansion of gender-specific support in the community, through a network of women’s centres. It was expected that the use of imprisonment for women could be reduced to an ‘absolute minimum’ and was hoped that women’s imprisonment could be almost entirely phased out. At the time there was great optimism that positive change was imminent.

Eleven years after Corston, and ten years after Pauline Campbell’s death, and the situation has never felt so desperate. The casework team at Inquest continue to support families whose daughters, sisters, mothers, aunts and grandmothers have died. Ninety-four women have died in women’s prisons since March 2007. Of these, 38 were self-inflicted, 48 were non-self-inflicted and eight await classification. 32 were by hanging.

[SamAdams76]

It could be setup as a "work-release" type program. You are given a chance to integrate back into society but if you screw up, back in the can you go.

I would say the majority of women inmates would jump at the chance to serve out their sentence as a domestic servant - living full-time in somebody's home with an ankle bracelet (which alerts law enforcement if they ever leave the house). Much cheaper from a taxpayer standpoint as well.

The vast majority of women are not violent. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule.