Checklist for the Government’s newly announced Women’s Justice Board

Shabana Mahmood MP's speech heralds a welcome change in government mindset, something we and our partners have been calling for, for decades. We’ve been saying prison isn’t working for women, for families and isn’t working for our communities since we were formed 40 years ago.

Knowing that we can start working from a basis of some shared values is incredibly exciting, but this is certainly no time to sit back and bask in the glow of a policy revolution. It’s time to get to work. Women need change, right now.

We are looking forward to the creation of a new Women’s Justice Board and want to see it succeed. So, here’s our checklist for a Board that will make meaningful change for the women who so urgently need it.

Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? Yet so often when we talk about women in contact with the criminal justice system, a deep understanding of how gender injustice in society translates into criminalisation can be missing. Women don't just pop into the criminal justice system from nowhere. Usually, social injustice drove them there. Right now, women are being imprisoned for the domestic abuse they experience, are being sent to prison as a place of safety as there is nothing in the community for them, and facing disproportionate criminalisation for issues relating to household poverty and debt.

We are in a situation where last year, Calpol was reported as the most shoplifted item in Tower Hamlets according to a council report. In 2022 more women were sent to prison to serve a sentence for theft than for criminal damage and arson, drug offences, possession of weapons, robbery, and sexual offences combined.

In our brilliant recent Summit on Ending the Criminalisation of Women, one speaker told stories of women coerced by their partner to admit the drugs were theirs, or they were driving the car - and take on the prison sentence because their partner persuaded them to. These are the stories we need a Women's Justice Board to be packed to the brim with - the real stories of women – to understand and address the root causes of their offending and contact with the system.

The Women's Justice Board will only work if it is truly joined up across government departments; Department for Health and Social Care, Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Home Office are just some of the essential components.

Last week we worked with a woman who had been to prison 45 (yes, really!), 45 times serving short term sentences. She was about to be released again last week, but no accommodation was available for her, so she was going to back to living in a tent and coping through substance misuse. Prison wasn't working for her, but she needed housing, health, and specialist voluntary sector organisations to get the formula right for her. We know that no one organisation or department can do this alone.

This isn’t a new or original idea, but let’s be honest. Those voluntary sector professionals already working with the women in contact with the justice system are best placed to help the government meet women’s needs.

That’s why it’s encouraging to hear a commitment to working with the voluntary sector through the Women’s Justice Board. We see the world differently sometimes, but now is a good time to come together around some common goals.

For example, the criminal justice system disproportionately impacts Black, Asian, racially minoritised and migrant women, and we won't get the right solutions in place without ensuring that those specialist organisations, run by and for Black, Asian, racially minoritised and migrant women, are a core part of the Women's Justice Board.

We really hope that the government will view us - the highly skilled and experienced specialist women's criminal justice sector - as its critical friend. Our extensive expertise and deep understanding of the factors that trap women in a revolving door of prison, poverty, mental health crises, domestic abuse, and substance misuse can help the Women's Justice Board develop effective solutions that address the root causes of offending.

The Women's Justice Board needs to ensure that the voices, experiences and opinions of women with lived experience are at the heart of what it does. Women’s experiences and demands are at the foundation of everything we do at Women in Prison and they are experts in their own experiences.

Engaging with individuals is very welcome, but for meaningful and lasting participation with women in prison or on community penalties, a long-term commitment is needed to work closely with the organisations best positioned to support women to contribute.

The Board needs the right resources to be effective. That means a clear budget, dedicated support staff and objectives. It needs to set out what it will achieve and by when. There's also an interesting question here about who the Women's Justice Board will be accountable to.

None of us should mark our own homework.

You won't be surprised to hear from me that, however the Board is held accountable, it must include women with lived experience.

I can tell you a long list of urgent issues that need fixing, and we all understand that the government is battling to put out fires.  But hang onto your fire extinguishers as we need to look past the next 18 months or so.

Prisons are old, dirty, dilapidated, and not equipped for women to live in them. We’re imprisoning women for the smallest things and we’re operating within a system that doesn’t work for women. Many women we work with describe the feeling of walking into a mental asylum of the 1800s as they walk into prison. I'm not exaggerating when I say the experience can be hellish.

A true measure of the Women's Justice Board success will be if they can envision - and deliver - a long-term strategy that stops women being criminalised. We want to see a society where women experiencing domestic abuse, mental health crisis and poverty are supported, not punished.

Let's imagine a day, ten or so years from now, when the Board's final, successful act, is to tidy away the chairs, sweep the floors and turn off the lights on the day the last women's prison closes.

To read our comment on the announcement of the Women’s Justice Board, head to our website. To discuss the ideas shared in this blog or to meet with Women in Prison, email [email protected].

Photo by Eden Constantino on Unsplash.