Extra support for women through the criminal justice system announced

A Women’s Justice Board will be established to bring together senior leaders in the criminal justice system, charities and government departments and publish a new strategy in the spring, Shabana Mahmood has confirmed.

Evidence shows female offenders are often vulnerable, with more than 60 per cent of women in prison reporting having experienced domestic violence and more than half having experienced abuse as a child.

Ms Mahmood said the creation of the Women’s Justice Board recognises these distinct needs and advocates for a tailored approach to divert women away from custodial sentences. It will meet regularly to discuss and implement ways to intervene earlier before women’s offending becomes serious and better tackle the root causes of their offending.

The strategy will also focus on enhancing alternatives to prison, such as community sentences and residential women’s centres.

Only around one third of female offenders sentenced to custody have committed a violent offence and prisons are not working to rehabilitate this group, with women serving short custodial sentences significantly more likely to reoffend than those serving community sentences, Ms Mahmood said.

The board will be chaired by Lord Timpson, Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending.

It will be held to account by experts from the voluntary and community sector, recruited by open competition to the new Women in Justice Partnership Delivery Group. This group will regularly review and publish reports on the on the board’s progress towards its goal of reducing the number of women in custody.

The Lord Chancellor also announced that free independent legal advocates will be in place from next year to support adult victims of rape across England and Wales.

Almost two-thirds of rape victims drop out of their case before it reaches trial so this service will help victims understand their rights and ensure access to mobile phones and medical data is proportionate to the investigation, she said.

When trialled in Northumberland, two-thirds of challenges to a request for victims’ data were successful and, in turn, reduced the volume of indiscriminate police requests in the first place.

The Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) the focus on achieving justice for women involved in the criminal justice system, as victims or as offenders, is long overdue.

In a statement it said: “We are delighted that independent legal advocates are being rolled out nationally for rape victims in every part of the country. CWJ has developed its own model for providing such advice developed over the past few years and is supporting a pilot project hosted at Women and Girls Network which is currently underway. We hope the new government will look closely at our methodology to inform the proposed model for this much needed independent legal advice moving forward.

“It is welcome that the Lord Chancellor has made reducing women’s imprisonment a primary aim of her time in office. This has been an official government aim for some years but there has been minimal progress.

“We hope the Women’s Justice Board will lead to better results, but this won’t be achieved without increased, sustainable investment in women’s community services and a cultural transformation of the criminal justice system to address misogyny, racism and discrimination against migrant women, and to ensure accountability.

“The Lord Chancellor is right to point out that the majority of women in prison are victim/survivors of domestic abuse. Her planned reforms must include legislation to introduce effective defences for victims of domestic abuse who are accused of offending, and a transformation in practice by the police and other criminal justice agencies to ensure victims’ experiences of domestic abuse are properly taken into account in any criminal proceedings against them.

“Black, minoritised and migrant women face appalling discrimination at every stage of the criminal justice system. The Lord Chancellor and Home Secretary must show strong, united leadership in ensuring their planned reforms include all women and girls, regardless of their race or country of origin.”