Abstract
The author of this report, Liz Hogarth, worked closely with Baroness Corston in the production of the influential 2007 Corston Report on women in the criminal justice system. Hogarth was also heavily involved in the implementation of the recommendations following the Corston Report as the Ministry of Justice policy lead on women. She is therefore well placed to conduct this review, ten years on, into the woman-centred services called for in Baroness Corston’s recommendations. The paper takes a policy perspective to reflect on what went wrong, explain the reasons and offer a ‘reality check’, with recommendations on ways forward.
This review demonstrates that renewed focused is needed to achieve the system’s change that was widely agreed, following the Corston Report, to better address the specific needs of women within the criminal justice system, those at risk of being criminalized, and those repeatedly failed by the wider social justice systems. The paper is well structured, providing a journey through the hope and elation immediately following the publication of the Corston Report, to the momentum gained in the three-year implementation of the National Service Framework strategy, to the lack of progress on the prevention, health and diversionary components.
The cornerstone of Corston’s system change is holistic, women-centred provision, but this agenda has not flourished within the confines of a criminal justice arena. Sadly, ten years on, Hogarth concludes that ‘nothing has really changed’ because imprisonment is still over-used, the ‘justice loop’ ‘fixation with internal tinkering’ has ‘achieved nothing’ to improve the criminal justice system, and community sentences are being imposed less frequently (p. 6). Critically, one catalyst for Baroness Corston’s review was the tragic deaths of women in custody, and ten years on, shockingly, it is a worse situation with increasing numbers of self-inflicted deaths amongst women who are drawn into the criminal justice system after being repeatedly failed by health and social care systems.
The review concludes with seven well-argued policy recommendations to direct the way forward. Crucially, the over-use of imprisonment for women who pose a low risk of serious harm and are committing ‘nuisance’ crimes rather than serious offences is problematic within the sentencing framework. There is also a tendency to consider prison as a pseudo-assessment venue for those women suffering the impact of trauma, mental health, addiction and lack of housing. Thus, Hogarth argues clearly in her ensuing recommendations for the shift of focus away from sentencing and criminal justice to ‘“whole system” thinking’ (p. 8).
The Corston blueprint, whereby networks of integrated, holistic and women-centred delivery structures boldly take on a prevention agenda, requires that the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) take ownership, away from a criminal justice-led agenda. To ensure these provisions are developed and delivered within mainstream services, this must include a cross-departmental governance approach to include the Department of Health, local authorities, police and crime commissioners and several other ‘whole system’ governance structures. The £50 million earmarked to build five new women’s prisons should be re-directed away from the Ministry of Justice to the DCLG and cross-departmental body to better resource the prevention work with women.
The aim within a robust, integrated approach is to support women in such a way as to avoid them being criminalized further, and to enable women to access diversionary interventions, with the police being the gatekeepers to alter the way they respond to troubled women who present with multiple, complex needs. Hogarth recognizes that the networks of women-centred community projects need rebuilding, expanding and nurturing for these interventions to be embedded within local communities. Thus, gender-specific provisions to meet women’s social, emotional and health needs must be available and accessible in the mainstream, meaning women can access services regardless of their criminal justice status. Ultimately, Hogarth demands urgent rethinking of the penal policy which fuels the inappropriate use of imprisonment for low-risk women, because this is not providing the necessary environment to meet their specific needs. Moreover, the solutions rest outside of the justice system, and Hogarth reminds us: ‘There is an urgent need to break out of the “justice loop” now and broaden the focus, shifting the attention up-stream on how best to stem the flow of women into the CJS’ (p. 7).
Trapped in the Justice Loop? Past, Present and Future of the Woman-Centred Services at the Heart of the Systems-Change Called for in the Corston Report, by Liz Hogarth, published May 2017 by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. Available to download at: https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/publications/trapped-justice-loop