Policy Officer, Community Justice
The Women’s Justice Cross Party Group has been meeting since 2018. The purpose of the Group is to “Focus on every aspect of women’s experience of the justice system.” It is made up of Members of the Scottish parliament (MSPs) across the political parties represented in the Scottish Parliament, and representatives from the following organisations:
Scottish Working Group on Women’s Offending;
It continued to meet during 2020-21, and this year identified the following areas as priorities for the group:
i. The high levels of women being remanded into custody, and the particular challenges for community-based services engaging with women on remand during Covid restrictions:
At the beginning of 2020-21 around 20% of the women’s prison population was untried on remand. By the end of the year this had risen to around 25%.
ii. Girls up to age of 18 being routinely remanded or sentenced to prison rather than use of residential / secure care:
Scottish Parliament Justice Committee inquiry into secure care and prison places for children and young people in Scotland recommended that “…no young person under the age of 18 should be placed in HMP YOI Polmont when a place in a secure care unit would be more suitable.”
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The 2020 Independent Care Review also concluded that “Young Offenders Institutions are not appropriate places for children and only serve to perpetuate the pain that many of them have experienced. There are times where it is right for children to have their liberty restricted, but that must only be done when other options have been fully explored and for the shortest time possible and in small, secure, safe, trauma informed environments that uphold the totality of their rights.”
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iii. The need for more alternatives to custody.
The article ‘Punishment or Rehabilitation’ in our Annual report last year outlines some of the alternatives and the impact they have on reducing reoffending.
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iv. The need for investment in early intervention and prevention.
Our article ‘Youth Justice Services at a Glance’ outlines some of our early intervention approaches in Glasgow.
v. Ongoing monitoring of development of the new custodial estate for women.
Scottish Prison Service are currently working on updating their women’s estate, in response to the Commission on Women Offenders.
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The latest minutes and other documents for the group can be found here:
https://archive2021.parliament.scot/msps/womens-justice.aspx
