WOMEN IN PRISON: A THEMATIC REVIEW BY HM CHIEF INSPECTOR OF PRISONS

Crown Copyright 1997
Printed in England by the Home Office, London
ISBN 1858939011
Published by Home Office. 50 Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1H 9AT

PREFACE

The aim of all inspections carried out by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons is to raise the operational standards of establishments being inspected. This is done by a mixture of planned, announced inspections, each lasting a week, to try to satisfy the long-standing requirement to inspect every prison every five years, and short, unannounced inspections, designed to examine a particular aspect or problem, to follow up a previous inspection, or to ensure that no prison goes for too long without some form of inspection. Each inspection is followed by a report, that is published,which contains a number of recommendations aimed at raising standards.

However, during the course of its work, the Inspectorate gains a unique insight into the workings of the Prison Service, and is able to compare establishments, with similar roles, in different parts of England and Wales, in a way that is denied to any other organisation. We can examine regimes, identify best practice that might be followed by others with advantage, as well as common failings, and so single out issues that are of wider significance than merely to the prison being inspected. But, until recently, the Inspectorate has tended to keep quiet about wider issues, and to make only occasionally what Professor Rod Morgan has described as ‘lateral forays into policy’, the most recent example of such work, before our 1996 discussion document Patient or Prisoner’ being the 1990 Review of Suicide and Self-Harm in Prison Service Establishments’.
 
 But if we are to be true to our aim, it seems to me that this is a pity, because we are not exploiting the collective wisdom, and experience, of the Inspectorate to the best advantage of the Prison Service as a whole. During my first year in office, a number of subjects have suggested themselves as being worthy of separate study, which I have discussed with the Home Secretary and the Director General of the Prison Service. For a variety of reasons, not wholly unconnected with the situation we uncovered in our inspections of HMP Holloway, I have selected the treatment of and conditions for Women in Prison as the first subject for such a study, and our report is attached, which is written, deliberately, with the needs of women in mind. If parts of it appear incongruous to the predominantly male eye of the Prison Service I make no apologies. It will, I hope, serve as a guide to the Service as to how the needs of women in prison differ in many respects from those of male prisoners. I intend this to be the first of a regular series of thematic studies by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons, of issues affecting the Prison Service, the next being a study of Young Offenders on which we are currently embarked.

Central to this report is our strongly held view that the women's prison system ought to be managed, as an entity, by one Director, with responsibility and accountability for all that happens within the women's estate. As is pointed out over and over again, there is an urgent need for a thorough analysis of the needs of women prisoners, and a national strategy for implementing and managing policies appropriate to satisfying them. The present system of geographical management works positively against the all-important consistency that the treatment of such a separate group of prisoners requires. Our recommendations are, I hope, clear and unambiguous, and are put forward for examination by the Prison Service in the context of their own strategic review of the estate. But they also have an underlying purpose, which is to encourage the Prison Service to make better arrangements for the separate management of the fast-rising numbers of women in prison, and to provide regimes appropriate to their needs, not merely to adapt those designed for men. This does not require another policy desk, it requires someone charged with implementing policy, as well as assessing, obtaining and allocating the necessary resources of staff, money and facilities.

Many people have contributed to this study, including the Governors, staff and prisoners from every establishment in which women are held, either on remand or in custody; we are most grateful for their willing response to requests and for facilities. But I must mention nine individuals in particular. Firstly Silvia Casale, who has acted as consultant and adviser, and whose encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject, as well as her ready advice, has been as invaluable as her company has been Welcome. Secondly, within the Inspectorate, I must single out my Deputy, Mr Colin Allen, himself a former Governor of Holloway, who led the project, and is primarily responsible for its production. He has been assisted by Mr Tony Wood, Leader of Inspection team Omega, who conducted much of the field work with Miss Mairi McCracken and Mr Ted Hornblow from his team, Mr Simon Boddis, my Principal Psychologist, who organised much of the research, Dr John Reed and Mrs Maggi Lyne, my medical and nursing inspectors, who contributed to the health care parts of the review, and Miss Susan Davies, our specially employed research assistant, without whose tireless work of interviewing women prisoners in particular, this report could not have been completed.

In line with our current practice in Inspection reports, our recommendations and significant observations are highlighted in bold, and our observations of good practice are highlighted in italicised bold.

Sir David Ramsbotham
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons in England and Wales

  May 1997

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