Women's Imprisonment and the Case for Abolition by Linda Moore Phil Scraton Azrini Wahidin

Author:Linda Moore, Phil Scraton, Azrini Wahidin [Linda Moore, Phil Scraton, Azrini Wahidin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Crimes & Criminals, Criminology
ISBN: 9781351792141
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2017-11-20T05:00:00+00:00

Conclusion: post-Corston reflections, the failure of reform

Corston (2007: 66) recommended a ‘different model of provision’, supplied by ‘an integrated approach to services’ that would ‘cut the numbers of women on remand and reduce the risk of re-offending by tackling their criminogenic needs’. This included ‘residential women’s centres’ to accommodate women remanded for reasons including lack of suitable accommodation or fixed address, ‘drug treatment or mental health needs that would not be met in the community’ and ‘low to medium risk offences and awaiting sentence’. Corston (2007: 85) envisaged that such centres would support the ‘top end’ of non-custodial disposals, anticipating their suitability ‘for women either on bail or being released from prison with no suitable accommodation’. In Northern Ireland, these residential centres never materialised. Whilst the much-acclaimed ‘Inspire’ model of women-centred community provision emerged from a partnership between probation services and the community sector, it did not include the remand population. Rather, it served ‘women who are subject to statutory supervision orders, those whose cases have been adjourned for pre-sentence reports and a small number of women on day release from prison’ (Kerr 2014: 6). The omission of remanded women from the criteria for referral was counterproductive in reducing offending.

While Corston’s recommendation for diversion was significant, her vision was restricted by a criminal justice framework underpinning community alternatives. As discussed above, the women interviewed had been remanded to custody, often for reasons beyond the seriousness of their offences. This compounded their social and economic marginalisation while imposing punishment on their lives and families. Despite recognition of the social harms experienced by many vulnerable women, harms that increase their likelihood of facing imprisonment, the focus of reform remained fixed on assumptions regarding women’s deviance, their troubled environments interpreted as ‘risk factors’, thus necessitating the continuation of their punishment and control.

At a time of ever-reducing community provision, women categorised as ‘offending’ and requiring punishment will continue to be channelled to prison. It is evidence of the failure of ‘reform’. A decade on in Northern Ireland, many of the questions Corston’s review sought to raise remain unaddressed. Rather than ‘transformation’, women’s experiences of ‘gender-specific’ imprisonment reflect mismatched reform alongside an inability to provide appropriate therapeutic settings. In effect, Corston proposed the sanitisation of the punishment administered to women and the initiation of proportionality, which continued to locate women on a carceral continuum where they were considered deserving of punishment. This contrasted with the contextualisation recognised throughout her review. Through the report’s adoption of a gender-specific lens that is entwined with recommendations of gender ‘appropriate’ penal environments and measures, Corston effectively binds women to concepts of punishment, confined by the limits of gender-based reform. As this chapter illustrates, these issues are pertinent, particularly for women on remand, each of whom carries the pretrial presumption of innocence and many of whom have not committed an imprisonable offence. Recognition of the structural determination of their marginalisation and criminalisation should promote their removal from the punitive paradigm of criminal justice responses while progressing enhanced public health, social care and welfare provision for the vulnerabilities this population endures.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.