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The Corston Report - Briefing for Commissioners
The Corston Report was published in March 2007 and reviewed women with particular vulnerabilities in the criminal justice system. The review was commissioned to examine women's pathways through the criminal justice process and the interventions and services available at each stage, to identify what more could be done to tackle problems at an earlier point and, where possible, avoid women with vulnerabilities ending up in prison.
The report outlined the need for a distinct radically different, visibly-led, strategic, proportionate, holistic, woman-centred, integrated approach.
Key recommendations included:
The government should announce within six months a clear strategy to replace existing women's prisons with suitable, geographically dispersed, small, multi-functional custodial centres within 10 years.
Improving the dignity and standards of hygiene with which women prisoners are met
Improved supported accommodation, education and other support for women offenders to break the cycle of offending
Re-thinking of sentences given to women including only using custodial sentences for serious and violent crime and community sentences as the norm for other crimes.
Greater focus on women offender's mental health
The Government Response to Corston
The Government Response to Corston was published in December 2007. In the WNC CEDAW Shadow Report, WNC particularly welcomed:
The Government's stated commitment to establish a new cross-departmental unit within the Ministry of Justice, headed by a senior civil servant, to coordinate and monitor work on taking forward Baroness Corston's recommendations.
The Governments stated commitment, amongst others, to ensure that custody is only used for those women who really need it and to maximise the use of community orders and supportive interventions and services.
However, the Government did not fully endorse all the recommendations of the Corston report. For example, they did not state a full commitment to announce a clear strategy to replace existing women's prison's with suitable, geographically dispersed, small, multi-functional custodial centres to be rolled out within ten years, one of Baroness Corston's key recommendations.
Further, the Government declined to commit to the establishment of a new Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) on Women at Risk of Offending and have instead stated that the existing IMG on Reducing Re-offending will take onboard work on issues of women at risk of offending. They have not stated how the IMG on Reducing Re-offending will be adequately resourced to extent its remit to work on women at risk of offending.
WNC/08/1/02
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