Pubdate: Thu, 14 May 1998 Source: Scotsman (UK) Contact: Website: http://www.scotsman.com/ BLUEPRINT FOR A BETTER JUSTICE SYSTEM The seven recommendations for the Scottish Office on women offenders 1. Enable more women to be released on bail to await trial, rather than remanded in custody at Cornton Vale THE PROBLEM: On any given day, a quarter of the population of Cornton Vale - about 55 prisoners - is on remand. Such prisoners are a very vulnerable group, and five of the seven deaths have been among them. They are often far from home, withdrawing from drugs and anxious about their children and future. Courts tend to choose remand instead of bail when women are drug abusers with chaotic lifestyles and no stable home address. THE SOLUTION: The report suggests the Scottish Office provides more bail accommodation and considers using electronic tags to enforce use of bail hostels. More background reports, support, advice, accommodation and supervision is needed by social workers to enable women to be released on bail. 2. To reduce the number of women jailed for fine defaults, particularly for prostitution and failure to buy a TV licence THE PROBLEM: More than 55 per cent of the women sentenced to prison have defaulted on a fine or breached a community punishment imposed for a relatively minor offence, such as not owning a TV licence. Prostitutes who are fined for soliciting usually have no way to pay their fine except by going back on the streets. THE SOLUTION: Consider reforming the fines system and introducing unitary fines tailored to income; enable courts to impose supervised attendance orders instead of prison more often in such circumstances. 3. Set up a steering group to consider the special problems of Glasgow and the west of Scotland THE PROBLEM: 80 per cent of women in Cornton Vale are from the west of Scotland. Heroin injecting is a particular problem which affects every part of female addicts' lives. THE SOLUTION: Set up a task-force including everyone who deals with women offenders in Glasgow, from procurators-fiscal to housing providers; from police to health workers, to see if the system can be improved to keep them out of jail. 4. All social work departments to draw up a policy on women offenders by the end of November THE PROBLEM: The number of female offenders is so small that few criminal justice social work departments have a separate policy for women - they simply include them in their plans for male offenders. Many fail to offer community disposals appropriate for women, leaving them more likely to breach their sentences and leaving courts with no alternative but fines or prison. THE SOLUTION: Decide what women's needs and problems are and devise community disposals which women will be less likely to breach. 5. Collect information on female offending THE PROBLEM: Few separate statistics are available about women's offending, and those there are are too scant - for example, failure to buy a TV licence is listed under "miscellaneous offences", when it accounts for 20 per cent of female convictions. The pattern of women's offending is very different from men's - for example, less than 1 per cent of convictions are for violent crimes. Lack of information makes it difficult to analyse the problems women pose, or to measure whether sentences passed on women are cutting reoffending. THE SOLUTION: More detailed data-gathering about women. 6. Aim to stop the use of prison as a punishment for woman under the age of 18 by 2000. Consider doing the same thing for men THE PROBLEM: Kelly Holland and Arlene Elliott were both 17 when they committed suicide at Cornton Vale. Young women are a particularly disturbed and vulnerable group, prone to bullying and easily influenced by older offenders. THE SOLUTION: Sentence women under 18 to secure accommodation, where they can be educated in a more caring and therapeutic environment. 7. Cornton Vale to be overhauled THE PROBLEM: The prison remains a stark place for depressed and vulnerable women , with its single-cell accommodation, high proportion of male officers and scant provision for children to visit. THE SOLUTION: Knock groups of three cells into double bed-sits, so two women can provide mutual support and company; consider in-cell television for remand prisoners at evenings and weekends; enable more women to serve their sentences at local prisons in Dumfries and Inverness; include a women's wing at the new private prison being built at Kilmarnock. The Kilmarnock recommendation is the only idea the Scottish Office minister Henry McLeish rejected, on the grounds that the contract had already been signed and it would delay the scheme to change it. - --- Checked-by: Melodi Cornett