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This chapter explores the situation regarding older women prisoners in England and Wales and, in particular, turns the spotlight onto ‘The Rubies’, a project which runs for older women within Eastwood Park, a closed women’s prison in South West England. There is an initial descriptive review of older women in the prison system. This is followed by an account of the regular meetings of ‘The Rubies’; this section includes extracts from poems written by some of the participants. The example of ‘The Rubies’ shows how provision of a charity, in collaboration with and with the support of the prison authorities, can provide an innovative, supportive and flexible response for older women offenders within such a setting.
This chapter provides an overview and discussion of women and criminal justice. In particular it focuses on the Corston Report (2007) which directed attention to the imprisonment of vulnerable women in England and Wales. It outlines the scope and intentions of Corston and the hoped-for level of change the Report proposed, particularly in relation to radical alternatives to custody for women offenders. The chapter places this review within its wider context and considers key developments that followed. Whilst Corston opened up the way for some initiatives and community interventions, this chapter critically reviews the complexities of well-intentioned developments and argues that whilst it endeavoured to ‘kick-start’ a new approach to women in the criminal justice system, it failed to bring about the hoped for level of change it promised.
This chapter outlines the situation relating to women offenders supervised by the Wales Probation Trust: it starts by indicating the scale and scope of these developments and then moves on to discuss and critically review the underpinning ethos and impact of these approaches. Finally, it concludes with some cautionary thoughts about the changing situation in relation to women offenders within the context of the Transforming Rehabilitation agenda.
This chapter draws together some of the broad themes, theories and ideas covered in the preceding contributions. It notes that despite the initial apparent welcome for Corston and the length of time since the report, that far less of substance has changed than might have been hoped for–the challenges posed by Corston still have a considerable distance to travel. The chapter considers why this might be and concludes that the ideological reasons behind the continued high use of custody the focus on retribution, the promotion of ‘one criminal justice system’ and the provisions within Transforming Rehabilitation lead to the conclusion that much still needs to be done.
This book focuses on developments since the publication in 2007 of the Corston Report into women and criminal justice. While some of its recommendations were accepted by government, actual policy has restricted the scale and scope of change. This book explores developments since Corston, as well as possible future directions resulting from the Coalition Government’s ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’ plans. This timely analysis engages with wide-ranging considerations for policy-makers, providers and practitioners of services and interventions for women who offend, and questions whether women should be treated differently in the criminal justice system.
This book focuses on developments since the publication in 2007 of the Corston Report into women and criminal justice. While some of its recommendations were accepted by government, actual policy has restricted the scale and scope of change. This book explores developments since Corston, as well as possible future directions resulting from the Coalition Government’s ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’ plans. This timely analysis engages with wide-ranging considerations for policy-makers, providers and practitioners of services and interventions for women who offend, and questions whether women should be treated differently in the criminal justice system.
This book focuses on developments since the publication in 2007 of the Corston Report into women and criminal justice. While some of its recommendations were accepted by government, actual policy has restricted the scale and scope of change. This book explores developments since Corston, as well as possible future directions resulting from the Coalition Government’s ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’ plans. This timely analysis engages with wide-ranging considerations for policy-makers, providers and practitioners of services and interventions for women who offend, and questions whether women should be treated differently in the criminal justice system.
This chapter looks in detail at the implications of the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) agenda for women offenders. It considers these alongside other developments in government policy and legislation since the Corston Report. After outlining the controversial nature of TR and criticisms that it fails to take account of differences between the offending and needs of female and male offenders, it concludes that the criminal justice system is likely to continue to be dominated by a male-centric approach, that specialised provision for women may find secure funding difficult to obtain and that the new compulsory post-custody supervision provisions might increase the numbers of women facing breach proceedings.
This chapter sets out the premise and aims of the book – bringing together international research on evidence-based skills for working with offenders in the criminal justice system. It explains the breadth and parameters of the books, including defining and contextualising the term ‘desistance’ for the purposes of the book. The chapter also explains the genesis of the book, arising from the international Collaboration of Researchers for the Effective Development of Offender Supervision network (CREDOS), and sets out the aims and work of CREDOS. Finally, the introduction summarises the structure and the chapters of the book.
The editors draw on the key themes covered by the preceding chapters to summarise the international research on evidence-based skills in criminal justice. The chapter also locates the key themes within the contexts of the organisational factors, policy conditions, and other issues that affect the deployment of evidence-based skills. Finally, the chapter demonstrates the broad significance of evidence-based skills in criminal justice settings.