Baroness Corston report on Vulnerable Women in Prison

20/03/2007

The report of Baroness Jean Corston on Vulnerable Women in Prison is available on the Home Office website. A link to this is contained within this news article.

The report provides a welcome analysis of the problems faced by many women who should not be in custody at all. Many of the women who are in custody have serious personal problems including mental illness which makes them totally unsuitable for being held in a prison environment.

The proposal that for those women who must be sent to prison that women’s prisons should be replaced by local custodial units close to places where their families live is particularly welcome but if this is to become reality it will require major political commitment to providing the facilities and not just fine words.

GCN barristers have been involved in a number of inquests into the deaths in custody of women prisoners:

08/12/06 Inquest verdict questions appropriateness of prison for vulnerable women

12/05/06 Highly critical verdict in Rebecca Turner inquest

02/12/05 Damning verdict returned into Wendy Booth's death in condemned Durham Prison