Dr Liz Gordon – Custodial alternatives to prison for women

There is a mountain of good research evidence that placing women in prison causes undue harm to their families and children.  Most children end up living with extended family (few are looked after by the father), often grandparents. The children are often traumatised. There is little therapy, counselling or other support for the children.  They are vulnerable to poor health outcomes and poor education outcomes.

Much of this is, of course, also true for men as well.  Children who have any parent go to prison face barriers that can affect their whole life.  Think about just one thing. What would you tell your friends if your parent went to prison?  Would you be honest and tell the truth? If you do that, you risk being bullied at school, and facing rejection, stigma and discrimination.  If you lie, then you carry that burden and the worry inside. It is a hard existence for children who have loved parents in prison.

While much has been made of the increase in the numbers of women in prison, I had not been able to find any detailed analysis of the causes of the increase. But very likely it is, as usual, drugs and fraud, in particular benefit fraud.  Women, often addicted to substances and unable to make ends meet, turn in desperation to crime. Women have borne the brunt of poverty in Aotearoa since Ruth Richardson’s mother of all budgets, and times have been hard.

What we do know about women prisoners is that three quarters of them have been the victims of family violence, rape or sexual assault, and three quarters of them have been diagnosed with mental illness.  In my own research with women in prison, some of them told me they were OK with being in prison to given them a break from the hassles they face in the outside world. There is something particularly sad about prison being a refuge from daily life.

Recently there has been some interesting work done by the Prison Reform Trust on alternatives to prison for women.  Various schemes have covered diversion, pre-sentencing opportunities and community work options, case management and alternative forms of institutional care.

In terms of community care options, there is a wide variety.  Some use an ‘outpatient’ model, where clients are assessed for substance use and mental health issues before an individual plan is put into place for them. There is wraparound support including various mixes of residential and non-residential options, and intensive programmes.  The point is that these programmes are compulsory and non-attendance will land people back in the clink.

An advantage of these models is the ability of mothers to remake relationships with their own families and children, and to participate in education or employment in the real world.

For those whose sentence requires a secure setting, there are a number of alternatives described in the report.  On average, these are facilities that house women in smaller properties (around 12-15 is normal). There is intensive treatment for drugs and mental health (including drug checks), family reunification programmes, and work towards sustainable employment, education opportunities and secure housing for the future.  In some, the prison charges are wiped once the programme is to complete, to give the woman a better chance of facing the world without discrimination.

Women’s prisons can offer many similar programmes, but the purpose of incarceration is not to make wonderful citizens, whereas the purpose of these community interventions is to do just that.  To heal the harm and make a new start.

There is one programme that has unit-based accommodation where mothers and their children live together. Women have to pay most of the rent for their units and are gradually moved towards a level of independence where they can go out into the community free from the things that drove them to crime.

On average, these community-based alternatives cost around one-third of the cost of housing someone in the bursting prison system.  They are a humane and effective way of dealing with a large proportion of the women prison community, and they focus on making good lives, not paying for bad ones.

Of course, there are also many innovative options around the world for men, young people and other identifiable groups.  Many iwi would love the opportunity to provide high quality community based alternatives to prison in their areas, to provide a whanau and tikanga-based programme, especially for their young men.

Looking at the international research, it shows quite clearly that New Zealand has largely stuck all its eggs in one basket in relation to custodial sentencing – well, two really, if you count home detention. It looks like there may a range of other community based services that could be developed at minimal cost to tackle the dreadful trauma associated with imprisonment, and reduce the numbers in prisons.

 

Dr Liz Gordon began her working life as a university lecturer at Massey and the Canterbury universities. She spent six years as an Alliance MP, before starting her own research company, Pukeko Research.  Her work is in the fields of justice, law, education and sociology (poverty and inequality). She is the president of Pillars, a charity that works for the children of prisoners, a prison volunteer, and is on the board of several other organisations. Her mission is to see New Zealand freed from the shackles of neo-liberalism before she dies (hopefully well before!).