Annelise Sanderson. Women in Prison - poor mental health and 57% of inmates have history of being victims of DV

[exwhyzed]

From The Times: A teens death in a jail cell - why was she there

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/4144e4e6-ebe9-11eb-ba7b-b4d4e5c44898?shareToken=3ed0b20904c70337f1790505642ffe12

It's a heartbreaking story of the lead up to the suicide of 18 year old Annelise Sanderson in Styal Prison last year.

She got 12 months in Styal for stealing a pair of trainers from ASDA whilst intoxicated and then assaulting emergency staff who attended to her.

Annelise is an individual case but the report mentions about how self harm and attempted suicides are rise in women's prisons, most of whom are there for non violent offences.

The paragraph at the end sums it up. 57% of women in prison have a history of being victims of domestic abuse. 71% have mental health issues.

About 12,000 women are sent to prison each year. Currently 3,200 women are behind bars, three quarters of whom committed a non-violent offence. In 2019, 215 women aged 18 to 20 were in prison. More than half of female prisoners report being abused as a child; 57 per cent are victims of domestic violence. Like Annelise, 31 per cent spent time in care and 71 per cent report mental health issues.

In January, the government announced plans to build 500 new women’s prison places. Today, 70 organisations and campaigners sign a joint letter to the justice secretary Robert Buckland, coordinated by the charity Women in Prison, expressing “grave concern” at the plans and arguing for community solutions instead. David Gauke, the former justice secretary, said Annelise’s story showed the need for reform. “For minor offenders, prison can be the worst place for them to be. The more people we lock up, the more cases like this we’ll have,” he said.

I work in this area and some of the stories women have are utterly heartbreaking.

[Babdoc]

And now their distress is being compounded by being locked up with, and sexually assaulted by, intact male rapists.
The UK judiciary and prison service would be in breach of the Geneva Convention if these women were prisoners of war, but it is apparently fine to torture vulnerable women to appease trans activists.

[Whatwouldscullydo]

Oh god she just never stood a chance did she

We really need to help them before they get to this point.

[EmpressWitchDoesntBurn]

Women’s prisons are only going to get stricter as more male prisoners are classed as women & locked up in them.

[EmbarrassingAdmissions]

A number of neurologists are deeply frustrated that it's well known that many of the women in prison have a history of repeated head trauma that can have an impact on their ability to make sound judgments - and yet they're locked up anyway.

There used to be a network of Women's Centres that could be used as part of a diversion programme. There's renewed interest in these and it's a campaigning point for Women in Prison #StopThe500 (There's a report there but I can't put a direct link to it.)

campaigns.womeninprison.org.uk/stopthe500

“The touted £2m of investment for community services is dwarfed by the money being sunk into 500 new prison places for women, which in a single year alone will cost more than 10 times what is being offered to those helping vulnerable women before they ever reach custody.”

www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jan/23/ministers-criticised-for-plans-to-create-500-new-uk-prison-places-for-women

archive version of article in case the share token lapses or it might be useful in the future: archive.is/GLboJ

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//www.thetimes.co.uk/article/4144e4e6-ebe9-11eb-ba7b-b4d4e5c44898?shareToken=3ed0b20904c70337f1790505642ffe12