Female prisoners in England left to give birth alone in their cells

[hackmum]

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/13/female-prisoners-in-england-left-to-give-birth-alone-in-their-cells-report-reveals

I feel increasingly despondent about the way inmates are treated in women's prisons. Not only is it now apparently acceptable to shove a male rapist in with a bunch of vulnerable women, there is a lack of basic care for pregnant women. In my view, pregnant women shouldn't be in prison in the first place, unless they've done something very seriously wrong, which the vast majority haven't.

This particular report highlights the fact that some female prisoners have been left to give birth alone in their cells. It's a depressing read.

ChooChoo - you said that most of the prison population, male and female, have mental health and drug problems. Here, again, is the Corston report:

"Mental health problems are far more prevalent among women in prison than in the male prison population or in the general population. Up to 80% of women in prison have diagnosable mental health problems. The ONS Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity among Prisoners in England and Wales reported in 1997 that before imprisonment 40% of women prisoners admitted to having received help for mental health problems in the last year (double the proportion of male prisoners); 17% had a mental health hospital admission; 7% had an admission to a locked or secure ward; and 20% had experienced some care (compared with 2% in the general population). The Social
Exclusion Unit in a study published in 2002 found that 70% of women prisoners suffered from two or more mental disorders, 35 times the level in the general population. In SCG’s case study of 50 prolific self-harmers, half the women had been a psychiatric in-patient in the past and 19 had been receiving treatment prior to custody. 40 of the 50 had been formally diagnosed, mainly with borderline personality disorder. 66% of women in prison are assessed as having symptoms of neurotic disorders (depression, anxiety or phobias) compared with 20% in the general population. About 50% display features of personality disorder (mood swings, poor emotional control, and
problems with relationships, poor impulse control)."

And here is the Corston report on drug use:

'Drug addiction plays a huge part in all offending and this seems to be disproportionately the case with women. Around 70% of women coming into custody require clinical detoxification compared with 50% of men. Women often have more complex poly substance misuse. Some are known to use up to nine different types of substances simultaneously and consequently need concurrent detoxification for alcohol, benziodiazepines and opiates. Nearly all are also heavy
smokers. An independent unpublished three-month study at Holloway in 2001 revealed that half of the women who did not formally require detoxification, nevertheless tested positive to stimulants or cannabis, implying that 85% of women received had a substance misuse problem prior to arrest. As one commentator has said, “We are not winning the war on drugs but we are certainly taking a lot of prisoners”.'

http://www.thegriffinssociety.org/lost-spaces-current-procedure-women-prisoners-gain-place-prison-mbu-fair-and-accessible

I think that should work...

obviously we need proper data on overall numbers of pregnancies in prisons

I think we'll have to resort to FOIs. I might get working on that if I get some time.

They aren't going to like that if its going to reveal how many women fall pregnant while in prison.

It starts with data.

What data is there - and what is missing? Asking why is it missing at the same time. There will be political reasons for crucial ommisions and that says a lot.

Identify whats missing and you can make the invisible appear.

Upstart
I've read the case of the female in South Wales. As I initially thought, she wasn't jailed straight away for non payment. They gave her a suspended sentence, with a payment order and then when she didn't pay that she was jailed.

Thanks, @AssasinatedBeauty - I really should learn how to do this.

I've seen the report hackmum and clearly it's more of an issue for female offenders. I'm personally of the opinion that it shouldn't be a literal get out of jail free card.

Identify whats missing and you can make the invisible appear.

Indeed. I wonder if FPFW is already ahead of us on this point?

I'd like to hope so LangCleg

amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/27/one-hoax-phone-call-12-years-behind-bars-the-prisoners-with-learning-disabilities?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQECAFYAQ%3D%3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsociety%2F2018%2Foct%2F27%2Fone-hoax-phone-call-12-years-behind-bars-the-prisoners-with-learning-disabilities

There are many, many ways that society is failing the most vulnerable. How many shouldn't be in prison? I don't think prison is always the answer and yet where are the alternatives? What crimes do you reserve prison for? How far do we allow a prisoner's background to be used in mitigation?

I'm still actually astonished that more than one person on here has suggested that pregnant women incarcerated in prison don't deserve human rights and - apparently - nor do their unborn children.

I'm still actually astonished that more than one person on here has suggested that pregnant women incarcerated in prison don't deserve human rights and - apparently - nor do their unborn children.

Best ignored.

Focus on what we can try to achieve and blank the naysayers.

Me too Vicky

They don’t know what a chaotic family life can be like
They just don’t know

God that’s so awful, given especially that a lot of inmates will likely have taken drugs at some point throughout their pregnancy, you’d think midwifery and paediatric care would be paramount in prison.

And would it be too much of a reach to suggest that the root cause of most of these women being in prison in male violence? I remember reading that a surprisingly large proportion of female prisoners have brain damage resulting from male violence - which can lead to all sorts of behavioural problems and lack of impulse control - which can lead to more chaotic lives, unplanned pregnancy, financial problems, and onto jail.

No offensiveness overlooked. No depths left unplumbed.

ANYWAY.

Is it worth asking about webchats/MN campaigns over in Site Stuff?

I think that It's way too simplistic to blame men for women being in prison.

I should think that a lot of prisoners, male and female, have suffered considerable difficulties in their lives - undiagnosed SEND, abuse, lack of educational attainment, lack of parental support or neglect, substance abuse, mental health problems... How far back do you go and when do you stop looking for blame? If the prisoner is a victim of neglect or abuse as a child does that mean the parents are to blame? What if their parents were abusive?

Vulnerable people are being let down but then what is being done to disrupt this cycle? The babies born to these mothers in prison - what is being done to improve their outcomes? How much help is given to the mums to turn their lives around and to support them? The chances are that these babies will have difficult childhoods and then the cycle will repeat.

What about the victims of these crimes? Many of these will be vulnerable also. I think that everyone should receive healthcare as a basic human right, including prisoners. Sadly at the moment, there are people inside and outside of prison that aren't having their health needs met. It's not just female prisoners being treated badly.

Useful organisations, not all specific to women:
www.womenatwish.org.uk/
howardleague.org/
WI has been doing excellent work on prisons www.thewi.org.uk/campaigns/current-campaigns-and-initiatives/care-not-custody

There are many opportunities for volunteering in prisons. Independent Monitoring Boards are supposed to check on standards. www.imb.org.uk/join-now/current-vacancies/
Many prisons will have various schemes where you could visit either individual prisoners who don't have anyone else, or groups doing things like crafts or sports.
Prisons with mother and baby units will often also have specialist volunteers who take the babies out to visit the outside world.

I agree that this would make an excellent campaign for MN and/or the Feminist groups. The treatment and understanding of women prisoners is very poor.

This thread is why I love MN. It is nuanced, educated and caring. On so many other sites, a thread like this would be different levels of ‘fuck them’. Here is it compassion, good sense and a demand for statistics.

We've had a small amount of "Fuck 'em, shouldn't commit the crime if you don't want to risk your innocent, unborn child's life and your own' type of comment...

I am appalled at the lack of care. I thought it was a given.

Have donated to www.birthcompanions.org.uk/

Thank you to those posters who have signposted to volunteering opportunities. I’m not currently working and I’m going to ring some numbers tomorrow; I’d really like to get involved in this area as I strongly believe that a lot of these women could have a different life with the right support.

I would be very honoured to be part of that support, but it also puts me (a white, middle class woman - which shouldn’t matter but it does) in a better, more informed position to advocate for these women.

I didn’t design our shitty system and I certainly don’t relish playing on the fact that I’m white and middle class, but if I can use my voice to help those who have none I will feel like I’ve at least done something to help.

Thanks to threads on MN I’ve become very interested in women in prison. I hope I don’t seem “do-goody” because that’s not what I want to be; I just feel so strongly that this vulnerable population ought to be supported. From what I can see they are being failed by the system at all ends, fucked no matter what choices they make and hugely determined by their early life.