Woman recalled to prison because there are no "female size" tags

[IwantToRetire]

Without commenting on why she was in prison, it just seems extraordinary that a woman who was released along with many others under the home curfew scheme, has been told as they cant get a tag to fit her she has to return to prison.

Whilst men, some no doubt guilty of violence, with have nicely sized tags and so be sat at home for Christmas.

Even more extraordinary that this is the situation as there is plan to stop women going to prison for short sentences and replace it with them being tagged at home.

Talk about lack of joined up thinking. But underneath that the ongoing relentless assumption that man is the blue print for every thing.

From lack of wearable and safe PPE for female medical staff, to an experienced female bus driver losing her job because all the buses her bosses bought were designed for 6' men, and now this.

https://www.channel4.com/news/77-year-old-just-stop-oil-protester-recalled-to-prison-for-christmas

Once you see this sort of stuff, it's difficult not to see it, reading Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez really opened my eyes to it. DD has recently started a new nursing job, and there are no scrubs that fit her and they have to order some in, especially because she is apparently "tiny". She's a size 8, so slim but not unusually small for a woman.

Drives me mad. I wear a charity supplied polo shirt in my volunteering. Most of the volunteers are women. The shirts are “unisex” also known as “men’s fit” and come in SMLXL etc.

my L to fit my bust has shoulders halfway down my arms and is long enough to tuck under my bottom in my trousers.

This is appalling sex discrimination against this woman.

Drives me mad at running races. The organisers often just order men's small sizes for the women's t-shirts and they are too broad and long.

@TimeForATerf ah yes, "unisex" = "designed for men, but we're sure you can wear it anyway". Women are just small men without penises, right?

100% discrimination. Males are not affected by this - it's disproportionately females who are within the range of normal. She is not being treated in the same way as a man.

It's appalling.

Yes to being one of those invisible women type things.

I think I probably notice stuff like this more because I'm tiny - but not unusually tiny - so it's women like me.

DH certainly wouldn't have given it a second thought but for my complaints about how everything is designed for him. He's realised I really do have a point.

In a previous job I used to order uniform t shirts and often wondered what would happen if I ordered the full range of women's sizes and told the men just to get on with it.

The MOJ outsource the tagging contract to Serco according to a previous article I saw, it's them and the MOJ that should be put under pressure to resolve this. Absolutely disgraceful.

yet men caught with Cat A child abuse images often walk free with just a slap on the wrist & face no prison time. The whole system is so wrong. Could she sue for sex discrimination? It's not her fault the tagging equipment is the wrong size.

@happydappy2 it's a good point actually we know lawfare is sometimes the only way

Yes. Outrageous decision. Especially when rapists walk free all the time.

Have no fear the Good Law Project are on the case...

(oh shit)

Yes I'd imagine she could.

Oh, fuck. That's her doomed to life in prison, then.

I agree it’s appalling.

I can’t stand Just Stop Oil (Just Stop Soup) though, so I’m okay with it.

Whatever one thinks of Just Stop Oil, this is an elderly woman in prison for a non violent crime, one committed due to conscience, discriminated against as a female while violent male perpetrators go free. Surely there must be a protest against this, something we can do?

Her MP is Carla Denyer.

What are you doing about this, Carla?

https://metro.co.uk/2024/12/17/woman-78-faces-prison-wrist-small-electronic-tag-22205281/

https://members.parliament.uk/member/5102/contact

'Her local MP Carla Denyer said: ‘I’ve been very concerned about her case ever since I heard about it.
‘When I heard more recently that she was threatened with being returned to prison, because of what seems little more than a procedural irregularity, the fact a privatised company isn’t able to fit the equipment properly, and the fact it was communicated to her very unofficially, so far as I understand she was informed only verbally that she was to be returned to prison, with no details of who had made the decision, why, how she could appeal it.’
MP Denyer said she wrote to prisons minister Lord Timpson, who she hopes to speak to about the matter.'

Get a shift on, Carla!

She's a Quaker. In these extraordinary circumstances, why don't they give her an air tag and use that instead, subject to her agreeing to remain under curfew?

I'm assuming this is a joke.

If not its really sad that on FWR anyone would think the law shouldn't be applied fairly and equally irrespective of personal opinions.

But as we have seen in the US and creeping in here, it seems to be quite common to say there should be law and order - but what they mean is so long as it only impacts those whose opinions I dont agree with.

I think the statement is a bit wishy washy, or by somebody who doesn't really think things through. How is it "procedural!? Procedural would be (as happened) those not eligible for the home curfew scheme did get released.

And apparently Timpson has been contactly directly, as supporters thought given his reputation, he would see the injustice. And apparently he was not concerned and just one of those things.

So not doubt Labour will be trumpting how they have allowed women with short sentences to have a home curfew, and then months later we will learn most actually served time in prison because there were and probably still will be no appropriately sized tags.

We have this at work. Despite us working industry, about 2/3 of us are women, yet all our PPE is 'unisex' aka men's fit.

We need someone to design unisex stuff that is designed to fit the majority of the population, ie women, make it in sizes 6 to 24 and just tell the men they can guess which is going to be the least worst fit of sizes 16, 18 etc and they can live with clothing that is wrongly proportioned for them for once.

But the case in the OP is appalling, although I thought tags went on ankles?

That's total nonsense. She will get paperwork when recalled that says why she was recalled, who wrote the recall report, who signed it. And will be told how to appeal it. There will be solicitors lining up to represent her

That's total nonsense. She will get paperwork when recalled that says why she was recalled, who wrote the recall report, who signed it. And will be told how to appeal it. There will be solicitors lining up to represent her

Tags normally do go on ankles. The issue here is that for health reasons she can't have it on her ankle, and her wrists are too small.

So it's not simply a "designed for men" problem, although a man or a large woman in that position could wear a small tag on their wrist.

The point is that the system is failing to design a fallback for women who can't wear ankle tags, and when confronted with that situation nobody is looking at the situation saying "she's a 77 year old Quaker, she's not a flight risk or a danger to the public, just get her to phone in regularly from her landline." I can't imagine that any workaround would cost more than actual imprisonment.