Where do the major parties stand on Women's Justice in 2019?

Following the conclusion of party conferences, and to mark the start of a new Parliamentary session, our Parliamentary Officer, Alex Kane and volunteer Harriet Sorrell, take a look at where the major parties stand on women’s justice. After all, a general election is only a matter of time…

2019 has seen the senseless continuation of the use of imprisonment for poverty-driven and low-level offending, such as the non-payment of council tax debt and TV licences fines. Removing jobs, threatening the custody of children, risking secure housing and poor mental health, women are affected disproportionately by short prison sentences. Advocates, including MPs speaking in the House of Commons, have stressed the counter-productiveness of short sentences and encouraged the use of Women’s Centres as more effective community alternatives. Incarceration overlooks crime as a product of vulnerability, including poverty and domestic abuse. Mothers’ imprisonment for low-level and non-violent offences strain family ties that, as the Farmer Review stressed, are ‘utterly indispensable’ to women’s rehabilitation. Imprisonment threatens, further, a child’s fundamental right to family life, according to the Joint Committee on Human Rights.

Against the current political backdrop, encouragingly, the main 2019 party conferences have included commitments to gender justice, putting forward the following proposals.

Rather than investing in 10,000 new prison places, as the Prime Minister had pledged, Richard Burgon MP vouched to use the equivalent £2.5bn to fund Women’s Centres that focus on rehabilitation, non-custodial sentencing, and to end sentences of less than six months.  Other pledges involved £20m of investment into the Female Offender Strategy, and the establishment of problem-solving courts that consider causes of offending. Outside the prison and courts system, an independent review of the handling of rape in the justice system is promised.

Labour’s recommendations have the potential to mitigate the shortfall in the Female Offender Strategy. Problem-solving courts align with APPEAL’s Domestic Abuse Bill consultation response, which recommended trauma-informed training of the judiciary, abuse as a new mitigating factor in sentencing, and more support in custody for women who are victims of domestic abuse. However, Labour’s proposals would still be £30m short from the £50m handed back to the Treasury, making full implementation of the Female Offender Strategy difficult to achieve.

The Liberal Democrats delivered a comprehensive set of proposals covering diversion from prison and increased support for those in custody. To achieve diversion, Lib Dem spokespeople Jonathan Marks and Mike German proposed more cross-country Women’s Centres and small custodial centres, ending use of remand for women unlikely to serve custodial sentences, and gender-specific diversionary programmes. In line with upholding children’s Article 8 rights, they proposed increased consideration of dependent children in sentencing. For example, mother-child residential centres may be used more frequently.

The Lib Dems have departed from standard prison and court proposals, focusing on more support for women throughout the entirety of the criminal justice process. The party propose increased support for females at risk of entering the criminal justice system, which includes requiring institutional bodies to adopt trauma-informed approaches. Similarly, they aim to ensure specialist training for staff for women already in the criminal justice system. They also aim to provide supported accommodation for vulnerable women released from prison.

The party also proposes more institutional support and accountability by establishing a Women’s Justice Board and requiring local bodies to appoint a ‘Women’s Champion’ who will raise awareness of, and ensure adherence to, female-specific needs. As encouraging as these proposals are, they have not established any funding figures to achieve them.  

Shortly after the Supreme Court ruling, the Conservatives have set out their proposals. In 2018, David Gauke’s pitch for Women’s Justice consisted of reiterating the Female Offender Strategy – alternatives to custody and better support for vulnerable women. However, since Gauke’s exit from Cabinet, the financial constraints placed on the Strategy by the Ministry of Justice, and the PM’s announcement of 10,000 prison places, it is unclear what the party will offer for women’s justice.

With some progressive proposals now on the women’s justice agenda, it was hoped that the Conservative Party Conference would, at the very least, see an affirmation of the Female Offender Strategy. However, ‘tough on crime’ appears to be the flagship policy, Secretary of State for Justice, Robert Buckland, denouncing other parties as ‘soft on crime, soft on the causes of crime’.

Key takeaways from the Justice Secretary’s speech included ‘the most serious violent and sexual offenders’ automatically serving two-thirds of their sentences behind bars. Arguably, the effect of this policy is negligible. As has been pointed out, judges already have the power to require offenders to serve more without the need for a blanket policy.

Buckland reaffirmed the Prime Minister’s commitment to hire 20,000 new police officers over three years, 10,000 more prison places, and backed use of sobriety tags. Meanwhile, Home Secretary Priti Patel vowed to increase stop-and-search use.

Unfortunately, amongst this, the Female Offender Strategy did not get any recognition. A general line of ‘tough on crime’, particularly where the policies seem to misconstrue their own effect and wrongly assume their own need, does not give great confidence in a tailored approach to gender justice and rehabilitation, nor an evidence-informed approach to crime in general terms.

The recent second reading of the Domestic Abuse Bill is a valuable step for women, preserving it prior to the next Parliamentary session. APPEAL will be working alongside the Prison Reform Trust to propose amendments to the bill to bolster protections for women whose offending arises as a result of being a victim of domestic abuse.