Plus ça change? Women and the criminal justice system

This issue of the journal contains several articles that focus on women in the criminal justice system. These traverse a range of different geographical contexts, including Lithuania, Catalonia, the United States and England and Wales, and explore issues ranging from probation staff perspectives to women’s experiences of victimisation. and stigmatization. A common theme of many of the contributions is the pervasive impacts of systemic failures that mean that the criminal justice system becomes the point of recourse for addressing social needs. This is a longstanding refrain echoed in a plethora of research on women and the criminal justice system, so much so that that is has become depressingly familiar. So too are responses that situate the solution within the purview of the criminal justice system. The National Audit Office has just published a report on the outcomes for women in the criminal justice system in England and Wales (NAO, 2022). The report cites familiar data regarding the profile of women in the criminal justice system, including the fact that while the female prison population remains relatively low (4%), the preponderance of custodial sentences are for less than 12 months (77%), and reoffending rates on release from custody remain stubbornly high. 71% if women reoffended following custodial sentences of less than 12 months in 2016 (NAO, 2022). Notwithstanding the wealth of evidence regarding the harmful effects of custody and the ineffectiveness of prison sentences in reducing offending, the government has recently committed to the expansion of the prison estate. In 2021 the Ministry of Justice announced plans to expand provision by building up to 500 additional prison places for women at an estimated cost of £200 million. This forecast expenditure contrasts with just £9.5 million allocated by the Ministry to fund services for women in the community between 2018 and 2022, and an allocation of £4.8 million in 2020–2022 towards developing five planned Residential Women’s Centres (RWCs), which are intended to reduce the numbers of women remanded into custody (NAO, 2022). The National Audit Office’s analysis of this imbalanced expenditure, which they assess in light of the government’s own policy commitments set out in the Female Offender Strategy, (MoJ, 2018) makes for stark reading. The Female Offender Strategy included plans to reduce the number of women entering the criminal justice system by providing support in the community at an earlier stage; have fewer women in custody (especially for short sentences) and utilise community sentences to a greater degree, where appropriate, and to create better conditions for women in custody, including increased supports on release (MoJ, 2018). Editorial The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice