Back in 2007 Baroness Jean Corston presented her seminal report on women in prison. Its 43 recommendations were intended to provide a roadmap for women-specific criminal justice reform and to chart a better, more effective way to reform imprisoned offenders.
The report recognised a prevailing truth that prison was and remains an ineffective way of dealing with the majority of women offenders who do not pose a significant risk of harm to public safety.
Corston recognised the particular vulnerabilities of women in prison, many of them already the victims of domestic abuse, poverty, isolation, mental health issues and struggling with childcare.
The essence of her recommendations was for community services to be used within the sentencing regime as the norm and the development of community disposals to take the place of imprisonment.
Well, that was then and this is now and the problem is that little has been done to change the dysfunctional
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