NCJ Number
133641
Date Published
1991
Length
29 pages
Annotation
The "Report of an Inquiry into the Prison Disturbances April 1990" in the United Kingdom (known as the Woolf Report) made a number of proposals directed toward greater humanity and justice in prisons. Although women were excluded from the report because they did not participate in the riots, the principles of the Woolf Report can be applied to female prisoners by considering their unique characteristics.
Abstract
Some of these include the small number of women in British prisons, the ways in which they express distress at imprisonment, and their role as primary carers for children. Women in prison have different offending patterns from men and a higher proportion are from minority groups. While the use of custody is increasing for women, this report argues that attention must be given to reducing the use of imprisonment for women, most of whom are convicted of property offenses. In addition, the number of women remanded into custody should be reduced and greater use should be made of the Crown Prosecution Service's power to discontinue prosecution on public interest grounds. Women should be remanded in custody as close to home as possible and should be afforded full opportunities to exercise their due process rights. In areas where there is no prison for women, women offenders should be held, on an experimental basis, in local houses or hostel-style prisons. Other recommendations in this report refer to the situation of foreign national women imprisoned in the UK and other aspects of equal opportunities for women prisoners. 5 tables and 11 references