Taken In--When Women With Dependent Children are Taken into Custody: Implications for Justice and Welfare (From Women in Corrections: Staff and Clients, P 1-9, 2000, Australian Institute of Criminology -- See NCJ-187936)

• NCJ Number: 187944
• Author(s): Sandra Lilburn
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 9 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: Australia
• Note: Paper presented at the Women in Corrections: Staff and Clients Conference held in Adelaide, Australia, October 31-November 1, 2000. Downloaded March 21, 2001

Annotation

This paper provides an overview of the criminal legal system from arrest to sentencing, as experienced by women with dependent children.

Abstract

The overview highlights the need for early intervention and coordinated services and suggests that the better management of women in corrections begins when they are first taken into the criminal legal system, i.e., at the point of arrest. The research that informs this view is documented in the report, "Taken In." There were two objectives in this research. The first objective was to document the experiences of women offenders who have dependent children. The second objective was to contribute to the development of policy and procedures that are inclusive of the various circumstances of all offenders. The key point made in the report is that the failure to recognize, except at the most rudimentary level, the circumstances of women who have dependent children in the procedures used in the criminal legal system reinforces the systemic bias against women in the justice system. Because of this systemic failure -- reflected in the use of inadequate and inconsistent practices -- women and their children are subject to unjust, extraneous, and even illegal treatment. The report identified three areas of risk that must be addressed in the development of policy and procedures: the risk to children's welfare; the risk that the treatment of women in the system will be unjust; and the risk to the integrity of the system and those who work in it when justice is not delivered. Early intervention requires that when women with dependent children are arrested that there be coordinated planning within and between the legal and social welfare system to ensure that children receive the necessary services should there be any significant period of separation between a mother and her children. The criminal legal system can be considered just only to the extent that it recognizes and establishes procedures that can accommodate women responsibilities as care-givers. 11 notes