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�MOJUK: Newsletter 'Inside Out' 32 =============================================================== Young women offenders, dealt with more harshly than their male counterpart Young women offenders are increasingly being dealt with more harshly than their male counterparts � women are twice as likely to receive a custodial sentence for first non-violence offence than men (Home Office 1999). There has been a considerable increase in the number of young women receiving custodial sentences in the last ten years. We do not believe that prison is a solution for offending, particularly for young women who are not a risk to the public. Most young women in prison have severe social, emotional and health problems, often resulting from childhood traumas. Imprisoned far from home and away from their children, the experience of prison has a devastating effect on them resulting to over 40 per cent self harming or attempting suicide (Home Office 1997). Recent research by Nacro has demonstrated that prison does more harm than good, as nearly half reoffend and are reconvicted within two years (Nacro, 2001). Home Detention and electronic monitoring We are in favour of any measure that enables women to serve their sentences out of prison. However, care must be taken when considering tagging/home detention curfew. It must be first and foremost ascertained that a women�s home is a safe place for her to be. This is not always the case, particularly for women aged16-24 who experience disproportionately more violence than women as a whole (Home Office 1999). Furthermore, over half of young women in prison aged 21 and under have been sexually abused as children, probably in the home (Home Office 1997). We believe that the way to reduce crime and reoffending by young women is to address the underlying causes of their behaviour. These are often linked to painful experiences in childhood (sexual abuse, growing up in care, family breakdown and domestic violence) which may result in low self esteem, poor school achievement, mental and emotional health problems, poverty and drug and alcohol dependency. Because there are no Young Offenders Institutions for young women and few local authority secure units, girls as young as 15 are being imprisoned in adult women�s prisons, often very far from their homes. This practice must stop. Alternative provision must be found that can provide the sort of therapeutic services described above and that is close to the young women�s home and support network. Clare Dodwell, Policy Officer, Young Womens Christian Association YWCA =================================================== Prisoners' property search policy is unlawful� Regina (Daly) v Secretary of State for the Home Department A policy requiring that prisoners must always be absent when privileged legal correspondence held by them in their cells was examined by prison officers was unlawful. The House of Lords so held in allowing an appeal by George Anthony Daly from the dismissal by the Court of Appeal (Lord Justice Kennedy, Lord Justice Otton and Lord Justice Waller) on May 25, 1999 of his application for judicial review of the decision of the Secretary of State for the Home Department, acting by the Director-General of the Prison Service, to apply a policy of cell searches in all closed prisons in England and Wales which involved prison staff searching prisoner's legally privileged correspondence in their absence from the cell. ========================================================== Dear MOJUK, I am a Rastafarian from the Church of the twelve tribes of Israel.The prison service are denying me the right of freedom of religion, the right to manifest my religion, to worship, to practice, to teach and observance of the Rastafarian faith. My religion forbids I to give or take bodily fluid from my body for medical purposes. I have made my religion known to the administration and and they know herbs are part of my religion. They keep asking me for you urine samples to be tested for drugs. I refuse on religious grounds, for this reason alone I've been kept on closed visits for almost 10 months. I've been deprived of my private cash to purchase toiletries, tobacco, phonecards and all necessities from the canteen, for almost the same period of time. Also all my wages I work for they take away. The Prison Service argument for this blatant harassment is that they do not recognise the Rastafarian religion. I am kept on the lowest IEPS level and have had no association for 10 months. I am kept behind the door, unless I am working on art or education. Plus have been kept in solitary confinement for an impossible amount of days in the segregation unit. I was even planted with drugs in this establishment. And even though to this day I haven't seen what they said, they even took away my radio. My best regards to all the hostages. Carl Kanute Gowe, HMP Gartree ============================================================ Satpal Ram: Double blow An independent report by Sylvia Denman, a barrister, found that the CPS
was failing to filter out police prejudices at the time of arrest. This
resulted in weak cases involving people from ethnic minorities still being
sent for trial. �This would provide a good illustration of how lack of vigilance,
rather than conscious discrimination, may give rise to institutional racism
within the CPS,� she said. The report, entitled Race Discrimination in the Crown Prosecution Service,
found that ethnic minority staff were seriously under represented in the
higher administrative grades. Black and Asian lawyers also �remained
trapped� in positions much lower than their abilities deserved. There
was such a poor system to respond to accusations of discrimination from
ethnic minority staff that they were often persuaded to drop their complaints.
Twenty years after the first policies on race became legislation, the
CPS had failed to take steps to improve attitudes with the service at
all. They finally were forced to take notice in the early 1990s after
they lost a series of high-profile tribunals which black and Asian staff
brought against them. The investigation by Ms Denman, who was until recently the chairman of
Camden and Islington health authority, had been a �very uncomfortable
period� for most of its employees, �particularly those who are
white�, he said. Mr Calvert-Smith said: �The first time we are
confronted, as a trained lawyer, with the fact that we are behaving in
a way that discriminates, your instinct says, �What, me?� All
of us white managers and white lawyers must believe that, albeit without
intending to, we have discriminated. There is no doubt that the CPS has
been within the Lawrence definition �institutionally racist�.�
Mr Calvert-Smith said the service would abide by the recommendations
of the report. Staff who continued with racist attitudes would face dismissal,
while promotion to key positions would no longer discriminate against
minorities. The CPS will be subject to the guidance of a steering group,
set up by the Attorney-General and on which Ms Denman, an Afro-Caribbean,
will sit. It will monitor progress over the next 12 months. Failure to show any dramatic improvement will mean the Commission for Racial Equality will be invited back. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .by Helen Studd |