Following a number of postponements, the long awaited and much needed female offender strategy for England and Wales was finally published in June 2018. The strategy reflects the strong agreement across the sector of the need for a 'distinct' or 'gender specific' approach to respond to the vulnerabilities of women in the Criminal Justice System (CJS). Despite this, the strategy lacks clarity and offers little assurance that the direction taken will result in actual change and positive reform. It is vital that the government's implementation of the female offender strategy provides and demonstrates a genuine commitment to appropriate provision for females in the CJS through ring-fenced permanent funding as well as top-down accountability.
This chapter critiques the ways in which penal arrangements remain prisoner-centric and fail to acknowledge a women's maternal status and familial responsibilities. Viewing these women in isolation from their maternal status fails to recognise how they are embedded in social and familial networks, relationships, and responsibilities, and generally perform a primary caregiving role to their dependent children. Not only does this have implications for female prisoners as they attempt to remain connected to motherhood, but it also has a substantial effect on the large number of innocent children and family members left behind during maternal imprisonment. Prisoners' children have been called the ‘hidden victims of imprisonment’ and the ‘orphans of justice’ because they, and their family members, are continually disregarded within the political and policy sphere, academic studies, and society more generally.
Drawing on the lived experiences and perceptions of five imprisoned mothers, this article critically explores female prisons, relationships and resettlement policies in England and Wales. The findings indicate how the infusing of gendered, informal social controls into penal interventions and penal policy has the potential to harm mothers. This is why three reasons for caution are proposed in relation to ‘structural obstacles’, ‘continued exposure to abuse’ and ‘ascribed reputations’. With these challenges, the mother’s aspirations for a crime- and drug-free future may be thwarted. Therefore, by showing the complex and dynamic set of circumstances that mothers in prison must navigate, more clearly, the need for a nuanced approach for working with women can be appreciated.
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