News In Focus
18 December 2008
Equal Opportunities Committee launches prison inquiry
A Holyrood committee is to look into the experience of women offenders in prison and whether it effectively prevents reoffending.
One particular question wil be the effectiveness of locking up female offenders with mental health problems.
The Scottish Parliament’s Equal Opportunities Committee has launched a call for written evidence to inform its inquiry into whether prison can effectively treat and rehabilitate women offenders. The inquiry will cover the background of female offenders, their experience in prison and the extent to which prison prevents women from reoffending.
The average daily population of women in prison in Scotland has increased by 90% in the last decade.
Committee convener Margaret Mitchell MSP said: “The committee particularly wants to look at the prison experience for female offenders. We want to explore whether prison can provide effective treatment or rehabilitation programmes to all female offenders or whether those with mental health problems, for example, require different interventions.
“Equally, we want to look at the background of female offenders, the services available to them in prison and the support they are provided with when they are released.”
The Equal Opportunities Committee has already carried out work in relation to female offenders. It has taken evidence from a range of expert witnesses including the Lord Advocate and the governor of Cornton Vale prison. In addition, the committee toured Cornton Vale and held an informal evidence session with the Routes Out Intervention Team, Open Secret, Routes Out of Prison and the prison visiting committees, as well as meeting prison staff and inmates.
For more on the inquiry, see
www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/equal/Femaleoffenders.