We are sending too many women to prison and the harm that causes, says Justice Minister
Sunday, February 2, 2025
London (News / Pakistan Point News - NNI. 02 February 2025) The Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary of the United Kingdom, Shabana Mahmood, has opened the first meeting of the Women’s Justice Board with a clear mission statement that expresses the government’s commitment to reducing the number of women sent to prison. According to media reports, Shabana Mahmood said that it was an honour to inaugurate the first meeting of the Women’s Justice Board.
She pointed out that for most women, prison is not working. We are sending too many women to prison and the damage it causes is killing generations. She said that this is harming children as much as their mothers, so the mission of the Women’s Justice Board is clear that we must send fewer women to prison.
When considering the plight of women in prison, it is easy to focus on the damaging statistics, but it is important that we start by remembering the women behind every number.
On this occasion, he told that a woman named Elizabeth, who was raped at the age of 16 and who started using drugs to escape her pain, during this time she met a man who was a drug dealer who abused her and harassed her financially, emotionally, sexually. He forced her into his drug business, one day Elizabeth, troubled by these abuses, was arrested, so the police charged her, and Elizabeth was presented in court.
The sentence was prison, where she was surrounded by women in the depths of despair. It was only through the work of Women in Prison, a charity, that the woman escaped the vicious circle in which she had trapped herself. The Justice Secretary said the story raised deep questions about our justice system: was Elizabeth really a perpetrator, or was she a victim? Why was the system blind to the abuse that landed Elizabeth in her prison cell and in whose interests was it that Elizabeth was locked up? He said two-thirds of women sentenced to prison did not commit any violent crimes and, surprisingly, we imprison women for far more minor charges than men.
As Elizabeth’s story shows, the journey to crime for most women is complex. Two-thirds of women in prison are victims of domestic violence. Once inside, many women fall further into despair. Self-harm levels are almost nine times higher in women’s prisons and, perhaps worst of all, imprisoning women tears families apart.
Three in four children leave home when their mother goes to prison and many remain in care. The damage is being passed down from generation to generation. We must break this cycle, but to do so we must change our ways. We can reduce the number of women in prison, we can find alternatives to detention that put women and their children on a different path, and we can tackle the root causes of women's disrespect. The Justice Secretary added that she knows that many of you have dedicated your lives to making things better for women in the criminal justice system.
Comments
Post a Comment