Capacity Crisis hits Women’s Prisons

 

While the capacity crisis has been most acute in men’s prisons, it’s having a negative impact on women too. The local watchdog at Downview, a closed prison for sentenced women in Surrey report today that while numbers there dipped below 200 during the pandemic, in the year to May 2024 at times they reached the full capacity of 356. The prison has seen increases in assaults, self-harm and use of force, expected with more prisoners but troubling none the less.      

National pressures have reduced the prison’s discretion about who to accept on transfer from other jails creating “a frequently complex mix of women” with significant mental health needs, drug-related issues and problems associating with other prisoners.

Some women arrived with very short sentences left to serve and family based far away. They commented that transferring is as bad as being punished, as they usually lose work or education and, therefore, income, for several weeks.  

Others were acutely mentally unwell and placed in the Segregation Unit where, “staff faced severe aggression and repeated assaults; flooding and destruction of cells and furniture; bodily fluids thrown at them; unrelenting screaming and shouting (including racial abuse aimed at staff and other prisoners); and refusal to eat or wear clothes.”  Some were transferred from prisons that had 24-hour healthcare and a larger mental health team than Downview.

Many of these women should clearly be in a healthcare setting rather than prison. Others do not need to be in prison at all. The IMB report on one woman transferred to Downview on recall for just 12 weeks. The recall was for a failure to attend her probation appointment 20 years ago. She had not committed any further offences in that time and was now a mother, with school-age children and secure employment. What on earth was going on here?