Cornton Vale Prison
The final item of business today is a members' business debate on motion S1M-297, on Cornton Vale prison, in the name of Dr Sylvia Jackson. I ask members who want to speak in this debate to press their buttons, so that we can compile the list. Those members who are leaving should do so quietly.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament recognises the contribution "half way houses" could make, not only in ensuring far more effective treatment and aftercare for drug related crimes, but also to creating a supportive and structured environment for many of the women presently within Cornton Vale.
It gives me great pleasure—although our numbers are somewhat depleted—to open this important debate this evening. The subject relates to the finding of more effective ways to support women offenders who have drug-related problems. I would like to begin by addressing the history of the issue.
A major review of community disposals and the use of custody for women offenders in Scotland was carried out by the chief inspector of prisons and the chief inspector of social work. That culminated in the publication of "Women Offenders—A Safer Way", which made seven recommendations, all of which were accepted in principle by the Government.
Those recommendations centred on the following important issues: the need for increased services to support court decision making on the use of bail; ways in which to reduce the number of women who default on their fines and the number of women who are taken into custody as a result; the fact that local authorities should ensure that criminal justice social work services are tailored to work with women offenders; the aim that, by the year 2000, women under 18 will not be held in prison establishments; and, finally, specific recommendations on the estate management at Cornton Vale prison.
The main focus for the follow-up to the report is an inter-agency forum that is chaired by Professor Sheila McLean, which brings together representatives from the main criminal justice agencies to address problems in the treatment of women offenders. That forum began its work last year, and I shall return to it later.
Within the recommendations that I listed earlier is the desire to limit the number of women who enter Cornton Vale for whom a custodial sentence
is clearly inappropriate. Those include, for example, defaulters on fines for offences such as prostitution or the failure to buy a TV licence. It is also recommended that better use be made of the bail system, with more information and support being made available to women. At the moment, the number of offenders at Cornton Vale, particularly those in the 18 to 34 age group, is at a record level. In addition, the drug and alcohol- related problems of the women there make the management of the prison population more complex.
This motion addresses the specific issue of finding appropriate solutions for the type of women at Cornton Vale who have drug-related problems. At the outset, it is important to ask two questions. The first is whether prison is the right sentence. The second is whether, in cases where it is, enough is being done to facilitate women's rehabilitation after release.
I will deal first with the question of whether prison is the right sentence. The prime concern has to be the protection of the public. In cases where a real problem is posed, a custodial sentence is the right disposal. However, in too many cases prison is used not because there is a danger to the public, but because there is no adequate alternative. Many women at Cornton Vale need help to overcome drug and alcohol addiction and to deal with the myriad social problems that they face.
Research by Dr Nancy Loukes gave an indication of the typical circumstances of women committed to Cornton Vale. More than 90 per cent of the women in her sample had left school at the age of 16 or under. Roughly three quarters had a history of truancy and, as a result, left school with few or no qualifications. Many had experienced physical, emotional or sexual abuse, and relatively few had received help. There were significant problems of drug and alcohol addiction.
Again, let me stress that, in some cases, prison is the right sentence, because of the need to protect society. However, let us be under no illusion: prison cannot deal with many of the deep- seated underlying problems. Let us also recognise that, in cases where there is no danger to the public, a suitable alternative would be more appropriate if it existed.
I now turn to the second question: the help that is provided to women during their time in prison and after release. The report "Women Offenders— A Safer Way" listed changes that could be made at Cornton Vale. Many of those have taken place already, including improving services for those with psychiatric needs and addiction problems, and better communication between court-based social work staff and the staff at Cornton Vale.
I know that other members present have more specialist knowledge in the area of drug treatment and will speak in more detail on that issue. Let us remember that many women are sentenced to relatively short periods of imprisonment, often for petty crimes, and then released. Although support such as that given through the turnaround project is increasing, much more is needed. Too often, women leave Cornton Vale prison only to face the same range of social problems that led to their conviction in the first place. Often they turn to crime to feed a drug habit. If we are to be effective with such offenders and to ensure that they do not reoffend, we must do more to prepare them for release and support them afterwards.
One initiative that has been used very successfully in north America, particularly in Canada, is halfway houses. Those provide a well- supported environment in which women can live— we should not forget that 70 per cent of women offenders have children—and receive dedicated help to overcome their problems, particularly drug and alcohol addiction. The halfway house could be an effective alternative to prison for those who do not pose any threat to society. It could also offer longer-term support after release from prison.
In bringing forward this motion, I hope that we can consider seriously the suggestion of halfway houses, working through the following process. First, we should undertake research in the area, looking at best practice in other countries and building on the on-going work of Professor McLean and her inter-agency forum. Secondly, we should undertake a pilot project based on that research, which would most likely bring together a more co-ordinated support structure within a halfway house approach. It is to be hoped that that would allow women to have their children with them. It would also build on the work of Professor McLean's forum and the useful suggestion for the turnaround project to be expanded. Thirdly, we should put in place an after-care service to support women once they are fully back in the community.
Research so far shows that, in addition to support for drug and alcohol problems, women offenders need help with housing and basic education and training, which are as essential as the drug and alcohol treatment. That means adopting a holistic approach to solving not just one, but a number of problems.
This issue is essentially one of social exclusion. By the measures that we suggest today, we can bring a number of very vulnerable women back into society to lead what we hope will be effective and rewarding lives. There are many issues that I have been unable to touch on, but I will leave those to the remaining speakers. I beg members to support the motion.
Five members have indicated a wish to speak. All will be called if each speech can be kept under four minutes.
I have had personal experience of the situation in Cornton Vale prison, as I was a deputy medical officer there from the time when it opened in 1976 until quite recently. Indeed, my practice resigned from providing general medical services on a regular basis one week before the first suicide.
That suicide followed a period of seven or eight years in which the whole character of the prison changed. In 1987, 10 women with drug problems were admitted to the prison. By 1994, the number had risen to 600, although the number of annual admissions, at around 2,000, had not substantially changed. The degree of recidivism—repeated minor offences—among that population is very substantial. Prisoners are admitted for very short sentences, often for failing to pay fines, which may have remained unpaid for a long time.
It is possible for the professionals and officers in the prison to establish a reasonable treatment programme for those who are serving longer sentences. However, there is a problem even with those longer-term prisoners in that their discharge is not always well supported. It would be helpful to have some way of releasing prisoners on licence into a more caring environment.
Sylvia Jackson has made a strong point about people going into custody. It is totally abhorrent that we still admit so many women and that we split up so many families, which causes so much devastation to the next generation. This chamber should do something about the situation. I state my intention to make it my business, along with Keith Raffan and the others on the all-party group, to ensure that measures are introduced to divert people from prison.
During the visit the other day of the all-party group to Brenda House, which is the unit run by the Aberlour Child Care Trust in Edinburgh, I was appalled to find that only two of the six places there were occupied because funds were not being made available. Members of all parties were shocked to find that the very limited resources that we have in the community are not being fully utilised.
There are 112 agencies dealing with drug problems in the community. I believe that it will take all of the minister's energy to co-ordinate those agencies with the Scottish Prison Service to ensure that we bring about a substantial change early in the new millennium.
When I did the arithmetic quickly, I calculated that we would have only two minutes, so I have scrubbed a lot of my speech.
I thank Sylvia Jackson for bringing this motion before us. I associate myself with her comments and, in particular, with those of Richard Simpson. I, too, am a member of the all-party group and was with Dr Simpson when he visited Brenda House.
Sylvia pointed out that women are put in jail for offences such as television licence evasion and fine default. I would like the right sentences to be given to the right people. Prison should be used as a last resort. It is not the right decision for fine defaulters and shoplifters who are trying to feed a family.
I have examined some of the things that are happening in offender rehabilitation in other parts of the world, and have learned that an important goal of the criminal justice system is to help offenders to become law-abiding citizens. I hope that some of the training that prisoners get in prison and at halfway houses does that. Incarceration and intensive supervision by themselves do not lead to the long-term changes that many offenders need to live productive and law-abiding lives in the community. Treatment services and programmes are also necessary to bring about more long-lasting changes in behaviour.
Research shows that effective correctional treatment requires a careful match between the specific needs of offenders and programmes that address those needs. Treatments that match offender needs to the programme, using behavioural training techniques, have been shown to reduce offending by an average of 50 per cent. Under such programmes, offenders do not commit new offences and do not break the conditions attached to their release.
Rehabilitation programmes are more effective when delivered in community rather than prison settings. As one of the few members of Parliament to have been a position to send women to Cornton Vale, I can tell the chamber that I considered doing so only as a very last resort. There are far better things to do with people who need help and treatment than sending them to prison.
I congratulate Sylvia Jackson on securing this debate on a subject that I regard as a very important one for our society. I must also declare an interest, Presiding Officer. My family has a record of working in the police and prison services. Indeed, my brother was involved in the transition
from the young offenders institution to Cornton Vale prison at Bridge of Allan. The other side of my family is more involved on the legal side, but perhaps there is a coming together of views on these issues.
Leaving aside that rather jokey approach, Sylvia has raised an important point about the treatment of offenders. It is not seen as the sexiest of issues by the press, which always takes a reactionary view of prison facilities and the Prison Service's aim of ensuring that offenders are given the best opportunity to come back into society without reoffending.
We built Cornton Vale with great hopes and great expectations, but a catalogue of disasters has befallen it. The record of suicides has given Cornton Vale a bad reputation, despite the efforts of those who work with the inmates of that facility. Members of Parliament must express support for the people who work in Cornton Vale and for what is being achieved in that prison and in the penal system as a whole.
I shall mention three important aspects of the treatment of offenders. The first is education. Having worked in that area, I know that many people in Cornton Vale do not read, cannot write and cannot communicate with society as most of us have to be able to do in our everyday lives. More emphasis should be put on the educational side of the Prison Service.
The second important aspect is detoxification, which Dr Simpson has mentioned. I am not an expert on that, but I am aware of the huge debate on the issue of drugs and alcohol in prisons. We must emphasise the importance of detoxification. We may be able to do it through improved funding or perhaps through education, but there will be no easy answers.
The third aspect is support in the community. We have to educate our communities about helping people who, for whatever reason, have fallen foul of the laws laid down by our country. If we put greater emphasis on support in the community, making available resources to support individuals, a great deal could be achieved.
Those of us who have stayed to participate in Sylvia's debate hope that the Executive and the Parliament will take a constructive approach, because that is what the problem deserves.
Mr Raffan, anything over four minutes and I will use the master switch to send you into limbo.
Okay, I get the message.
I congratulate Sylvia Jackson on obtaining this debate, and thank her for inviting me to accompany her on her visit to Cornton Vale last Friday. It was an interesting visit, with an impressive governor. I am sure the Deputy Minister for Justice is aware of the attributes of Mrs Kate Donegan. She is a valuable person to the Scottish Prison Service.
Only 3 per cent of the Scottish prison population are women. Many are persistent petty offenders from the lower end of the socio-economic scale and commit minor offences, and most have complex personal problems. They cope badly with being locked up. Clive Fairweather, Her Majesty's chief inspector of prisons for Scotland, is on record as saying:
"I sometimes wonder why they are there."
Dr Nancy Loukes's research on Cornton Vale, referred to by Dr Jackson, showed that 88 per cent of inmates admitted to using drugs illicitly, 70 per cent were habitual users, 61 per cent were heroin users and 45 per cent had drink problems. An average week's admission last month was 22 people. Of them, 46 per cent admitted to injecting heroin, 23 per cent to smoking it and 80 per cent had had hepatitis C. The medical officer on duty there said to Dr Jackson and me:
"Stop sending us drug addicts."
It is not just the criminal justice system that is failing those women—society is. Frankly, that is Dickensian, and it is unacceptable in a modern, Scotland that is about to move into the 21st century. We need a joined-up criminal justice system. The minister will know about the turnaround project, Scotland's first diversion from prosecution scheme for women drug users. If they meet the referral criteria they are accepted on a 12-week programme of prescribed medication and intensive one-to-one group work. If they complete that successfully, they are not prosecuted. Those who work for the turnaround project are veterans of the drugs field, but this is what they said:
"Despite our combined experience in the drugs and alcohol field, we had never come across such intense levels of personal distress and constant crisis."
We must develop and extend that pilot scheme through the use of halfway houses instead of prison, and their use before and after prison. They could be run by prison staff, and provide counselling, group therapy and peer support. One- to-one counselling and group therapy, followed by after-care, should be available to those who are sent to prison. The governor of Saughton prison is concerned about prisons being seen as institutions in and of themselves, with no through-care afterwards.
I pay tribute to the excellent work of Simpson House, which should be extended. I hope that the
minister will visit it if he has not done so already. I would be grateful if, in his summing up, he would say what our equivalent will be to CARAT— counselling, assessment, referral, advice and through-care—which started in English prisons on 3 October. Many in the Prison Service expected the £13 million underspend in Scottish prisons to be allocated to drug rehabilitation and treatment, but that does not appear to be happening. We must have halfway houses and after-care as a way for people to get back to normal living in the community, and to ensure that they do not relapse.
Sylvia also mentioned a one-stop shop to provide integrated through-care. Many of the women are not articulate. They cannot speak up for themselves, and they get put off by having to go to housing departments, and going for benefits, jobs and training. We need a one-stop shop to help and support those women, so that they have a chance of getting back to living in the kind of world in which the rest of us live. They will not have that opportunity if they do not have that support.
Dr Simpson mentioned fragmentation, health boards, agencies and so on. What I have suggested is not just the right thing to do; it is the humane thing to do. It is also the cost-effective thing to do. It costs £37,000 per year to keep a woman in prison, and £27,000 to keep a man. We must return women to society in full mental and physical health, and as contributors to the economy, not a drain on it.
Finally, if we are about anything in this place— anything at all—we are about helping those in desperate need; the deprived, the forgotten, the ignored, the vulnerable and, yes, the ostracised. We are, and must always be, their voice.
I also thank Sylvia for lodging this motion. As many members have said already, Cornton Vale has a lot of women who should not be there. Many of them are there for non-payment of fines. An analysis of the criminal justice system showed that women were more likely to be given custodial sentences for crimes such as non-payment of fines—if they can be defined as crimes. When we consider many of the women who are in Cornton Vale, we could describe them more as victims than criminals. The system has failed them. As has been said, a huge number have been physically or sexually abused. Many have chronic alcohol or drugs problems. They need help, not punishment.
In my previous life in social work, I was involved in placing people into drug rehabilitation centres and so on. I had to try to find appropriate placements for them. It was frustrating because, when a woman was ready to go into a rehabilitation or detoxification unit, it was necessary to strike while the iron was hot. If there was no place available, going back to them four weeks later was no good, because the opportunity had passed. We must have the resources, so that when a woman says, "Yes, I am ready to seek treatment", the treatment must be available.
Much has been said about the other problems faced by women in Cornton Vale, so I will skip over most of those issues. We must break the cycle of women going in and out of prison with little being done to tackle the underlying problems. There are many good alternative to custody programmes. Halfway houses are a good idea, and I will find out more about them. The criminal justice system is, as all members have said, currently failing these vulnerable women. I hope that this Parliament will change that situation sooner rather than later.
I am pleased to note the genuine cross- party support for this motion.
I will begin by placing on record my view that the speeches that we have had tonight have been thoughtful and constructive, on a painful and difficult subject. None the less, this debate has probably been the most pleasurable of any I have participated in since coming to this Parliament because of the real feeling and genuine value of the speeches that have been made. I thank Sylvia Jackson for placing this motion before the Parliament and for making such a positive contribution to the debate.
The position of women in Scottish prisons is a serious and emotive subject. It deserves to receive serious attention from the members of this Parliament. As Dr Richard Simpson said, it is an important issue for the Parliament and its committees to consider. I welcome the motion and the standard of debate that we have heard this evening.
I emphasise the continuing commitment that the Scottish Executive gives to improving the way the criminal justice system deals—or attempts to deal—with women offenders. It remains our aim to ensure that there is a wide range of effective and credible community-based alternatives available to the courts, not just the sentencing and prison option.
In Scotland, a wide range of alternatives to custody have been put in place. A good deal of work has also been done so that we have a better understanding of why people offend and how we
can best intervene to help change that offending behaviour. That has been reflected in some of the speeches. On that basis, the Executive and I are in no doubt that prison will remain the correct solution for some groups of offenders, but for others it is a last resort and one of dubious quality.
In the past decade, the use of community sentences has increased. For example, the number of probation orders has doubled and the number of community service orders has increased by 70 per cent. We recognise, however, that much of this work in the past has been informed by an analysis of offending patterns among men rather than women. It was for that reason that the importance of establishing effective and credible community-based alternatives for women who offend was one of the important issues highlighted in last year's review of women offenders in Scotland.
As we know, and as members have mentioned, the origins of that review lay in the tragic loss of seven young lives at Cornton Vale prison between 1995 and 1997. Any suicide, in any circumstance, produces a reservoir of pain and misery for everyone concerned. In the Prison Service, that includes prisoners, families and prison staff. Every single one is a tragedy. In 1996, three out of the 17 suicides in Scottish prisons were women.
Despite that, in Scotland, women offenders make up only a tiny percentage of the criminal cases that come before our courts. Of the 6,000 average daily population in Scotland's prisons in 1998, only 193 were women, and most were serving much shorter sentences than men. Those figures are startling and disturbing evidence, compared with the number of suicides by women.
Would the minister find it useful to meet the sheriffs to get across the fact that we are all united in thinking that short prison sentences do no good and that sending people to prison for, say, non-payment of fines, is not acceptable to the Parliament? Perhaps an early meeting with the sheriffs, to find out whether they are aware of our feelings, would be a good idea.
I thank the member for that contribution. In the remainder of my speech, I will make a number of comments that I hope will help to address that point.
When we consider the number of suicides among women prisoners relative to the number of women in prison, the fact of those suicides becomes even more unacceptable. The link with drugs, which has also been mentioned tonight, is clearly relevant. The human tragedy that hides behind the statistics we are discussing is the stark fact that we are dealing with a group of particularly vulnerable people, who are at greater risk of self- destructive behaviour while they are in custody. That makes our debate all the more pointed.
While we must recognise that final decisions on penalties have to rest with the courts, I am forced to ask whether prison can be the right solution for many of those young and vulnerable women.
Are figures kept on how many fine defaulters are sent to Cornton Vale? Do we know what percentage they form of annual admissions?
I am not sure whether that specific information is available. I will certainly inquire, and if the information is available, I will pass it on to the member. Information is available on the length of sentencing and that in itself makes interesting reading.
All that information is available in the Scottish Executive register of statistics.
I am very grateful to Margaret Ewing for making me aware of that fact.
There is a real question about whether it is appropriate, in specific circumstances, to incarcerate young and vulnerable women. The governor of Cornton Vale has pursued that issue recently.
If prison is not the right answer, I am also forced to wonder about the concept of the halfway house and whether it will serve us better in the longer term. I can see, at face value, the immediate attraction of the halfway house approach and I can certainly understand the desire not to sever the links between women offenders and their children. However, halfway houses appear, to me, to be another—albeit lesser—form of custody. I am seriously concerned about the impact that that could continue to have, in particular on children.
I suggest that the real solution to the problem lies in accepting that the personal and social circumstances of many women mean that they simply should not end up in prison at all.
Will the minister give way?
Yes, certainly.
We are rather tight for time. We must stay within 30 minutes.
This is a crucial point and is central to the motion. I hope that the minister will examine halfway houses. They are prevalent in north America and are certainly not seen as forms of custody, but as forms of supportive communities, particularly for those with drug problems.
I am not ruling out halfway houses. I am simply making the point that they could be seen as a lesser form of incarceration, and that something altogether more fundamental
and radical than putting women into any form of incarceration may be required. "A Safer Way", the review into women offending, concluded that almost all women offenders could be safely punished in the community without any major risk to the general population. That underlines the point that I am making.
Following that review, the aim has been to increase the range of supervised accommodation provided by local authorities. Good progress has been made in many areas. There is now a range of accommodation throughout much of the country, from supported flats to closely supervised hostels—all funded through the 100 per cent funding arrangements. That is a positive approach. Moreover, an extra £20 million is going into the budget for community sentences in the current three-year period.
Much has been and is being done to address the specific problems associated with women offenders. Accommodation in Glasgow for women, including those on bail, has increased with the opening of a new facility to extend existing provision. A new bail retrieval scheme in Cornton Vale has been introduced to offer those women originally remanded in custody a second chance of release on bail under supervision. There is a new 24-hour staffed hostel in Dundee with four dedicated bed spaces for women or women and their children. The expansion of the turnaround project addresses the specific needs of female drug misusers in Glasgow at all stages in the criminal justice process from arrest to release from prison.
The mainstreaming of funding for bail schemes has been introduced in Glasgow and Edinburgh to offer courts a feasible alternative to custody by adding supervision to the bail conditions. Funding has also been provided for new schemes in North and South Lanark. Supervised attendance orders for fine defaulters are being extended to all courts in Scotland. Drug treatment and testing orders are being piloted in Glasgow to deal with those offenders who are committing crimes to fund their drug misuse. That programme will be doubled in Glasgow next year and extended to Fife. To help to shape future policy, further research is being carried out on the specific issues around young women who offend.
Will the minister give way?
I am sorry but, to meet the time limits, we must come to a conclusion.
I apologise to the member. How much time do I have left, Presiding Officer?
Under a minute, I am afraid.
I will cut short my speech.
As members will know, the inter-agency forum has looked at the problems in Glasgow and, within the past month, has submitted its first report. It sees the way forward as the provision of more projects that pursue the diversion agenda in its broadest sense. The forum is looking for the provision of a safe, community-based service for women that is not run by the Prison Service. I believe that that is the correct approach. The Executive is following it through by negotiating with Glasgow City Council the early establishment of a diversion scheme as a matter of priority. We hope that the scheme will be up and running by April.
On 24 January, I will visit Cornton Vale to assess the situation for myself. I suggest that the only relatively sure method of dealing with the problems associated with women in prisons is to make a significant reduction in the number of women going to prison or undergoing any kind of prison service. That should be the core policy objective.
Meeting closed at 17:49.