UK Women’s prisons need urgent reform

An experienced prison governor has condemned the use of short-term sentences that put thousands of women behind bars every year, calling on the UK government to pursue alternatives to jail.

In a letter to the British Justice Secretary Ken Clarke, Clive Chatterton who managed Styal’s women’s prison in Cheshire until retiring three months ago, warned that women’s prisons are “in desperate need of reform”.

He called for an end to short sentences, alternatives to prison, a “warts-and-all review of the aims and intent of the use of custody”, and more women to be moved to secure mental health units.

Citing one woman jailed for 12 days for stealing a £3 sandwich, he estimated that half of the women in his former prison should never have been imprisoned and warned that giving short sentences to vulnerable women is damaging and self-defeating.

Last week, campaigners warned of an increase in self-harm levels among female prisoners, as the UK government figures revealed 10,446 cases of self-harm during 2009, rising to 12,663 in the following year.

Chatterton also described the levels of self harm among women prisoners as “frankly staggering,” adding, “I have first-hand experience of the devastating impact both to the family unit and society as a whole when a woman is sent to prison.”

Moreover, Baroness Corston said Chatterton’s comments show that “not enough” had changed since 2007, when the Corston report was commissioned by the Home Office in the wake of six deaths at Styal Prison.