By Rona Epstein: Honorary Research Fellow at Coventry Law School, Coventry University
A recent report by the Prison Inspectorate of the women’s prison HMP Eastwood Park was shocking.
It reports mentally ill women held in cells with blood spattered walls – the blood being left un-cleaned after self-harm incidents by previous prisoners.
Mr Taylor, Chief Inspector of Prisons, wrote:
“Some of the most vulnerable women across the prison estate were held in an environment wholly unsuitable for their therapeutic needs.
"The levels of distress we observed were appalling. No prisoner should be held in such terrible conditions.”
Sonya Ruparel, CEO of Women in Prison, comments:
This is yet another troubling report which tells us that prisons are not a safe place for women. The increasing levels of self-harm, currently 10 times that of the male estate, and severely mentally unwell women being in prison are wholly unacceptable. Most women in prison have not committed a violent crime and are serving short sentences that turn their lives upside-down.
Rather than locking women up, we need to invest in community-based services - like domestic abuse, welfare, mental health and housing - to address the root causes that draw women into the criminal justice system.
The Government should realise the ambitions of their Female Offender Strategy to reduce the women’s prison population as quickly as possible, and end the harm of prison to women, their children and communities.
An Inspectorate Report is a lifeless (but important!) document. It is quite different to hear the actual words of someone talking about their loved one, someone they care about, reporting the conditions in which they live.
We are now working to find friends and relatives visiting HMP Eastwood Park prisoners who would want to share their impressions.
We are determined to collect first-hand evidence about Eastwood Park. We ask recently released prisoners, and their loved-ones, to get in touch with us and tell us about their experiences. Their stories matter; their voices must be heard.
Many organisations have expressed their concern, indeed anger, at the way vulnerable women have been criminalised, mothers separated from their young children and further trauma added to lives already damaged by deprivation, domestic violence and trauma. Our research on pregnant women in prison led to discussions in the press, and new guidelines which are being proposed by the Sentencing Council to limit the use of custody for women who are pregnant.
As research by the Prison Reform Trust has shown how many incarcerated women are the victims of domestic abuse, and of crimes far more serious than those for which they are serving time in prison.
We send too many people to prison, and far too many are in prison on remand (see Women in prison on remand). The conditions in many of our prisons shame us all, as citizens, as taxpayers and as human beings.
Wandsworth Prison
Recently, the former Quaker chaplain to Wandsworth Prison, Liz Bridge, spoke out loud and clear about the dreadful conditions she found while working there. Her account, given at a meeting organised by Wandsworth Quakers on 5 December 2023, has spread many ripples.
Like everyone else in the room during Liz Bridge's powerful talk, I was shocked and horrified by what she reported. This was even though I had read the Independent Monitoring Board’s report on Wandsworth.
This report is deeply troubling: how can this be happening in our country?
After the talk, there was discussion among the attendees, in an atmosphere of palpable shock and horror.
One person asked: Where is the voice of the prisoners and the prisoners’ families?
A woman in the audience replied: We are the voice of the prisoners’ families, we have sons in that prison and are here to talk to anyone who wants to talk to us.
I’ll call them 'Ann' and 'Jodie'. On 18 December 2023, Ann, Jodie and I met with Martine Lignon – a Trustee of the Prisoners' Advice Service. The four of us sat down together, they to talk, Martine and myself to listen, and record.
They gave us a direct, personal, powerful and shocking testimony about the conditions experienced by the two young men – their sons – who are detained in HMP Wandsworth on remand, awaiting sentence. One of them is particularly vulnerable. The two prisoners phoned their mothers from the prison during our interview; their voices and testimony are also recorded on my phone.
Apart from dirt, vermin, toilets in the cells which frequently overflow, inadequate food and far too little time spent out of the cell, almost 50% of prison officers absent each day, the prison suffers very serious overcrowding. Wandswoth was built for 900 men, it now houses 1,600, of whom 45% are on remand.
Liz Bridge and the two mothers appeared on Channel 4 News, describing something of the horror to be found in Wandsworth Prison. It can be viewed here
We believe it is important that this evidence be widely known and discussed. Their voices must be heard. There must be change.
We are now working to make contact with family members who visit loved ones in HMP Wandsworth and Eastwood Park prison for women. We want as much evidence as we can get of conditions that prevail in our prisons and how they affect both those detained and those who care about them. We are also asking recently released prisoners who want to give their testimony to get in touch with us. We then plan to publish the evidence from visitors and recently released prisoners.
Of course, we will take care not to use real names or identifying information, to protect prisoners and their families and preserve necessary confidentiality. We ask anyone who wishes to take part in this project to contact us by email at LawResearcher23@gmail.com