Legal Advice for Women Prisoners

In 2018, 7,745 women were sent to prison in England and Wales – either on remand or to serve a sentence. Women prisoners require specialist attention because two thirds are primary carers for young children. Many women prisoners are subject to short custodial sentences (three months) for minor crimes such as Council Tax evasion or shoplifting. These can, nevertheless, have a catastrophic impact, causing women to lose their jobs or have children taken into care, or worse, adopted (some 2,000 children every year; [Vallely & Cassidy, The Independent, 2012]). With so few women’s prisons in England and Wales (there are 12, compared to 106 for men), women are often incarcerated hundreds of miles from home and family, making maintaining contact with children problematic, if not impossible.

Delivery of Outreach Clinics for Women Prisoners

Over the course of 2018-19, we continued to expand our outreach services, providing legal advice clinics inside prisons. This enables us to reach more prisoners across the prison estates on a one-to-one basis than ever before. Over the course of 2018-19, PAS’ Women Prisoners’ Caseworker delivered 53 Outreach Clinics in six women’s prisons, including at – for older female prisoners – Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire. 417 women prisoners were seen one-to-one by a PAS Caseworker at Outreach Clinics and 11 new cases were opened on behalf of women prisoners as a result. Indeed, the demand at our Outreach Clinics was so high at times that our Caseworkers required a legal volunteer to attend the prison with them. Such sessions are especially beneficial when dealing with vulnerable prisoners, or those with low levels of literacy.

Children and the Law: PAS’ New Family Law Guides

At our Annual Lecture on 28 November 2019, PAS will launch four new Family Law guides that we have written and published in association with charity Rights of Woman.  The four titles – aimed at the two thirds of female prisoners who are mothers – deal with various aspects of the law that have bearing on parenting from inside prison. The four titles are:

• When Families Cannot Agree
• Parental Responsibility
• Adoption for Women Prisoners
• When Social Services are Involved

Copies of the Guides have been sent out to the librarians at the 12 women’s prisons in England and Wales and are available to download from our website. 

Prisoner C has multiple physical and mental health issues including anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression and severe Cervical Spondylosis leading to chronic back pain and lack of mobility. She was incarcerated in an unadjusted, completely unsuitable prison cell.

Our Caseworker helped Prisoner C to secure transfer to a modern prison facility with a modified cell suitable for her needs. She is now eligible for parole, her mental health is much improved and her physical condition is stable.

Prisoner C commented on our assistance: “PAS supported me all through my sentence and has been phenomenal, excellent and immeasurable. I will forever be grateful and sing of PAS’ services everywhere, now and in the future.”

Prisoners’ Advice Service remains most grateful to GlobalGiving for helping to support our work with women prisoners in England and Wales. Without the assistance of donations from individuals such as yourself, the work that we do with vulnerable prisoners would be severely curtailed.

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• For more news, visit our website here.