New light shed on women prison experience

 
(l-r) Professor Richard Harding, Inspector of Custodial Services; Dr Pat Goulding, Principal Researcher and Professor Trish Harris, Director of the Centre for Social & Community Research, at the launch of the report.

A new study has illuminated a new perspective of the impact of imprisonment on women in Western Australia, calling for revised prison and post-prison programs.

During the two-year investigation, in-depth interviews were conducted with 52 women who were either in prison or had recently been released from prison about the impact of their time in prison on social and family connections.

Results indicated that women had been incorporated into a sentencing structure built for men, and that the 'one size fits all' process for incarceration and release is an ineffective and potentially harmful system.

'The needs of women in terms of mental health, family contact and health care are different from men, and in fact, can vary considerably amongst social and cultural groups of women in prison,' said lead researcher Dr Dot Goulding from Murdoch University.

'The research shows that the women participating in this study often shared common experiences including histories of abusive and violent relationships, drug abuse and high levels of mental illness. The women, many who are parents or caregivers, also share strong concerns regarding their ability to reconnect with children, family and community upon release. It is also significant to note that although Indigenous women constitute two per cent of the Western Australian female population, they represent around 48 per cent of the female prison population.

'Despite this common ground, we identified six major groupings of women prisoners, which often had widely different experiences during their time in prison and after release into the community.'

Group 1	Young, mainly non Aboriginal women, repeat offenders with chaotic lifestyles and no stable family or community connections
Group 2	Urban Aboriginal women with strong kinship connections but questionable connection to mainstream society, repeat offenders
Group 3	Mainly white middle class women, typically first time offenders engaged in white collar crime which is often work-related
Group 4	Aboriginal women from remote communities and regional towns, strong kinship and community connections, equally likely to be first time or repeat offenders
Group 5	Foreign National women convicted while on visitors’ visas to Australia, usually for drug importation. Suffer extreme social isolation spread across several cultural and socio-economic groups
Group 6	Long-term and life sentenced

Dr Goulding and her collaborators at Ruah Women's Support Service, the Social Justice Commission of the Uniting Church of Australia and the Centre for Social and Community Research at Murdoch University developed a series of recommendations for change through these interviews.

Major recommendations included:

• Imprisonment should be regarded as the punishment of last resort, used only after all other options have been explored.
• Secure halfway houses should be established in metropolitan and rural areas as places where women nearing release and/or serving short prison terms can serve out their sentences in an environment aligned with community standards.
• An effective screening system for the identification and management of women at risk of self harm should be developed.
• The socio-economic and cultural groupings identified in this study be used as the basis for assessing female prisoners for rehabilitative programs and services, with suitable flexibility to allow for individual difference.

 The report, which was funded by Lotterywest, was released in November 2004.