Proposed new centres, prisons by another name?

Kate Wilmot attended the recent Zoom conference  held by the Ministry of Justice , discussing the roll out of the new proposed women’s centres.

On the 5th August, Clinks and the MOJ held an online conference to discuss the MOJ’s plans to develop a residential women’s centre (RWC) pilot in at least five sites across England and Wales. They say they have been engaged extensively with the women’s sector, providers, women with lived experience and other stakeholders when working on the services’ design. The first phase, in 2018/19, involved visits and proposed models to inform scope of product. Phase 2, from April to September 2020, involves refining and finalising plans which is said to be evidence-led and is identifying any gaps. Finally, phase 3, set to occur from October 2020 but set to change because of COVID-19, involves workshops and engagements with HMPPS, local providers, judiciary and potential bidders as a market warming activity.

The target cohort for these RWCs is women with convictions and those who are at risk of a custodial sentence of up to 12 months with a high likelihood of reoffending. There is to be three elements to the RWCs; a residential unit, a support hub and move-on support. The residential unit is place where the women can stay for up to 12 weeks, where any necessary needs are met whilst also meeting sentence requirements. The MOJ says it will embed a substance misuse policy, have a mix of private and communal spaces and meet women’s nutritional needs. When deciding whether a woman should go into the residential unit, there will be a risk assessment, a therapeutic assessment, a discussion about whether another intervention might be more effective, and the woman will have to consent to join.

During the conference, issues were raised concerning the residential unit such as whether it will have female only staff and what the capacity of the unit will be. The MOJ  said there will be 12 women in the residence at any one time and they will consider female only staff for this unit. They also said they are currently exploring whether the units will have staff on site for 24 hours a day and most people present agreed.

The support hub will provide interventions or supported access to statutory provision for mental health, substance misuse, relationships, thinking and behaviour, trauma and accommodation issues. This support service also aims to tackle any barriers regarding engagement such as counselling, childcare and transport. Concerns about this support hub were raised about staff training and experience. The MOJ responded that, rather, they would be buying in services with trained staff.

The move-on support service will help women to be placed in long-term stable accommodation on exit from the intervention. The service will encourage independence in women, support access to obtain and sustain stable accommodation, and to support with benefits applications and employment. There was concerns about limited housing stock, whether women would resettle in the RWC area and whether travel costs would be covered if a woman moved out of the area. These are yet unanswered.

Overall concerns about the proposed RWCs include issues around enforcement, such as what happens if a woman decides against going to one. This service would be an alternative to custody and therefore, a woman would be agreeing to custody as the alternative. This suggests that, perhaps, these RWCs are just another type of institutionalisation and simply, another word for prisons. There are still questions about  the women who would have to live in these units including  pregnant  women and  whether there will be trans and non-binary inclusion. The MOJ says, in terms of restrictions on who can go to these centres, there will be an individual assessment of each woman and that these centres are for low to medium risk women. If a therapeutic assessment determines it is not safe or not the best option for a woman, then they would not go there.

Superficially, it may seem that these RWCs are encouraging; they promise to give women a place to stay, support them during their time and to support them with their journey out of the service. However, we must question whether these centres would only work to extend control beyond the prison walls. We must ensure that these centres are not reproducing   pain within a community setting or encouraging ideas that a woman can navigate through hard times by simply accessing services that do not address underlying social and economic issues.