The National Delivery Plan of the Health and Criminal Justice Programme Board issued on 17 November 2009 is intended to lay our how the government will implement the recommendations of the Bradley review into mental health and learning disability in the criminal justice system. However, once again women are all but invisible in this document. The Delivery Plan states that a women’s programme document will be released by December 2009 which will lay out the priorities for women within each area of delivery. This approach does nothing to advance the mainstreaming of gender equality. It is not clear who is responsible for producing the women’s programme document and delivering the programme.
There is a risk that by responding separately in regard to women the Health and Criminal Justice Programme Board will exacerbate the marginalisation of women in the criminal justice system and continue the problem of specific responses to women being viewed as an optional extra. This piecemeal approach to equality hides the particular problems faced by black and minority ethnic women, older women, younger women and women with disabilities and does nothing to meet their needs. Until we see the details of the women’s programme we cannot judge whether or not the Health and Criminal Justice Programme Board will meet women’s specific needs.
Based upon the experiences of women who access our Mental Health Inclusion Project, vulnerable women with high mental health support needs continue to be released from prison without adequate support in the community, leaving them at ongoing risk of harm and of ending up back in prison. An overhaul is urgently needed of the way in which the criminal justice system treats women with diagnosed mental health conditions, women with histories of trauma and women with learning disabilities. The exclusion of women from this Delivery Plan gives us little hope that this change is coming.
The National Delivery Plan of the Health and Criminal Justice Programme Board is available here
The Bradley Report is available here
The Government's response is available here
Women in Prison's response and recommendations are available here
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