Conditional cautions will keep women out of prison

Pilot areas to test the concept of conditional cautions—which are designed to keep women out of prison—have been announced by the solicitor general.

The use of such cautions, which will include referral of women offenders to “women’s centres”, were announced by Justice Minister Vera Baird after a report last year by Baroness Corston (Review of Women with Particular Vulnerabilities in the Criminal Justice System) called for a “radical change” to the way women are treated in the criminal justice system.

The North West, Yorkshire and the Humber have been selected as pilot areas for the Together Women centres. The pilot will run for six months from September.

A conditional caution will be available for all women offenders over 18 who admit to committing a low level offence. The condition will be to attend a women’s centre for a full needs assessment. The centres will provide advice and courses on topics such as IT, English and Maths, budgeting skills, anger management and nutrition.

Baird says, “Piloting this use of conditional cautioning goes above and beyond Baroness Corston’s recommendations. We felt that to truly help women within the prison system we needed to try and create a diversion from the traditional route to prison.”

Prison Reform Trust director, Juliet Lyon, says: “The use of conditional cautioning is one of the few positive developments in an overall half-hearted government response to the blueprint for reform proposed by Barone s s Corst on. Acceptance of 40 of the 43 recommendations will only have meaning when it comes to implementation.” Jackie Lowthian, Nacro’s national policy development manager supports any attempt to divert women from the criminal justice system.

"Much is now known about women offenders, a marginalised group in a system designed to meet the needs of men. Many women have multiple complex needs and mental health problems, often stemming from histories of abuse and violence. Imprisonment impacts disproportionately on women, many of whom are lone parents, and leads to children being taken into care.

“The use of conditional cautioning with a requirement to have a needs assessment undertaken at one of the Together Women Centres is a positive step in the right direction.”

Meanwhile Baird and the attorney general, Baroness Scotland, have produced a “Diversity Strategy and Equalities and Diversity Expectations Statement”. The statement focuses on the diversity expectations that need to be adhered to by the chambers of external counsel who undertake legal work for the government. Baroness Scotland says: “This is a strategy for everyone in the legal profession. In practice it will ensure that counsel are more representative of the public, and that government draws on the widest possible pool of talent when recruiting and promoting lawyers.”