Prison Research

Bad Girls, Within These Walls, Prisoner Cell Block H… prisons provide vivid material for writers of TV drama because the lives of so many prisoners have been filled with trauma and abuse before they get to prison. A prison setting offers an enclosed world where the audience can get to know the characters and where the constant efforts of prisoners to get one over on the staff give opportunities for comedy even when the main storyline is tragic.

Bad Girls has set out since its first series to raise awareness of what happens in women's prisons and to highlight the issues women in prison face. Those involved in its production have gone to great lengths to try to make it as accurate as possible, but it is a drama series and life in prison is not always so exciting, so it would not be fair to think that everything Bad Girls shows us actually happens on a regular basis. So what is life like beyond G wing at Larkhall?

There are 18 prisons in England and Wales which hold women prisoners. Not all are women's prisons - some hold women and men, but they do not have contact with one another. Three of the women's prisons are 'open' prisons. Only women who are not regarded as a threat to public safety or a real escape risk are sent to the open prisons where security is less stringent and women are often able to work outside the prison. There is one women's prison in Scotland. Only six of the women's prisons take women who are waiting on remand - days, weeks or months - to be dealt with at court.
Women's prisons vary from Victorian style prison wings like Larkhall to modern cabin-style accommodation. Two of the open prisons have been converted from old country houses, with some added wings and buildings.
There are plans to open two new prisons for women, which will provide an extra 810 places

In the first week of June 2002, there were 3,764 adult women and 619 girls under the age of 21 including children as young as 15 in prison - a total of 4383 women.
They make up about just over 6% of the total prison population. Between 1993 and 2000 the average population of women in prison rose by 115%, as against 42% for men.
The number of women in prison is now at an all-time high. Some of the reasons for the massive increase include:

• An increase in the number of women appearing before the courts
• An increase in the proportion of women receiving prison sentences
• An increase in the length of prison sentences imposed on women
• An increase in the number of women who commit drug offences which attract heavy penalties
• Inequalities in sentencing options and limited community penalties (such as community punishment orders or offending behaviour programmes run by the probation service) for women in some parts of the country
• A lack of co-ordination in the criminal justice system in regard to women, and a failure, until recently, to prioritise reducing offending by women.

Women on remand, waiting to be dealt with at court, make up a fifth of the female prison population, but women are less likely to be remanded in custody than men. They are held for an average of 36 days, but the period varies from a few days to months.
Two out of three women held in prison on remand (before their trial or sentence) do not receive a prison sentence when they go to court - they are either found not guilty or given a community sentence. Community sentences include community punishment orders, where offenders have to do unpaid community service work, fines, community rehabilitation orders, where offenders have to have regular contact with a probation officer and may attend a special course to help them stop offending, or electronic tagging.

Although women are generally treated a little more leniently than men by the courts, some women seem to be given particularly harsh sentences.
The top seven offences for which women were sentenced to prison in 2000 were, in order of frequency:

1. Theft from shops
2. Wounding
3. Fraud
4. Production, supply or possession with intent to supply a class A controlled drug (such as heroin, cocaine, crack or ecstasy)
5. Motoring offences
6. Burglary
7. Handling stolen goods

Most women in prison are serving short sentences for non-violent offences.
Among the population of sentenced female offenders, the main offence groups in 2000 were drug offences (over a third of women prisoners), theft and handling (one in five) and violence against the person (16%).

Women lifers represent only 3% of the total lifer population which was 4540 in 2000. Just over 80% of female lifers have been convicted of murder. The remainder have been convicted of manslaughter, attempted homicide, other violent offences and arson. Lifers are only released after they have served their tariff (the amount of time the judge and the Home Secretary agree is necessary as punishment for the offence) and then been assessed as safe for release by the Parole Board. Some lifers spend many years in prison after their tariff is served because the Parole Board believes they still pose too much of a threat to public safety. Once released lifers are supervised for years by the Probation Service and they can be recalled to prison if their behaviour gives cause for concern at any time for the rest of their lives.

Girls under 21 years of age are held in special units in adult prisons. At present 10 prisons house female young offenders. In 2000 there was an average of about 200 young women under 21 in prison on any given day.

The backgrounds of many women in prison are predictably bleak - just as they are shown on Bad Girls:

• Over 25% have, like Denny, spent time in public care
• 20% of women in prisons have spent time as an in-patient at a psychiatric hospital
• 47% have no educational qualifications - like the Julies and most of the other inmates of G wing
• Over half the women in prison report that they have suffered violence at home and 1/3 have experienced sexual abuse (this is likely to be an underestimate as sexual and domestic violence is under reported)
• Half the women in prison report that they were, like Buki, dependent on drugs in the year before they came into prison
• Nearly 40% have alcohol problems
• Mental health problems are another major issue:
• 75% of women in prison have a neurotic disorder, such as depression, anxiety or phobias
• Women prisoners have a high rate of severe mental illness such as schizophrenia or delusional disorders
• Half of the women in prison are on prescribed medication such as anti-depressants or anti-psychotic medicine

For many mental health problems are an issue before they come into prison, but for some, like Roisin, the experience of separation from children and loss of liberty can be enough to cause mental health problems to develop.
In mid-2000, ethnic minority groups made up 25% of the female prison population.
A high proportion of the prisoners from ethnic minorities (15% of all female prisoners in 2000) are foreign nationals, most of whom are held for drug offences. Many of the foreign national prisoners have been arrested at ports or airports as they try to enter the country with drugs. These drug 'mules' are often unaware how seriously the offence they are committing is taken in the UK and believe they will simply be sent home if they are caught. In some cases they are women facing extreme poverty or urgent need, such as medical treatment for a child, in their countries of origin and get involved in drug smuggling because there seems to be no alternative. They face long prison sentences and are usually deported at their release date.

More than half of all women in prison have a child under 16 who was living with them before they were sent to prison. Over one third of mothers in prison have a child under 5. Four prisons have mother and baby units providing a total of 64 places for mothers and their young babies. It is estimated that over 8000 children are affected each year by their mother's imprisonment.

Women are held an average of 63 miles away from home, though as always this average figure conceals very wide differences with some women being held over 100 miles from their families. The distance and the fact that some of the prisons are very difficult to get to by public transport mean that maintaining contact is far from easy. The children of women in prison are often cared for by grandparents or friends of their mother rather than their fathers and this too sometimes means they are unlikely to be brought to visit on a regular basis.

G wing at Larkhall is not an easy place to be. Prisoners have to work out who to trust, who they should avoid and who not to cross. They need to develop relationships with staff which help them to get what they need, but have to be careful about getting too friendly or they risk being seen as a grass. Staff have to develop relationships with prisoners which enable them to help with resettlement and maintain security, but they have to avoid getting too personally involved like Di Barker, stereotyping all prisoners like Sylvia Hollamby or abusing their position like Jim Fenner. All these dilemmas face prisoners and prison staff in prisons throughout the country.
What makes women's prisons such tense and difficult places is not only what happens inside the prison, but all that is going on in women's lives outside both before and during their time in prison. Most men with families who are sent to prison can expect their female partners to look after the children, pay the rent or mortgage and bills and visit while they are in prison. Most women cannot rely on partners to look after all these things. Many are single parents and they stand to lose their accommodation as well as their children while they are in custody.
Obviously women who have committed crime need to be dealt with by the criminal justice system, and it would be unfair if they were treated very differently from men. The rapid increase in the women's prison population is a real cause for concern though. Locking up women has effects far beyond the prison gates because women still play such a major role as carers for children and elderly and disabled relatives. There are also so many women in prison for whom it is clearly not the right place - such as women suffering from serious mental health problems, or those waiting on remand who will not be sent to prison when the court has heard their case.