MoJ and Corston Coalition fund the expansion of community services to divert women away from custody
The Ministry of Justice and the Corston Independent Funders' Coalition announced today that they have each put forward £1 million to establish a fund that will be used transform the way that women are treated in the criminal justice system.
The Women's Diversionary Fund will both make grants to third sector organisations to support further growth in community services for women in the criminal justice system and work towards building the confidence of courts in alternatives to custody. The Fund will build on the £15.6 million of new funding announced by the Ministry of Justice in 2009, earmarked for community projects for women offenders and those at risk of offending.
The Corston Independent Funders' Coalition is an alliance of 20 charitable trusts, including The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, which is working to achieve ongoing political support and sustainable funding for the implementation of the recommendations of the 2007 report by Baroness Corston into women in the criminal justice system.
As the Report highlighted, women in the criminal justice system are amongst the most disadvantaged and vulnerable members of society. More than half of all women prisoners have experienced domestic violence, and a third, sexual abuse. Up to 80% have mental health problems and the number of self-harm incidents is four times higher than in the male prison population.
Many women enter prison for very short sentences - 79% for less than a year. Too short to take part in rehabilitation and education programmes while in custody, but long enough to mean that they could lose their home, custody of their children and experience mental distress.
Despite the high cost of keeping women in prison - £131m in 2008 - women who go to prison are likely to re-offend and the re-offending rate only increases with each sentence served.
A chief recommendation of the Corston Report was for alternatives to custody to become the norm for non-violent women who pose no threat to the public, and the report highlighted a number of best practice examples in the UK already achieving significant successes in keeping women out of the courts and preventing reoffending.
Many of the exemplary community projects praised in the Report were, and continue to be, funded by charitable trusts and foundations, including members of the Corston Coalition.
It is therefore particularly encouraging that the Coalition is partnering the Ministry of Justice in the establishment of the Women's Diversionary Fund. Advocate for the Coalition, Antonia Bance, says:
‘Every year charitable trusts and foundations invest millions of pounds in supporting charities working with offenders - and this experience gives them real expertise in what works to reduce women's offending. Supporting alternatives to custody takes us one step closer to the vision laid out in the Corston Report where community solutions for non-violent women offenders become the norm.'
The Women's Diversionary Fund will be managed by the Corston Independent Funders' Coalition. Selected organisations delivering or capable of delivering services in the community to women offenders or those at risk of offending will be invited to apply. (Please do not submit applications to The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.)
For more information about the Women's Diversionary Fund, please visit www.corstoncoalition.org.uk.
To read the Corston Report, please visit www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/corston-report.
The members of the Coalition are:
Antigone
Appletree Fund
The Barrow Cadbury Trust
The Bromley Trust
The City Bridge Trust
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund
Edwina Grosvenor
J. Paul Getty Jr. Trust
LankellyChase Foundation
The McGrath Charitable Trust
The Monument Trust
The Nationwide Foundation
The Oak Foundation
The Pilgrim Trust
The Rank Foundation
Rosa
Swan Mountain Trust
Wakefield and Tetley Trust
Wates Foundation
01/02/2010
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