Women offenders: Promoting a holistic approach and continuity of care across criminal justice and health interventions
| Author | Cath Quinn,Jill Annison,Richard Byng |
| Published date | 01 September 2019 |
| Date | 01 September 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1748895818773805 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895818773805
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2019, Vol. 19(4) 385 –403
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1748895818773805
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Women offenders:
Promoting a holistic
approach and continuity of
care across criminal justice
and health interventions
Jill Annison
University of Plymouth, UK
Richard Byng
University of Plymouth, UK
Cath Quinn
University of Plymouth, UK
Abstract
Analysis of data in this article focuses on the self-reported situations of 21 female respondents
who were part of a large-scale study of offenders’ health needs. The findings show an extensive
range of physical and psychological problems, often intertwined with substance misuse and other
issues, including offending behaviour. Four components of an existing model of ‘continuity of care’
are reviewed to explore the difficulties, but also the potential, for collaborative and co-ordinated
interventions with regard to working with women offenders. Concern is expressed about the
changes and fragmentation in provision for women brought about by the Transforming Rehabilitation
agenda in England and Wales. It is advocated here that policy and practice should be developed
across health and criminal justice agencies to provide holistic and integrated approaches which could
support women offenders in their attempts to stabilize their lives and to find pathways out of crime.
Keywords
Access, continuity of care, health, probation, Transforming Rehabilitation, women offenders
Corresponding author:
Jill Annison, School of Law, Criminology and Government, University of Plymouth, 20 Portland Villas, Drake
Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK.
Email: J.Annison@plymouth.ac.uk
773805CRJ0010.1177/1748895818773805Criminology & Criminal JusticeAnnison et al.
research-article2018
Article
386 Criminology & Criminal Justice 19(4)
Introduction
The operationalization of the ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’ (TR) programme in England and
Wales in 2015 (Ministry of Justice, 2013; Strickland, 2016) has created a National Probation
Service, which has retained responsibility for the supervision of high risk offenders, while the
management of low to medium risk offenders has been outsourced to eight providers across
the 21 newly formed Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs). With the enactment of
the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014 the CRCs also have responsibility for the supervision
of short-term prisoners after release, that is, those sentenced to less than 12 months in prison
(Clinks, 2016). These criminal justice system focused reforms do not address the need for
cross-sectoral working; this article explores how we might think about the joined-up whole
person approaches, which are particularly important for women offenders.
In anticipation of the TR reforms concerns were expressed, particularly in relation to
political and ideological imperatives, which rested on the privatization of services to a
range of CRC providers and the inclusion of a payment by results element (Annison
et al., 2014). This posed concomitant misgivings about the potential fragmentation of
provision and the possible lack of cohesion across the criminal justice and associated
fields, especially concerning women offenders. For example, attention was drawn to the
existing range of inter-linked contracts with respect to women service-users across health
and crime commissioning streams, as well as community and post-custodial supervision,
with these parallel processes impacting on the same individuals (Gomm, 2013: 156).
This apprehension about the impact on women offenders was noted in the proceed-
ings of the Justice Select Committee:
The Government’s proposals for Transforming Rehabilitation have clearly been designed to
deal with male offenders. Funding arrangements for provision for women appear to be being
shoehorned into the payment by results programme, resulting in the likelihood of a loss of
funding for broader provision encompassing both women offenders and those with particular
vulnerabilities that put them at risk of offending. (House of Commons Justice Committee,
2013: 86)
It was subsequently clarified in the 2014 Offender Rehabilitation Act that the legislation
expected:
The Secretary of State to ensure that contracts or other arrangements providing for the
supervision or rehabilitation of offenders must (a) state that the Secretary of State has complied
with the public sector equality duty in Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 as it relates to
female offenders; and (b) identify anything in the arrangements that is intended to meet the
particular needs of female offenders. (Prison Reform Trust, 2013: 6)
There is therefore a legislative requirement for the needs of female offenders to be taken
into account as the new organizational arrangements are operationalized. However, in
turn this raises inherent issues about the particular needs of female offenders and how
they could, and should, be responded to.
This article contributes to this area, first by presenting a contextual review of relevant
policy and practice developments relating to women offenders in England and Wales,
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