218 Project - Women's Penal Policy

218 Project - Women's Penal Policy

Women offenders: ‘From where I stand…’

This blog is part of a series considering developments two years on from the publication of the report by the Commission on Women Offenders. Kirsten Jones, Service Co-ordinator, 218 Service, offers her perspective:

Over 10 years ago the 218 Service opened its doors with gusto with its mains aims: to reduce women’s offending and address the root causes of their offending.

We were cited as an innovative, “alternative to the mainstream” service with the luxury of having our own integrated health team based within the service, enabling us to meet these aims.

At this point there were few other specialist “women’s” services, let alone ones working with women offenders. Over the years we have continued to carry out our work with the same amount of passion and enthusiasm as we did 10 years ago. As we have continued to do this, the world outwith the 218 Service has started to evolve in relation to addressing the needs and raising the profile of women offenders in Glasgow and Scotland wide.

The Angiolini report was published and this gave credence to what we already knew: that there needed to be focussed time, energy and money put into services for women in the criminal justice system and that these women have complex needs and specialist services need to be designed with this in mind.

As a result of the Commission’s report it is refreshing to see the developments within our immediate city, Glasgow. How the profile of women offenders and specialist services working with them has been raised and it is a great privilege to know that our service has contributed to the best practice “blueprint” for some of the recommendations made in the Angiolini report that are to be rolled out across Scotland.

This is not to say that there is more work to be done. We are still working with the increasing difficulty in securing appropriate, safe accommodation along with the lack of availability of wider specialist services for women with borderline personality and post-traumatic stress disorders.

For the 218 Service, looking to the next 10 years, we hope that there will be continued commitment, investment and co-ordination in both current and new initiatives for women in the criminal justice. And we hope that the profile of women offenders is kept in the spotlight.

http://www.turningpointscotland.com/what-we-do/criminal-justice/218-service/

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