What Works With Women Offenders

350 Pages·2013·6.862 MB·English

by  McIvor, Gill, Sheehan, Rosemary, Trotter, Chris

What Works with
Women Offenders
.¿ - r ' * V -
Edited by
Rosemary Sheehan,
WILLAN
Gill Mclvor and Chris Trotter
PUBLISHING
W hat W orks with Women Offenders
W hat Works with Women
Offenders
Edited by
Rosemary Sheehan, Gill Mclvor
and Chris Trotter
WILLAN
PUBLISHING
Published by
Willan Publishing
Culmcott House
Mill Street, Uffculme
Cullompton, Devon
EX15 3AT, UK
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.willanpublishing.co.uk
Published simultaneously in the USA and Canada by
Willan Publishing
c/o ISBS, 920 NE 58th Ave, Suite 300
Portland, Oregon 97213-3786, USA
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.isbs.com
© editors and contributors 2007
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the
Publishers or a licence permitting copying in the UK issued by the Copyright Licensing
Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N STS
First published 2007
ISBN-978-1-84392-239-1 paperback
ISBN-978-1-84392-240-7 hardback
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Typeset by CCS, Leighton Buzzard, Beds
Printed and bound by T.J. International Ltd., Trecerus Industrial Estate,
Pad stow, Cornwall
Contents
Preface and acknowledgements vii
List of figures and tables ix
Notes on contributors xi
Introduction xv
Rosemary Sheehan, Gill Mclvor and Chris Trotter
1 The nature of female offending 1
Gill Mclvor
2 The transitional pathways of young female
offenders: towards a non-offending lifestyle 23
Monica Barry
3 Sentencing and gender 40
Loraine Gelsthorpe
4 Risks and needs: factors that predict
women's incarceration and inform service
planning 61
Margaret Severson, Marianne Berry and
]udy L. Postmus
What Works with Women Offenders
5 Responding to drug and alcohol
problems: innovations and effectiveness
in treatment programmes for women 91
Margaret Malloch and Nancy Loucks
6 Offending behaviour programmes for
women offenders 110
Sue Pearce
7 Parole and probation 124
Chris Trotter
8 Responding to mental health needs
of women offenders 142
Jim Ogloff and Christine Tye
9 Responding to the health needs
of female offenders 182
Angela M. Wolf, Fabiana Silva,
Kelly E. Knight and Shabnam Javdani
10 Women prisoners and their children 214
Rosemary Sheehan and Catherine Flynn
11 Barriers to employment, training and
education in prison and beyond:
a peer-led solution 240
Caroline O'Keeffe, Paul Senior and
Valerie Monti-Holland
12 Employment: offending and reintegration 262
Trade McPherson
13 Housing and support after prison 279
Sally Malin
14 What does work for women offenders? 300
Rosemary Sheehan, Gill Mclvor and Chris Trotter
Index 377
vi
Preface and acknowledgements
Monash University, Australia, hosted the inaugural conference 'What
works with women offenders: A cross-national dialogue about what
are effective responses to female offenders' at the Monash Centre in
Prato, Italy, 20-22 June, 2005. This innovative, international conference
in Tuscany brought together a range of people who work with, and
have an interest in helping, women offenders. They included academics,
practitioners and policy contributors from a range of European, North
American and Australasian countries. The conference provided the
opportunity for dialogue between representatives of different national
systems both about their system responses to female offenders and
about the programmes they have developed for women who offend.
In the context of dramatic increases in the imprisonment of women
across western jurisdictions, the aim of this dialogue was to examine
what responses work best in alleviating the problems that contribute
to women's offending and imprisonment, and what interventions offer
the best opportunity for rehabilitation. Particular attention was given
to issues of the health and mental health of women prisoners; the
role of addiction in women's offending; families and parenting roles;
education and work opportunities; political and societal responses to
women offenders; and, the effectiveness of interventions that have
been developed in response to offending and women.
The idea for the conference grew out of research undertaken in
Victoria, Australia, by Rosemary Sheehan and Chris Trotter, that asked
women in prison, and at intervals after their release, what services
and supports helped them manage during, and after, prison. Gill
Mclvor undertook a parallel, though more limited, study of women
What Works with Women Offenders
leaving prison in Scotland. Women who go to prison have a range
of social and personal problems and are likely to require significant
amounts of support both while in custody on release. Given that
the risk of reoffending is strongly influenced by the social situation
and circumstances women return to on release, our research set out
to identify what services provided the most effective support to the
women and were more likely to reduce their risk of reoffending on
release. It became clear that the challenges posed by women offenders
in Scotland and Victoria were very similar and were shared by other
women in other countries that had similarly witnessed significant
increases in female incarceration.
This book arose out of the Prato conference, convened by Rosemary
Sheehan. The book is made possible by the generous support of
Brian Willan and Willan Publishing, whose interest in criminology
has greatly encouraged this venture. Our thanks go also those who
participated in the conference and who contributed to the writing of
this book, providing a unique cross-national perspective on women
offenders and giving attention to an important social and political
issue.
Rosemary Sheehan, Gill Mclvor and Chris Trotter
List of figures and tables
Figures
7.1 Women's response to who they found the most
helpful to them, in the twelve months after
release from prison 135
7.2 Women's ratings of the helpfulness of services
after prison 136
7.3 What is the worker doing that is helpful? 137
10.1 Care plans for children prior to their mother's
imprisonment related to whether or not they
were in their mother's care prior to prison 231
11.1 The importance/centrality of ETE in the lives of
women ex-offenders 244
11.2 Barriers to ETE experienced by women ex-offenders 249
Tables
4.1 Demographic characteristics of sample 69
4.2 Prevalence of victimisation 70
4.3 Co-occurrence of types of victimisation 71
4.4 Current outcomes in adulthood 72
4.5 Coping strategies and social support 73
4.6 Correlation of victimisation experiences and mediating
factors (controlling for incarceration) 73
4.7 Social services and supports used after victimisation 74
4.8 Helpfulness of social services and supports
after victimisation 75
What Works with Women Offenders
4.9 Barriers to using services and supports
4.10 Correlations of services used and adult outcomes
4.11 Correlations of barriers to seeking services and
adult outcomes
6.1 Criminogenic needs by sex of offender (from OASys
completed 2003-04)
6.2 Evaluation measures used
7.1 Imprisonment after release and relationship to parole
7.2 Women's views about the service and how this
relates to reoffending (significant associations in order)
7.3 Factors that were associated with women's views
that the service had helped with their problems and
reduced their chances of reoffending
10.1 Family composition of participants in 'Women
and welfare after prison study', Victoria, Australia,
2003-04
10.2 Child's place of residence whilst mother in
prison (Women and welfare after prison study,
Victoria, Australia, 2003-04)
12.1 Post-release outcomes for women who attended
Employment Expo