Rona Epstein & Geraldine Brown, Coventry University
‘Human Rights and the Government’s response to COVID-19: children whose mothers are in prison’ [1], a Report by the Joint Committee on Human Rights, was published earlier this month. It concludes that the right to family life, of children whose mothers are in prison, risks being breached. The report proposes that the Government end the ban on children visiting and consider the temporary release from prison of every low risk mother of dependent children, alongside pregnant women and women in Mother and Baby Units.
An estimated 600 pregnant women enter prisons in England each year, and about 100 babies are born inside
They report heartfelt evidence from children separated from their mothers in prison. The outbreak of COVID-19 has exacerbated problems of the separation of children from mothers in prison. Prohibition of visits and the seeming inability for the Government's early release programme to reunite a large number of mothers with their children have put at risk the right to family life of up to an estimated 17,000 children of mothers in prison. The Guardian[2] has reported that only 24 women have been released in England and Wales during the pandemic under the proposed release scheme for pregnant prisoners and new mothers, along with another seven women who were within two months of completing their sentence.
The Government is largely working on these issues in the dark, as they do not have even the most basic information about the numbers of women in prison who are separated from dependent children. This could be easily remedied — it should be. You cannot protect the human rights of children who are invisible.
The Committee recommends
The Government should consider the temporary release from prison of every low risk mother of dependent children, alongside pregnant women and women in Mother and Baby Units.
Children must be allowed to visit their mothers in prison on a socially distanced basis, where it is safe for them to do so. Any prohibition of visiting must be both necessary and proportionate in each individual case;
It should be mandatory to ask all women entering prison whether they have dependent children and what their ages are.
Prisons should undertake an annual census asking women whether they have children and what their ages are. This information must be collated and published.
Our research
An estimated 600 pregnant women[3] enter prisons in England each year, and about 100 babies are born inside. Others are detained under immigration rules, having committed no crime[4].
Pregnant women are especially vulnerable and in need of extra care — so why are there pregnant women in our prisons and detention centres? Our research [5], funded by the Oakdale Trust seeks to answer that question.
Very few women commit violent offences or present a serious risk to the public. Almost half of first receptions in the female prison estate are for unconvicted women. So, 15% of the women in prison are on remand. Many women remanded into custody don’t go on to receive a custodial sentence. In 2018, 63% of women remanded into prison by the magistrates’ court and 38% remanded by the crown courts did not go on to receive an immediate custodial sentence. [6] They were, however, in jail long enough to disrupt further lives often already marred by chaos and distress. In the year ending September 2019, 44% of all prison receptions were remand receptions. [7]
The Transforming Rehabilitation Act 2014 provided that all offenders who had served prison sentences of more that one day should be compelled to attend probation supervision for one year. They can be recalled to prison if probation staff find they have failed to comply satisfactorily. Women on licence recall now make up 8% of women in custody.
The dominant factor for recall is failure to keep in touch with the supervising officer, rather than direct risk of re-offending. In a recent study made by the Prison Reform Trust, of 24 women who had been recalled, three of these were pregnant at time of recall and one stated that failure to attend one appointment had been due to a hospital visit for a pregnancy scan. This woman stated she was recalled and separated from her daughter the day after she gave birth[8].
Women predominantly serve short sentences, for minor offences. Our earlier study (with Lucy Baldwin) found that even very short sentences of imprisonment can be hugely damaging to mothers and their children.[9] Why are these short sentences imposed rather than a suspended sentence or ordering community punishments? Research shows that community sentences are now outperforming short prison sentences and are more effective in reducing re-offending. [10] The rights of the child should be considered by a court sentencing a mother[11] but this is not established practice.
Online survey
Collaborating with Birth Companions we have set up an online survey asking women who have been pregnant in prison about the court processes which led to imprisonment and about their experiences in prison.
Why now?
On 27 September 2019 a woman held in HMP Bronzefield on remand gave birth alone in her cell; the baby died
On 27 September 2019 a woman held in HMP Bronzefield on remand gave birth alone in her cell; the baby died. Following this incident a number of investigations were set up, among them: Internal investigation at HMP Bronzefield; Joint investigation between the Prison Service and HMP Bronzefield; Police Safeguarding investigation; Surrey Social Services Rapid Response Review. The prisons and probation ombudsman (PPO) is to carry out an overarching independent review into the circumstances of the baby’s death.
None of these inquiries will ask why was this woman on remand in prison. Nor enquire why the other pregnant women – about 50 at any one time – are incarcerated. On remand, on sentence, on recall – should a pregnant woman be in prison?
There is now a new investigation following the stillbirth of a baby at HMP Styal on 18th June[12]. The woman had complained for days of pain and was not apparently referred to a doctor or offered any medical care.
Concerns
As the report of the Joint Committee shows, the imprisonment of mothers imposes significant suffering on children, who have committed no crime. The Covid-19 pandemic greatly exacerbates this suffering.
Research by Laura Abbott has found that being pregnant in prison entailed severe stress, frustration and, sometimes, high levels of fear and anxiety. [13]
Miranda Davies, a senior fellow at the independent health think tank the Nuffield Trust reported that pregnant women in prison faced significant risks. Their analysis showed that in 2017-18 roughly one in 10 pregnant women gave birth either in their prison cell or en route to hospital, raising questions about their ability to access the right care. [14]
Conclusion
The link between issues of poverty, deprivation and social exclusion and involvement in the criminal justice system is clear. What is also clear are the wider costs ensued by punishing the vulnerable and the excluded rather than working towards equality and social justice. We see our work as a means of generating evidence that supports a different approach – one that seeks first to understand and then to repair the fissures in our society, and to expend energy and resources to that end rather than to punish those at the margins of society. Our research to explore why pregnant women are in prison should be seen in this context.
Our survey is accessible here.
For more information about the survey please email: LawResearcher23@gmail.com
Rona Epstein, Honorary Research Fellow Coventry Law School - R.Epstein@coventry.ac.uk
Geraldine Brown, Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University - G.Brown@coventry.ac.uk
[1] The Government’s response to COVID-19: children whose mothers are in prison, 3 July 2020
[2] Nazia Parveen, End Covid-19 jail visiting ban for children in England and Wales, MPs urge, 3 July 2020
[3] Shona Minson, The impact of imprisonment on pregnant women and their unborn children, A summary of research evidence from Dr Laura Abbott, Fellow of the Royal College of Midwives, Senior Lecturer in Midwifery, University of Hertfordshire, 26 March 2020
[4] Kamila Shamsie, The UK once welcomed refugees - now we detain them indefinitely. It must end, The Guardian, 4 July 2020
[5] Geraldine Brown and Rona Epstein, Why are pregnant women in prison?, FiLiA.org.uk, July 2020
[6] A round-up and latest key statistics regarding women affected by the criminal justice system.,Women in Prison
[7] Kimmett Edgar, Lacking Conviction: The rise of the women’s remand population, The Prison Reform Trust, August 2004
[8] The Prison Reform Trust, Broken Trust: The rising numbers of women recalled to prison, 2018
[9] Lucy Baldwin & Rona Epstein, Short but not sweet: A study of the impact of short custodial sentences on mothers and their children, De Montfort University, July 2017
[10] Prison Reform Trust, response to the Ministry of Justice consultation, Punishment and reform: effective community sentences,
[11] Rona Epstein, Mothers in prison:The sentencing of mothers and the rights of the child, The Howard League for Penal Reform, 2014
[12] Diane Taylor, Death of baby in Cheshire prison prompts investigation, The Guardian, 19 June 2020
[13] Dr Laura Abbott, Pregnancy and childbirth in prison, Sociology Lens, January 2020
[14] Dr Miranda Davies, Lucina Rolewicz, Laura Schlepper, Femi Fagunwa, Locked out? Prisoners' use of hospital care, Nuffield Trust, Feburary 2020