Management of women’s prisons: key recommendations.

Management of women’s  prisons: key  recommendations 

Prison management - Ensure that prison management is gender-sensitive, including the following components: " Taking affirmative action to counter-balance discrimination encountered by women prisoners; " Adopting a gender-sensitive management style; " Recognizing the different needs of female prisoners and providing programmes and services that address these needs. Ensure that the multiple needs of women from ethnic and racial minority groups and foreign national prisoners are taken into account in programming. 

Staff  - Employ senior female prison staff in key positions; Build the capacity of female staff and provide them with special training on the needs of female prisoners; Provide psychosocial support to female staff; Develop a clear policy against discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace; Train male staff on gender sensitivity, sexual misconduct and discrimination issues. 

Allocation - Make every effort to allocate women prisoners close to their homes, taking into account the wishes of the women concerned. 

Admission and registration - Provide newly admitted women prisoners with information about their rights and obligations, in writing and orally, at least to those who are illiterate, and in the case of those who do not speak the language most commonly spoken in the prison, with the assistance of an interpreter. Inform foreign national prisoners of their right to contact their consular representatives and facilitate such contact. Treat newly admitted women prisoners professionally and sensitively, with respect to their human dignity. Inform newly admitted women prisoners of their right to contact lawyers, provide them information about legal aid services, and facilitate contact, where required. Register children being admitted to prison with their mothers, and note the names, addresses and contact details of children outside prison, with the permission of the mother. Keep information about the identity of children of women in prison confidential, sharing such information with third parties only with the mother’s permission. 

Assessment and classification -Develop a gender-sensitive risk assessment and classification system, which: " Takes into account the very low risk most women offenders pose to others and the particularly harmful effects of high security measures have on them; " Takes into account women’s backgrounds, such as experience of domestic violence, as we ll as their caring responsibilities, in their allocation and sentence planning process; " Ensures that women’s sentence plans include programmes which meet their gender-specific needs; " Ensures that those with mental disabilities are housed in the least restrictive accommodation and receive treatment. 

Safety and security - Separation and supervision 

 Accommodate all female prisoners in accommodation which is physically separate from that occupied by men. Ensure that women prisoners are supervised by female staff. If, contrary to the above recommendation, male staff are allowed to work in women’s prisons, they should never be employed in contact positions responsible for the direct supervision of prisoners and safeguards should be stringently applied. Introduce clear policies and guidelines relating to sexual misconduct by staff in prisons, aiming to provide maximum protection to women prisoners. 

Safety and security -Prisoner complaints

Establish clear and confidential prisoner complaints mechanisms, and ensure that the investigations of allegations of sexual misconduct and other forms of ill-treatment and torture are undertaken promptly and impartially by an independent authority, and that safeguards are in place to protect prisoners who complain from retaliation. Ensure that women who allege to have been ill-treated or tortured are given access to legal aid and offer such women counselling by independent, qualified health-care professionals. 

Searches  - Ensure that male members of staff are never involved in the personal searches of female prisoners, and that strip or intimate body searches are either not undertaken at all, or only in exceptional circumstances prescribed by law. If an intimate body search is unavoidable, it should preferably be undertaken by an external medical practitioner. At the very least, a medically trained female staff member, who is not part of the regular health-care service of the prison, may undertake the search. Make efforts to eliminate intimate body searches altogether by using alternative means of screening. Ensure that staff are trained to undertake the searches of children with sensitivity, and that policies are in place to never subject children to intimate body searches. 

Body restraints - Reduce to a minimum the use of body restraints. Never use body restraints on pregnant women during medical examinations, transfer to hospital, birth and immediately after birth.

Disciplinary segregation -  Reduce to a minimum the use of disciplinary segregation. Never use disciplinary segregation in the case of pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and women with children in prison. Develop therapeutic strategies to prevent suicide and self-harm. 

 Suicide and self-harm attempts - Develop a reception area and induction programme for new arrivals, which provide a supporting environment, encourages and facilitates contact with families and friends and ensures that all new entries are fully familiarized with the prison regime, including where to seek help when in need. Never punish prisoners for self-harm and suicide attempts. 

Prisoner activities and programmes - Provide female prisoners equal access to work, vocational training and education as men. Introduce specific programmes that address the underlying factors that lead to criminal behaviour in women, such as: " Programmes addressing substance abuse issues; mental health; history of abuse and domestic violence. and " Programmes that address women’s gender-related difficulties, such as: parenting and child visitation programmes; programmes to build confidence and life skills. Find creative ways to compensate for resource problems, such as using a rotation system for classes and enabling peer education and skills training. Increase civil society participation in activities. Take into account the multiple gender-specific and cultural/ linguistic/religious/spiritual needs of foreign national women and members of racial and ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples, in designing programmes and enabling such groups’ access to them. 

Sports and recreation -  Ensure that women have equal access as men to sports and recreational facilities in prisons. 

Health care -  Ensure that prison conditions and services are designed to protect the health of all prisoners, recognizing that providing the underlying determinants of health is key to the protection of the physical and mental wellbeing of all prisoners. Ensure that prison health services are not isolated from civil health-care services, and that collaboration between the two (and ideally integration of the two) forms part of prison health service management strategies and policies. Ensure that prisons have properly trained primary health-care teams. Introduce a gender-specific framework for health care in women’s prisons, which emphasizes reproductive and sexual health, mental health, treatment for substance abuse and counselling victims of violence. Undertake comprehensive health assessments on admission, covering primary health-care needs, gender-specific healthcare needs, mental health-care needs and substance dependence. Ensure that the health screening includes an assessment of ill-treatment or torture, including sexual abuse, prior to admission. Offer HIV testing on a voluntary basis, with pre- and post-test counselling. In developing responses to HIV/AIDS in penal institutions, to ensure that programmes and services are responsive to the unique needs of women, including, for example, prevention of mother to child transmission. Develop specialized treatment programmes for women with drug dependencies, taking into account their gender-specific needs. Develop strategies for suicide and self-harm prevention in consultation with health-care and social welfare services. Ensure that preventive health-care measures of particular relevance to women are available. Ensure that the specific hygiene needs of women are met, including adequate sanitary facilities for the personal care of women with children, those who are pregnant, breastfeeding and menstruating. Provide staff training in basic medicine and first aid, including for children, as well as on HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. Ensure that child health-care specialists are accessible, when required. 

Hygiene - Ensure that women’s accommodation includes facilities and materials required to meet women’s special hygiene needs, and that women are provided with hygiene items, including sanitary towels, free-of-charge. 

Access to legal assistance - Provide information to offenders about their legal rights. Taking account of the particular challenges faced by many women in accessing justice, ensure that assistance is provided to female prisoners to contact lawyers, paralegal services and relevant NGOs, and provide facilities for meetings with lawyers, and if required interpretation services. Cooperate with NGOs and paralegal aid services in assisting indigent women in the criminal justice system, especially in countries and communities where legal aid may be limited or unavailable. 

Contact with the outside world - Adopt measures and rules that match the particular needs of women for contact with their families and children. Take measures to compensate for the difficulties in undertaking family visits. Consult with prisoners as to who should be allowed to visit them. Allow open contact during visits as a general rule, with the exception of prisoners who have been assessed as a security risk only. Always allow contact visits (open visits) where children are involved. Develop contact with the community. Train staff to conduct visits in an atmosphere of human dignity and provide a child-friendly environment for visits. Ensure that the conditions in which visits take place are conducive to a positive visiting experience. Never prohibit visits as a disciplinary punishment. 

 Preparation for release and post-release support - Cooperate with probation services, social welfare agencies and NGOs to design comprehensive and coordinated pre and post-release reintegration programmes for women. Programmes should enable women to complete any educational or vocational training courses, and health-care programmes, including substance addiction treatment programmes in the community. Develop gender and culture specific pre- and post-release support programmes for ethnic and racial minority women and indigenous women, in consultation with relevant community groups and the women themselves. Utilize options such as open prisons and half-way houses to the maximum possible extent for female prisoners. Consider revising prison legislation and regulations to apply more liberal conditions for the granting of remission and parole in the case of women prisoners (especially mothers), in line with a gender-sensitive management policy. Ensure that protection is provided to women at risk after release, in cooperation with community protection agencies and NGOs. 

Pregnant women and women with children in prison -   On admission to prison, record the number of women’s children, their personal details and locations (if outside prison). 

 Pregnant and nursing women - Provide pre- and post-natal care equivalent to that available in the community. Ensure that post-natal care is provided to women who have recently given birth, but who do not have their babies with them in prison; Ensure that pregnant women are transferred to civilian hospitals for childbirth. Never use body restraints on pregnant women during transport to hospital to give birth, during birth and immediately after birth. 

Women with children in prison - Ensure that the development of children in prison is supervised by primary health-care providers and a prison psychologist, and monitored by specialists in child development. Establish nurseries in prisons where mothers can spend time with their children and which allow for mothers to participate in prison activities and programmes. Provide other facilities and activities for the children of imprisoned mothers. Never treat children in prison as prisoners. 

Prepare the mother and child for separation and undertake the removal of the child from prison with sensitivity. Take decisions on separation on an individual basis, taking into account the best interests of the child and only after alternative care arrangements for the children have been made. After children are separated from their mothers provide women prisoners the maximum possible opportunity to meet with their children.

 Pretrial detainees -  Accommodate pretrial detainees and convicted prisoners separately. If exceptional circumstances hinder the strict application of this rule, then prison administrators must ensure that a different regime applies to those who have not yet been convicted. Recognize the particularly vulnerable status of female pretrial detainees and put in place measures to ensure that they are protected to the maximum possible extent. (See Safety and security above.) Assist women prisoners to access lawyers, legal aid, paralegal aid services and relevant NGOs, in order to ensure that they have access to justice. Taking into account that women detained in relation to “reproductive crimes” may be at heightened health risks during pretrial detention, ensure that their special healthcare needs are addressed, and where necessary transfer them to community hospitals for treatment.

 Foreign national women -  Ensure that all foreign prisoners have regular access to their consular representatives, legal counsel and interpreters, equal access to information in a language they understand, as well as prison activities and other services. Compensate for difficulties in family contact, e.g. by increasing the number of phone calls the women are allowed, allowing longer visits, etc. Provide language courses to foreign nationals who do not speak the language most commonly spoken in the prison. Encourage NGOs and other community support to foreign national prisoners, as well as peer support and self-help groups to be formed among foreign national women of the same nationality, to reduce the impact of isolation. Consider the transfer of non-resident foreign national women prisoners to their home countries, especially if they have children in that country, as early as possible, if the offender so wishes and if there is no risk of harm to the prisoner. If the child of a non-resident foreign national woman is to be removed from prison, consider transferring the child back to his or her home country, in consultation with the mother, consular representatives and the child, depending on his or her age. Assist resident foreign national women who face deportation with access to legal counsel for any appeals process and with deportation procedures, as relevant. Please also refer to the UNODC Handbook on Prisoners with Special Needs, Foreign National Prisoners.

 Girls in prisons -  Separate strategies and policies in accordance with international standards need to be designed for the treatment and rehabilitation of children, including girls in conflict with the law, even when the numbers are limited. When girls in conflict with the law are imprisoned: " Take into account the particularly vulnerable status of girls prisoners in the development and implementation of prison management policies and programmes. " Separate girl prisoners from adults and from boy prisoners. " Do not assign male staff to supervise girl prisoners or to places where they might get in direct contact with them. Recognizing that female staff may also abuse girl prisoners, put in place and enforce stringent safeguards and procedures to protect girl prisoners. " Ensure that girl prisoners have equal access to education and vocational training as boy prisoners, as well as gender-specific programmes and consultations delivered by specialists in child psychology. " Ensure that girls in prison have access to gender specific health care and provide pregnant girl prisoners with special support and care. 

Monitoring prisons - Ensure that regular internal and external (independent) monitoring of prisons is undertaken, and that the membership of monitoring bodies includes women whenever women’s prisons are being assessed. Ensure that monitoring bodies responsible for inspecting prisons where women are held assess prison conditions, services and the treatment of prisoners from a gender perspective, with reference to the Bangkok Rules.

Reducing the female prison population: key  recommendations

 

General- Incorporate a gender perspective into all policies, laws, procedures, programmes and practices relating to legal aid to ensure gender equality and equal and fair access to justice. 

Legal assistance on arrest - Recognizing the particular vulnerability of women in the criminal justice system, take measures to ensure that indigent female suspects have access to low-cost or free legal services, immediately on arrest, on an equal basis as indigent men; Offer legal aid services also in cases which are urgent and complex, where the potential penalty is particularly severe, or where the woman is particularly vulnerable, notwithstanding the financial means of the woman concerned. Include gender sensitivity in the training of law enforcement officials and staff of pretrial detention facilities.

 Diversion from prosecution - Provide a wide range of options for police, prosecutors and courts to divert women who have committed minor and non-violent offences from prosecution, to suitable treatment or restorative justice programmes. 

Pretrial detention -  Do not detain women in pretrial detention, unless absolutely necessary. Provide for a range of alternative options other than monetary bail, to ensure that women (and men) who cannot afford the financial security requirements of bail are not detained solely due to their poverty. Take into account the parental status and other caring responsibilities of women and the interests of their children and families when deciding pretrial detention. In countries where extra-marital sex (zina) is a criminal offence, do not detain suspects in pretrial detention while their cases are investigated. Victims of rape and other forms of sexual abuse or violence should be referred to appropriate services. Do not use pretrial detention as a form of protective custody. Other forms of protection, such as shelters, should be used. 

Sentencing -  Considering mitigating factors in sentencing and alternatives to imprisonment. 

Pregnant women and mothers Ensure that the circumstances of the offence and the vulnerability of the offender are taken into account during sentencing (e.g. the murder of a violent husband or partner). Provide a wide range of alternatives to imprisonment for minor and non-violent offences, in legislation. Encourage judicial authorities to impose alternatives to imprisonment in the cases of female offenders who do not pose a risk to the public, taking into consideration their rehabilitative needs, caring responsibilities, and the particularly harmful impact of imprisonment on women. Develop gender-sensitive alternatives to prison, taking into account the most common needs of female offenders, such as counselling for victims of domestic violence. 

Drug-related offences - Review policies and legislation relating to drug-related offences. Consider de-penalizing certain drug offences, provide alternatives for others. Ensure that significant distinctions exist between sentences foreseen for major players in the narcotics trade and small players, such as women being used as couriers. Remove mandatory sentences for drug-related offences and allow judges to use discretion in sentencing to prevent the re-victimization of women who fall victim to drug traffickers. Develop gender-sensitive drug dependence treatment programmes in the community for purposes of crime prevention, diversion from the criminal justice system and as an alternative to imprisonment. 

Pregnant women and mothers - Develop guidelines for courts whereby they would only consider custodial sentences for pregnant women and women with dependent children only when the offence was serious and violent and the woman represented a continuing danger, after taking into account the best interests of the child (or children) and ensure that alternative care arrangements are made for the children concerned before the mother is imprisoned.

 2nd edition, with reference to the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (The Bangkok Rules)

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