Prison inspector “kept awake” by shameful treatment of women inmates

Nick Hardwick, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons

The treatment of women prisoners in England and Wales is shameful, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons said in a lecture on the University of Sussex campus yesterday (Wednesday 29 February). Nick Hardwick said the terrible levels of self-mutilation and despair in one women's unit "kept me awake at night" and the responsibility lies squarely at the door of successive governments. In a highly-critical lecture – organised by the Sussex Law School - he said the circumstances of the women held in the Keller Unit of Styal Prison in Wilmslow, Cheshire, were "more shocking and distressing than anything I had yet seen on an inspection".

"We can't go on like this," he said. "Prisons, particularly as they are currently run, are simply the wrong place for so many of the distressed, damaged or disturbed women they hold. I think the treatment and conditions in which a small minority of the most disturbed women are held is - in relation to their needs - simply unacceptable. I think - I hope - we will look back on how we treated these women in years to come, aghast and ashamed."

He added he wanted to be "clear where responsibility lies".

"It does not lie with the officers, staff and governors on the ground - many of whom are simply humbling in the dedication and care with which they approach their work - or the officials and others trying to improve things in the centre. This is a responsibility that lies squarely at the door of successive governments and parliament."

Mr Hardwick was reflecting on the lack of progress in women's prisons since the 2007 Corston Report which outlined "the need for a distinct radically different, visibly-led, strategic, proportionate, holistic, woman-centred, integrated approach". If men were as repeatedly violent to other prisoners in the way women prisoners were to themselves, it would be treated as "a national responsibility" whereas in the case of women, local prisons were left to manage as best they could, he said. Women make up only 5% of the total prison population, but account for almost half of all self-harm incidents in prisons, he said. And he questioned why the only dormitories he had seen were in women's prisons.

"It is a historical legacy I suppose but I suspect that if the same proportion of men were accommodated in dormitories, it would have been treated as a much greater priority," he said. He added that a "long chain of men", from male wing officers and male governors to male prison chiefs and a male chief inspector, "may not be the best structure to respond to the physical and emotional needs of some very troubled women". And while East Sutton Park, in Maidstone, Kent, and Askham Grange, in York, were good examples of women's prisons, others were "increasingly becoming multi-functional", taking on new roles "and holding women further away from home".

The speech has received national media coverage in both the Metro and the Independent. The lecture was part of the Issues in Criminal Justice series at Sussex - convened by Professor Stephen Shute, Head of the School of Law, Politics and Sociology, on behalf of the Sussex Law School - and given by leading UK figures including government ministers and senior members of the judiciary.

Professor Shute said: “In yesterday’s disturbing lecture, Nick Hardwick laid bare some of the unacceptable treatment and conditions still experienced by women prisoners in this country. His hard-hitting talk fitted perfectly with the ethos of the Issues in Criminal Justice lecture series, which brings some of the most eminent figures in the UK to Sussex to offer no-holds-barred reflections on how our criminal justice system might be improved.”

Previous high-profile speakers have included the former head of the Metropolitan Police, Lord Blair, and Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General.

Roundtable Discussion: Do we need a UK Bill of Rights?

Wednesday 19 October 2011
The session was chaired by Elizabeth Craig and presentations were made by Jo Bridgeman, Marie Dembour, Jane Fortin, Charlotte Skeet and Richard Vogler, all members of the Centre for Responsibilities, Rights and the Law.  The subsequent discussion focused on the need for a UK or British Bill of Rights, the process of drafting such a Bill, the role of the Human Rights Act, the possible inclusion of criminal process rights, socio-economic rights and children's rights and the relationship between rights and responsibilities.  The aim of the discussion was to inform the Centre's response to the Commission on a Bill of Rights' consultation paper, published in August 2011. The Centre's response to the consultation  was submitted on 11 November 2011.

Annual LLM study visit to The Hague

Every December, students from the LLM courses travel with faculty members Dr Richard Vogler and Professor Craig Barker to The Hague to visit the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). This is an annual event which is subsidised by the Sussex Law School. We usually travel by air to Amsterdam and stay at an interesting and fairly comfortable hotel in Scheveningen, close to the sea front. In recent years we have been able to attend the 60th Anniversary International Genocide Conference at the Peace Palace in The Hague to hear such distinguished speakers as Professor William Schabas and the Prosecutor of the ICC as well as other leading authorities on International Criminal Law from around the world. We have also met British judges and prosecutors at the ICC and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). But the main aim of the visit is to spend some time at the international courts and, in particular in the heavily guarded public courtroom galleries at the ICTY and ICC, watching proceedings and talking to some of the former Sussex LLM students working there. We have been fortunate enough to attend some very high-profile cases including those involving Slobodan Milosovic, Radovan Karadic and Charles Taylor. This is not judicial tourism. We have excellent links with the international tribunals which, among other things, have helped our students to find placements and careers there. We also take the opportunity to visit the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to speak to representatives from the Sussex/Harvard Universities Project there and to listen to presentations. Other visits include the Special Court for Sierra Leone and Eurojust.

The trip to The Hague is an excellent opportunity to see international law in action and for members of the group to get to know each other better in a very relaxed atmosphere. There are also ample opportunities to sample the sights and restaurants of The Hague and Amsterdam.

Recent speakers at Sussex Law School

Richard Rogers

In March 2010, Richard Rogers, Head of Defence for the Khmer Rouge trials in Cambodia and Wayne Jordash, who was lead counsel for the defence of Issa Sesay, senior commander in the Revolutionary front in the Special Court for Sierra Leone, came to Sussex at the invitation of the Student Law Body to talk about ‘Defending those Accused of Mass Atrocities’. Both speakers talked movingly about the courage of the witnesses and the difficulties of prosecuting and defending the accused in the aftermath of such appalling suffering.

Wayne Jordash

Lord Carlile, the Government’s Independent Reviewer of Terrorist Legislation, addressed a packed student audience as part of the New Security Challenges Speaker Series in February 2010. Lord Carlile gave a frank and insightful account of his work and answered some challenging questions about the human rights implications of terrorist legislation.