Commenting on today’s Lord Carter review of the prison system, Sinead Hanks from SmartJustice said:

“SmartJustice welcomes the renewed commitment to community sentences made in Lord Carter’s review. These good intentions now need to be backed up proper funding and a drive to increase public confidence.

However, the overwhelming focus on more prison building is extremely disappointing - as well as short-sighted. Two recent independent ICM polls show that two thirds of both the public, and victims of crime, do not believe that prison works to reduce non-violent crime. And soaring reconviction rates prove that prison is an expensive way of making people worse.

Imagine… what would the world be like if the extra £1.2 billion pledged to even more prison places, went on tough community solutions and effective strategies to prevent crime? We saw in Newham how youth crime was slashed when more sports facilities were introduced – how about looking to simple solutions like this to stop the spiraling prison population - instead of yet more tough talk?”

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For more information or to arrange interviews please contact:
Sinead Hanks on 0207 689 7734 or 07931 380952

Notes to Editors

1. SmartJustice is a five year campaign which promotes community based solutions to crime. It is based at the Prison Reform Trust and supported by the Network for Social Change, the group behind the Jubilee 2000 Drop the Debt Campaign, and the Big Lottery Fund.

2. SmartJustice recently ran a poll of 972 victims of crime carried out in conjunction with Victim Support. The most striking findings of the survey, conducted by ICM, was that two thirds of victims believed prison didn’t work in reducing re-offending and that over three quarters of victims think that more constructive activities for young people in the community, better supervision by parents and more drug, alcohol and mental health treatment programmes would be far more effective.

3. A second poll conducted about women in prison show that Almost nine out of ten (86%) support community alternatives to prison for women – for example, centres where women are sent to address the causes of their crimes whilst also having to do compulsory work in the community. There is overwhelming support for programmes that focus on prevention i.e. more drug treatment and mental health provision in the community, and more support for parents.

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For more information or to arrange interviews please contact:

Sinead Hanks on 0207 689 7734 or 07931 380952 or Lucie Russell 07931 507873

Notes to Editors

1. SmartJustice for Women is a campaign run by SmartJustice which is based at the Prison Reform Trust. SmartJustice promotes community based solutions to crime. It is funded by the Network for Social Change and the Big Lottery Fund.

2. SmartJustice for Women is supported by a broad alliance of public groups including the National Council of Women (with 50 affiliates), the Greater London Domestic Violence Project, Soroptomists International, and the Oxfordshire Federation of Women’s Institutes. These groups are calling on the government to implement the recommendations of the Corston Report.

3. The report is based on UK wide ICM survey, interviewed a random sample of 1006 adults aged 18+ by telephone across the UK between 9th – 11th February 2007. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules. Further information at www.icmresearch.co.uk.

4. Copies of the full SmartJustice survey on women and offending can be obtained from Sinead Hanks at sinead.hanks@smartjustice.org Tel 0207 689 7734

5. SmartJustice for Women was launched at HMP Holloway in July 2005. Supporters include Michelle Collins, Sheila Hancock and Clare Rayner. The SmartJustice for Women EDM attracted 87 MP signatures. It believes that the best way to reduce women’s offending is by tackling its causes-by improving mental health services, tackling drug abuse and through community punishments.

6. Following the tragic death of six women at Styal prison, the Home Secretary asked Baroness Jean Corston to conduct a review of vulnerable women in the Criminal Justice System. Throughout 2006 Baroness Corston and her team visited overcrowded women’s jails, local women’s centres and alternatives to custody for women across the UK. The review was published In March and the Government response is expected shortly.

7. Key facts about women and prison:

· There were 4,454 women in prison on 16th November 2007 compared with 1,811 in 1994.

· Most of the rise in the female prison population can be explained by magistrates and judges handing out harsher sentences. A woman is seven times as likely to receive a custodial sentence in a magistrate’s court than ten years ago.

· Eight in ten women are jailed for non-violent crimes. In 2004 more women were sent to prison for theft and handling stolen goods than any other crime.

· Two in three women released from prison in 2002 were reconvicted within two years of release, rising to eight out of ten for female shoplifters.

The majority of women are in prison for very short sentences. In 2004 nearly two in three were sentenced to custody for six months or less.

· Around one in three women prisoners lose their homes, and often their possessions, whilst in prison. 41% do not have accommodation organised on release.

· Over a third of all adult women in prison had no previous convictions

· Nearly 1 in 3 women prisoners are from minority ethnic groups

· 2/3 of women prisoners have a drug problem, 2/3 have mental health problems and half have been victims of domestic violence

· Nearly 18,000 children are separated from their mothers by imprisonment each year and only 5% remain in the family home