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Fewer women should be sent to jail, says Justice Minister
Fewer families will be destroyed if courts make more use of community sentences, Helen Grant says
COURTS will be encouraged to send fewer women to jail in a bid to reduce the number of families that are destroyed when a mother is locked up.
The proposal to give female offenders community sentences rather than jailing them was announced by Justice Minister Helen Grant yesterday. She told The Independent that many "low-risk" female offenders would "benefit greatly from punitive, credible punishments in the community".
Women who are "bad and a risk to the public and society" should still go to prison, Grant insisted, but she urged the greater use of community sentences backed by curfews, tagging and unpaid work.
Almost 4,000 women are currently in jail, less than five per cent of the 88,250 prison population of England and Wales. They include Vicky Pryce, jailed for eight months earlier this month after swapping speeding points with her ex-husband, Chris Huhne. Pryce was said to be struggling to cope in London's Holloway prison and was soon transferred to an open prison in Kent.
The Daily Telegraph points out that women are "far more likely" to suffer abuse, mental illness and self harm if they are incarcerated. The negative impact on families when a mother is sentenced to a prison term is also well established.
Grant said: "Many female offenders share the same depressingly familiar issues of abuse, drug and alcohol dependency and mental health problems. Women who commit crime should be punished, but we must not forget that a significant number have been victims during their lives, and need targeted support to break the cycle of offending."
To make sure fewer women are given custodial sentences, a new advisory body will be set up. It will include ministers and penal policy experts and will draw up proposals for the "robust" community sentences which aim to keep women out of prison. Grant insists the sentences will include "punitive elements" such as unpaid work. ·
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Jeez, people are complaining the courts are already too lenient on offenders, and now we should send less people to gaol!!! Why don't we just give them $100 and send them on their way.
I'm fed up with the bleeding hearts saying "it's not their fault, it's the drugs/alcohol" etc. No one forced them to commit a crime or become a junky. Once again personal responsibility is avoided and the Nanny State is there to pick up the costs.
Still it's nice to see those "struggling to cope" can get a ticket to an open prison that isn't full of common criminals and drug addicts.
A criminal is a criminal regardless of gender. Also, why is a woman more important to the family than a man. The Justice Minister is coming up with preposterous drivel. We expect better.
We are all equal now.
Or does equality only count when the corner office and the cushy job is up for grabs.
I also don't see why crime should be an attractive option to anybody based on their gender.
True equality today please.
This is discrimination plain and simple.
Reverse the genders and see how it sounds.
I totally agree with Mrs Grant, women should be spared prison...
and paid less in the workplace, because of their inability to cope there either. Isn't that right Mrs Grant?
Mike, to get a better understanding of the rationale,
calibre or motives of Helen Grant. You must first understand Helen Grant.
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She grew up on the Raffles council estate with
her mother, grandmother and great grandmother. All 4 generations of women lived in the same house primarily funded by benefits.
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Her own comments pertaining to her early years,
very strongly suggest that all 4 generations of her maternal family were on benefits because her father was absent.
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Would you blame the man for escaping to the USA
and starting a new life? I’d also be afraid of being milked dry.
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Neither she nor her sons have any memories of her
father or her entire paternal family.
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Neither she nor her sons have any contact with her
father or her entire paternal family.
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Even as a multi-millionaire and or government
minister with endless resources, she has not attempted to find her own father.
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Thus, Helen Grant does not know her own parentage.
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Under a labour government, then as a member of
the labour party she was one of the architects of the current mess which is the UK Family Justice System.
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She then joined the Conservative Party and when
they came into power as an MP she reviewed her own mess which is the UK Family Justice System.
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The UK Family Justice System is now in an ever
spiralling state of turmoil.
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Helen Grant’s UK Family Justice system has
directly contributed to over 3.8 million children not having any contact with at least 1 parent. Most instances, the absent parent are the fathers.
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Helen Grant and or her husband owns a house
reportedly worth over £1.8M, it is within 11 miles from Westminster(less than 1 hour commute), yet she claims almost £20k annually for a MPs second home.
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Historically Helen Grant’s parliamentary motions
have very strongly supported mothers and on several occasions she has attempted to increase CSA payments made by absent / alienated fathers.
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Immediately after she was elected as an MP she relocated her law firm’s offices from the aptly chosen barn to the plush surroundings of the Croydon Airport House business complex. Costing tax payers several tens of thousands, just for the move, now annually costing us…
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After one of her key parliamentary employees had
a heart attack, Helen Grant changed all her employees’ employment contracts, ensuring she did not need to pay the poor man his previously contracted sick
pay.
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After changing all employees’ contracts, she
strangely exempted forgotten to change her own husband’s employment contract.
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She has the reputation of spending much more
time with her dog(s) than her own children.
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She states that her son lives with his grandmother, to claim a free place at a popular school.
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Locally in Croydon, her law firm has the reputation of prioritising and protracting legal aid funded family law cases. Many ending several years later after the maximum legal aid is earned and the father
is alienated.
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Can we make a correlation between the ferocity
of the recent Croydon riots and… ?
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Within days of the government announcing legal
aid cuts, her law firm abruptly stopped a ‘free community legal advice service’.
I personally, would not trust Helen Grant with my excrement, never mind government policies.
How David Cameron still finds reasons to promote Helen Grant as a rising Tory star in my opinion further strengthens the nations’ suspicions that our PM may be a PLONKER.