On 21 November, the Magistrates’ Association’s (MA) Chief Executive, Tom Franklin, gave oral evidence on the experiences of women offenders in the criminal justice system to the Welsh Parliament’s Equality And Social Justice Committee. His contributions were shaped by a recent MA survey of its Wales-based members that sought to better understand all aspects of magistrates’ experiences with women offenders in court.
The Female Offending Blueprint for Wales, which outlines the strategy for the country’s women offenders, has lots of excellent aims, including that of increasing sentencer confidence in community alternatives. Despite this, only half of all the magistrates the MA surveyed said they had heard about the blueprint. Without further work to raise awareness of its aims among sentencers, Tom told the committee that this may hinder the strategy’s overall success.
The need to have more viable community alternatives was raised as a key issue. Tom argued that women’s residential centres—one such alternative—need to be backed by sustainable funding to make them a viable option on which magistrates can have confidence. He also called for more sustainable funding for all women’s centres, which are often run on a shoestring.
As our survey revealed that magistrates feel more should be done to ensure that pre-sentence reports (PSRs) underline the particular vulnerabilities and circumstances of women, Tom stressed the need for PSRs to better highlight gender-specific issues in all cases. This is important because the PSR is one of the main opportunities available to magistrates for understanding the context of cases and the circumstances of offenders.
Likewise, because our survey found that the Criminal Justice Liaison Services in Wales—which identifies women with mental health issues and, where appropriate, diverts them from the criminal justice system to access support—is wanting, Tom told the committee that an improvement is needed. Given that women are far more likely to have complex needs, including those relating to mental health, investment in these services offers a particular benefit to women.
Towards the end of the session, Tom discussed concerns pertaining to children and young people with speech and language issues in the youth court. He stressed the need for proper training and understanding of the issues, and outlined the current safeguards to ensure a child needing assistance with the court process due to speech and language issues is always supported.
The MA is grateful to the committee for their kind invitation to give evidence, and will be monitoring this inquiry further.
You can watch the session on the Welsh Parliament website.
