By Blanche Hampton
SYDNEY — Historically, women have experienced harsh treatment and extreme forms of discrimination in New South Wales prisons. Their needs and basic human rights have been ignored, not only by the Department of Corrective Services but also by many community interest groups and academics.
In 1984, the NSW government established a task force on women in prison. Its aim was to redress the discrimination faced by women in NSW jails. After extensive research, the task force made 286 recommendations, from presentence diversion options to drug and alcohol programs. These were approved by the then Labor government, and an implementation committee was established to carry them out.
The task force found that many of the women in jail were impoverished and had minimal education, few job skills and a history of drug and/or alcohol abuse (78% of the women interviewed). A number were wholly or partially responsible for young children. Their crimes were often economic and were "direct responses to the lack of life options created by barriers of cultural difference, sex and low socio-economic status".
Aboriginal women are over-represented in jail. As at June 30, 1988, 10.6% of the female prison population were Aborigines. Aboriginal people are approximately 1.5% of the NSW population.
Another disturbing characteristic of women in NSW prisons is that they are likely to be on remand, that is, unsentenced and waiting for their case to be heard. Almost a third of women in the state's prison system are on remand, compared to a quarter of the male population. When their cases eventually make it to court, a significant number will be found not guilty or released directly from court because the time spent in jail has already exceeded the sentence.
One of the most important recommendations of the task force was to reduce the number of women in jail through a range of options. As at June 30, 1984, there were 166 women in NSW jails. Almost seven years later there are more than 300 (310 as at January 20, 1991).
Though the numbers of women in prison have been steadily increasing over the last decade, it is during the last three years that the most dramatic increases in women's incarceration have occurred (over 50%). In one year alone, from July 1989 to July 1990, the number increased from 240 to 337. Much of this increase is directly attributable to the harsh new legislation, "truth in sentencing", introduced by the Greiner government.
These increased numbers have had a devastating effect on the already stretched resources of women's jails. The former minister for corrective services, Michael Yabsley, abolished the women in prison task force soon after the Liberals came to power. With its demise, the additional funding to enact the recommendations ended. As a result, many of the recommendations haven't been realised.
Women and Girls in Custody is a subcommittee of the NSW Prisons Coalition consisting of ex-inmates and women with a professional and/or personal interest in the issue of women in prison. The group aims to publicise the situation of women in the prison system with the object of reducing the numbers of women in jails and the detrimental effects on those women serving sentences in NSW prisons, their families and the community.
We liaise with inmates and newly released women to ensure that our information is current and meet monthly to discuss developments within the prisons, state government policy and our group responses to this. A conference is planned for early next year which will also serve to launch a book written by ex-inmates. This will illustrate how public/media perception and Corrective Services' stated policy is at odds with the day to day experience of women in NSW prisons. Members are available to speak to groups wanting further information regarding the above issues.
Blanche Hampton is a 35-year-old ex-inmate who served 19 months plus 7 months at Mulawa and a year at the Norma Parker Centre. She is self-employed, in a typesetting/desktop publishing partnership which is now in its third year.