Charity Inquest has urged the government to implement proposed
reforms to the women's prisons system, following the death last
week of a 32-year-old woman at Styal prison.
Lisa Marley killed herself at the prison, where 11 women have
died since 2000.
The string of deaths at the prison prompted the Home Office to
commission Baroness Corston to carry out a view into vulnerable
women in prison in 2006.
In her
report last March, Corston called for far-reaching reforms
including alternatives to custody and the replacement of existing
prisons by small units for a small minority of serious and violent
female offenders.
In its
response to the review, published last month, the government
accepted nearly all of the recommendations. It also commissioned a
review into the current women's prisons estate, examining the case
for the small units proposed by Corston.
However, Inquest said no resources had been allocated to
implementing Corston's recommendations.
Meanwhile, in a
report today, the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health raised
concerns about the lack of government progress on implementing the
Corston review.
Chief executive Angela Greatley said: “We are concerned that
there are no plans to develop the small, local centres to replace
the existing women’s prisons nor to tackle the practice of
remanding women in custody when they are charged with an offence
that is unlikely to bring a custodial sentence."
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